Check out this great heightening of a character with a series of Tag-outs. [wpvideo KtSpiLmj ] It's a simple game played the "right" way. The set-up is clear: Nicole establishes that they're at the Grand Canyon and Lauren hates it. She hates that there are no video games and that there are "donkey smells."
A quick, fun Help Desk game utilizing the Split Screen. The escalating pattern is fun but the commitment to emotion helps the pattern hit. [wpvideo DX4bsnVV] Listen for the laugh Adrienne gets just by reacting without words. Note the key to the end is that Ben actually feels bad for his allergy to murder. The […]
Personal Games are the focus of the base Mirror, Action, Object warm-up exercise. Engaged in either how they feel about themselves, how they feel about what they're doing, or how they feel about a mimed object, players build progressions of emotional reaction triggered by active endowments. As examples: A player loves his outfit, and as […]
Aaron Grant once took the stage across from me, making eye contact but planting his feet firmly just beyond the stage right wing. I mirrored him on stage left. He mimed the classic flirtatious fishing move. I played his fish but broke his line bashfully, the stage's distance remaining between us. I danced as someone […]
It's a fine line between a character evoking a plot and a character reacting to their reality. A very fine line. But I believe that attention to that line can mean the difference between a scene where improvisers force a sequence of events dependent on an audience's satisfaction with a resolution and a scene where […]
A wonderful conceit about Seinfeld, explicit in the meta-dealings with Jerry's and George's sitcom pitch within the sitcom, was that it was a "show about nothing." Yet of course the truth is that, while maybe an episode is not be driven by plot, it is about "something" - every episode revolves around the way known […]
Player One stands rigidly on stage, stroking an imagined object on his right wrist and says, "I love my shield." Player Two enters stage, stares agog at the imagined shield and says, "Wow-wie! That is one awesome shield." The question for you is: If you were told to enter the scene as the third player […]
A Coalition show called Strange Bedfellows pairs an actor with one half of a script with an improviser who ad libs their half. I had the honor of performing one night in the improviser's role. And I have never been more terrified pre-show. In a typical show, I have at least one improv partner. I […]
A "Blackout" is a short scene with one big punchline. In sketch, or in improv with a tuned-in booth operator, the lights would go out on stage after the punchline, designating the end of the scene and earning the name "blackout." Blackouts are fun. They can help vary the pacing of a long-form show. They […]
A fun Pack show featuring Nick Leveski and Patrick Gantz having a lot of fun endowing each other and reacting to one another. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hV5VtQrImA?feature=player_embedded&w=640&h=360]