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Mono Scene

An improvised form that takes place in a single location in a single span of time, with no external edits of any kind. It is frequently referred to as an improvised one act play. Usually played with 2 improvisers but can be played with a full team. Players can enter and leave the scene, but the scene should not be swept and there should be no tag outs or cut to/cut backs.

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Trio

An improvised set with 3 improvisers for any set amount of time.

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Duo

An improvised set with 2 improvisers for any set amount of time.

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Difference Between Analogous & Time Dash

Analogous

Same game different scene. What is the game of the scene? If the basis of the  game is a person obsessed with technology we can see that played by other players in the ensemble and might not need the same character from the first beat

Time Dash

Same people, person, character, or relationship. If the basis of the game is a character who gets angry when technology doesn’t work and takes it out on their roommate maybe we see this person have technology not work at the office or with family.

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Weird or Unusual vs. Voice of Reason

Your weird or unusual is going to play into the crazy. If someone is afraid of balloons it will be your unusual character. It is the Voice of Reasons job to explore why and push the limits of the unusual character by presenting them with playable moments like introducing a balloon, maybe explore if only certain colors scare your scene partner, do balloon animals scare your scene partner, is it only inflated balloons. Etc… Your Voice of reason will usually frame or feed and your unusual will act on or justify those things.

Voice of Reason(VOR)

The VOR points out the absurdity. Ask the logical and the reasonable. The VOR is curious (want to know more). Be almost convinced, point out the funniest dumb consequences, if you are winning as the VOR back off, its not about winning its about exploration. Be dry, be stuck up, be freaked out.

-Fun should win over voice of reason. We want to see fun so the VOR should feed it rather than defeat it.

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Gifting

Gifting is giving your scene partner something to play into such as an emotion or behavior. In gifting you can gift  both yourself or you can gift your scene partner. 

An example of gifting your scene partner might be to endow them with a behavioral trait or emotion.

For Example: 

Player 1:“You are so picky”(You are so angry, You are so happy, etc)

 Player 2 : “Well I just don’t know should I pick this one or that one” 

This is an example of playing into a gift. Which in turn could create the game of the scene. If someone is to gift themselves in the same way, they might say something such as “I’m so picky” to which their scene partner should acknowledge this and  play into it by saying something that supports the idea of being picky, such as “So do you want green or blue?” Which would allow player 1 to now play more heavily into being picky throughout the scene.

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A scenic exercise that focuses on being able to move forward with any offer and adjust to move the scene forward even when our scene partner is not supporting the scene. 

Unfavorable Offers

Two Players up and One will initiate the scene with an offer you think your scene partner will not like. It can be anything as long as we avoid being sexist, racist, etc. For example something childish like “You just pooped your pants” or too over the top “you killed that entire nursing home”. This can go forward as normal or the initiator can continue to attempt a bad scene, but bad should be played fun rather than obtuse and the other player should do their best to continue the scene logically. 

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Framing

Letting your scene partner know what you find unusual or funny by labeling it. 

For example if Player 1 says “You really get excited every time I open the fridge” Now Player 2 knows you want them to get excited every time you open the fridge. 

Framing + Justification is Gifting and Accepting The Gift.Where Framing is the gift and justification is accepting the gift

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Pattern

To create a solid pattern, we need to see how our scene partner reacts and responds to offers. If every time my scene partner claps their hands I stomp my feet we have a pattern, but if my scene partner does not pick up on me stomping my feet every time they clap it will be hard to play this pattern (or game).

You do not have a solid game until both players are aware of the pattern.

We can establish our own pattern within our character by repeating a certain behavior, phrase, emotion, voice, physicality, etc. But the best patterns (or games) are the ones that our scene partner can heighten and amplify.

For example: If I get excited every time anything science related is talked about, I can personally talk about science and test tubes and beakers and through my character continue to get more and more excited. Eventually maybe I change directions (rest the game) and talk about sports for a bit and my excitement dies down. If I then go back to science and calculate how fast the players throw the ball and add science to sport, I can again begin to become excited and now I have a pattern where Science = Excitement and Not Science = Loss of Excitement. Now this might be a great pattern (or game), but if my scene partner understands my pattern then we can fully amplify and heighten it with the power of 2 brains that are on the same page working on the same pattern.

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Game

Game has been defined as the first unusual behavior/ first unusual thing to happen in a scene that we can then explore and heighten. Or a pattern that can be played through the behaviors and relationship of a character/characters. Identifying what is weird or specific or the funny, or the interesting thing in the scene can usually help to find a playable game. You DO NOT have a (solid) game until both people know what the game is. Usually we can heighten game by exploring the why or the philosophy of someone’s unusual behavior.

For Example: If we have a scene where one player is terrified of balloons, and another player identifies this as normal we likely have nothing to play with, but if anther player identifies this as unusual we might have a playable game by exploring the why, activating this unusual behavior (in this case brining in balloons to activate the other players fear), and exploring what else is true.

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Yes And

Yes And, is accepting the reality of what has been created and adding to that reality, not just mindlessly agreeing. If someone is kidnapping your baby we want to agree to the reality of the kidnapping, but it does not mean we have to want our baby to be kidnapped. For example a Yes And to this could be “No don’t take my baby, take my toaster instead its more valuable” in this example we are Yesing the reality that the baby is being taken and Anding, by adding “Take My Toaster Instead” which now gives our scene partner something to play with. Or if we do say Yes we can still agree to the reality, but want to make sure we are adding (or Anding) the situation. For example “Yes you can take my baby, take both of them” In this scenario we actually say Yes,but a yes alone doesn’t move the scene forward much, so by adding “take both of them” we legitimize the reality of the baby being taken and heighten the reality of the situation by fleshing out that this is a parent that does not want their kids. An example of Not Yes Anding could be along the lines of a character stepping out and offering “I’m kidnapping your kids” or “I’m Bruce Willis” and a scene partner then saying “Stop playing around Jim we have work to do” or “Your not a kidnapper, you’re my accountant” or “No your not….”. To prevent negating a scene, agree to the reality and then play how you feel emotionally about that reality.

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Base Reality

Where are we and what’s the reality of the situation. If we are in space, aliens are not weird. If we are on a farm, chickens are not weird. How do we act on a farm oppose to the DMV, how do we act at a party oppose to a church. We need to fulfill the obligations of the normal (base reality) before we distort reality. If we skip over offers the offer becomes base reality immediately, so if I have a peg leg and it’s not identified as unusual what else might be true, maybe we are on a pirate ship, maybe I have a parrot, maybe we find out I want to marry my parrot, but if out of nowhere I bring up remixing the new Skrillex album it might be funny and might become the playable thing, but it does not easily fit in our base reality. If we don’t know what the normal is it’s hard to decide what is weird. As stated by Mark Twain: “First get your facts rights then distort them at your leisure”.

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Grounded

Being grounded means that we are trying to make our scene and our characters look authentic, realistic, and believable. We do this by committing to the environment and the reality of what is happing and who we are and what our emotion is.

When thinking about being grounded, we can have grounded characters, grounded emotions, grounded situations, grounded realities, etc. Whatever the scene is, being grounded is in essence being believable.

Gandalf in Lord of the Rings is a magical wizard, but the character is grounded in reality and the things Gandalf says and does are believable based on who Gandalf is, where Gandalf is, and what/why Gandalf is doing (it).  The grounded reality of Gandalf is different then the reality of Bugs Bunny, or the reality of a character that is playing a chicken, or really the reality of any other character an improviser may play. Having belief and commitment within your characters reality can keep us grounded.

Grounded is also the reality of where we are. The reality of outer space is different than the reality of the kitchen breakfast table. If we are in the old west grounded might be opening western doors, spitting in a spittoon, having a cowboy hat, etc. But if we are in this western scene and we go and ask for a Monster Energy Drink that is not grounded in our reality. Yes it might be funny, yes it might be playable, yes it is an unusual thing and might spin into a game, but it is not grounded. Grounded is treating the situation as if it is real. If we are in the old west and I am a cowboy I want to play the reality of a cowboy in the old west, maybe I’m a cowboy who is mad at my partner because they keep trading our goods for chickens, which might be unusual, but I’m still a cowboy, will respond as a cowboy, and play the grounded reality of a cowboy who is mad at my partner for trading our goods for chickens. If I start talking about radio active toxic chickens out of no where this is not grounded, if my partner trades 10 more items for chickens and I change my character to now be happy about the chickens my characters emotion isn’t grounded. If our grounded base reality is fear, grounded is keeping in line with our fear, we might build an arc and make a fearless decision later in the scene, but if we are afraid, we need to play the reality of our fear.

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A reddit link to one of the most valuable list I have found on improv. 

A list of Instructional Improv Books- 

https://www.reddit.com/r/improv/comments/7ft5fj/the_big_ol_list_of_improv_books/

I have not read all of them yet, but every single book I’ve gotten through has had some element or another that I found valuable.

In no specific order my current  top 5 based on what I’ve read thus far include:

How To Be The Greatest Improviser on Earth - WIll Hines 

Improvising Now - Rob Norman

The Triangle Of The Scene - Paul Vailliancourt

Jill Bernard’s Small Cute Book of Improv 

The UCB Improv Manual 

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Armando

Starts with a storytelling-style monologue based on a suggestion and after the monologue players play three or more scenes similar to a montage. If there is a monologist, they can continue the monologue by stepping center stage and going back into more of a story, either a continuation or usually inspired off of the previous scenes. There can also be multiple monologist for example if run as an Armandito we would have a Monologue follow by 3 scenes, then a new monologue based on something out of the previous scenes, 3 scenes, a new monologue and 3 more scenes.  

So an Armandito runs: Monologue, 3 Scenes, Monologue 3 Scenes, Monologue 3 Scenes. 

While an Armando is a bit looser in structure where a monologue begins the piece and can but does not have to be returned to after any number of scenes. 

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Monologue

Try to start in the middle rather than at the top. Rather then “So there was this one time we were at college and 3 of my friends were there, and we were……”  Start  “The principal was about to kick me out”. Jump into the action of the story and then flesh out the details of the action.

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Follow the Leaver (Long Form) 

It’s similar to a montage, but who ever leaves the scene will start a new scene as the same character. If the scene that just happened was at a house and a character left, we should see them in a new location and not just outside of the house. Anyone can enter and anyone can exit the scene but whoever chooses to exit the scene MUST initiate the next scene. As the piece progresses it can and should speed up where new scenes are happening faster, and even if someone walks on stage walking a dog, says nothing in the scene and walks right off, they must start the new scene.  In this piece it is better to start slow and then speed up with scene transitions rather than starting fast and then ending slow.