Here is a collection of tips and techniques for performing improv.
Many of these require much practice to get good at. See Exercises.
With the exception of the three fundamentals, these all have lots of exceptions. They are not rules, just tips and techniques--things to keep in your tool belt, ready to pull out and use at any moment.
Yes And. Take whatever has been given in the scene so far and build on it. Just build the reality. Don't consciously try to be funny. Cooperate with your scene partners, don't fight them (even though your characters might fight).
Listen. Pay hyper-close attention to everything that happens on stage. What you hear is the fuel you pour into Your Personal Search Engine.
Commit. Sell It. Put your line out there, make your choice, and let whatever happens happen. Never say a line tentatively, like you need audience approval. Let the audience decide what's funny, let the scene go where it goes.
A surprisingly effective way to prepare for a show is to pick just one very specific tip from the list below and focus on it throughout the show. For example, "mime a physical object". By focusing on one technique, everything else seems to fall into place.
Be Concrete. Add Information. Avoid vagueness or abstractness.
Establish a Platform early.
Make A Strong Choice early. Commit to a character, with an attitude, beliefs, history, way of speaking, manners, posture, social position, desires, etc.
Create Potential, don't just use it up (except on the Closer).
Be physical. Move around, mime objects clearly, let your whole body express your character's emotions and attitude.
Use the Audience Suggestion (don't just ignore it and do your own scene).
Advance the Scene in every line, every word, every gesture.
Take the Active Choice.
Try Raising The Stakes.
Try Continuing The Game.
Try Disrupting a Routine.
Keep the action on stage.
Use the offers that you are given. Avoid Canceling.
Get into trouble. Go out on a limb without being sure you have a way to recover. The audience will love seeing you deal with the situation you've gotten yourself into. Do not play it "safe".
Let your character be changed and affected by what happens during a scene.
To have conflict in a scene, don't just oppose what the other person is doing for the sake of opposing it. Have some goal of your own (well, of your character's) that happens to conflict with what the other character is doing, and pursue that goal.
If you absolutely can not think of any way to advance the scene, but the scene is still going well, find a reason to exit. If the scene is not going well, kill your character and trust your fellow improvisers to justify it. This creates a conflict that could turn the scene in interesting new directions.
Come at the highest energy level you can, and as relaxed as you can.
Have fun. Keep a playful spirit. Remember, improv is just goofing off with structure.
Dare to suck big!
Try to make your scene partners appear brilliant. Treat everything they say as a gift, even--especially--if it's not what you would have said.
Trust Your Imagination Without Doubt Or Question.
Start talking before you know what you're going to say.
Don't plan ahead. Give up your ideas when the scene doesn't progress as you'd hoped. Just respond moment by moment to what happens, without thinking of a goal that you want the scene to reach.
Experiment (in performance, not just in classes or practices). Do things on stage that you've never done before, without coordinating them in advance with others. Let yourself discover entirely new skills right during a scene.
Mime a physical object and do something with it. Instantly the scene has life. This can be practiced beforehand. Just take an object, such as a flashlight, and feel it. Remember where the on and off switch is. Remember where you hold it. Now, take away the flashlight, but still mime using it. This is a great technique, especially for begining actors.
Love everything unconditionally. Usually loving something rather than hating something leads the scene into genuinely unpredictable territory. Hating something usually just bogs things down. (An instance of making the Active Choice.) For example, if someone gives you cotton candy, you could hate it because you hate circuses, and spend the next five minutes bickering. Or you could love cotton candy, get a sugar high, and wander into a tent where you get sawn in half.
Pause. You don't need to talk all the time. Silence is part of life and part of scenes. You don't need to be manic, you just need to be engaged with the reality of the scene.
Give a name to characters. Even a "Robert" or "Carol" is much more interesting than a nameless character. (If you are Listening intensely, you will remember everyone's names.)
If there is violence in the scene, act it out in slow motion. This is actually a safety tip, but it's often funny anyway.
If you find yourself feeling self-conscious, put your attention on your scene-partner: listen to what they're saying, notice what they're doing, visualize where they are, guess what their character is feeling or needing--and in just a sec you're back in the zone.
Go with the obvious. This is always the first resort in improv. Often, what is obvious to you is not obvious to other people, but because it connects so naturally with the scene, the audience often perceives it as "brilliant". Intentionally being non-obvious usually just comes across as "forcing it" or "trying too hard".
If the scene is going too fast for you, slow down.
If you feel stuck in one line of thought that isn't going anywhere, change something--anything. Turn your head and look somewhere else, walk somewhere else, change the position of your arms, change your emotion. The change will stimulate your brain to think in a new direction without your having to think hard or try to force something.
Play Double Word Association with yourself.
If someone asks you a yes-or-no question and you have no particular inspiration, just say yes and see where it leads. Saying no usually blocks action.
In a game such as "Space Jump" it is easy to say a scene is a modelling scene or an army scene. What you need to do is REALLY justify 'freeze positions'. This is what adds the humour to freeze games like "Space Jump".
When choosing a game to perform, depending on your team, some will be a lot better than others. Try to choose a physical game, Half-Life and Space Jump are excellent physical games, which also involve advancing the story. Make sure the game is not too complicated and also make sure it is explained well to the audience, or they will get confused. Do something original is every game that you have never done or seen before. BUT DON'T PLAN TO. If you feel like doing something, just do it. Don't be afraid of doing something that has never been done before. In fact, do what you think is least likely to happen. The audience will love it.
See also: Improv Skills.
Version 13 2008-Aug-22 20:22 UTC
Last edit by 63.240.121.208
