Tag Archives: game

Dec 29

Helicopter Parent Hey Everybody group game

A solid Hey Everybody example. Watch it.  What do you notice?

1. Repetition is heightening. Laura didn’t need to do anything more than repeat “I’m a North Carolina State Mom” to get a laugh at the start of the second pass of the game.  In fact, the audience also laughs with a sense of relieved release – it has been made clear to them that the sequence they witnessed is being made into a pattern.  With the rigid repetition they know they’ve been here before and they’re along for the ride.
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Dec 29

Massage Convention Hey Everybody group game

“A Massage Convention’s an HR hotbed.” –> “If OSHA says this is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”

With Hey Everybody mechanics in our back pocket we can confidently jump into chaos knowing that all we need to do is each stick and heighten our individual perspectives while collectively sticking to the order of individual contributions. With these tools we harness the power of the chaos, enabling it to swell and pop.

We can relax, too, in the knowledge that every player doesn’t need to nail it; they just need to participate. Especially in that first pass, what’s most important is just for each player to say/do something, anything. And if “anything” is too broad and therefore crippling then we remember that we can always align and agree with one another as well.

Watch this example. Note how the first pass gets established – who agrees with whom, who has a different perspective, who doesn’t speak. How many different perspectives would you say are in play among these 7 improvisers?


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Dec 22

Patterns and Games Montage

I am immensely proud of this show and the group that created it. It comes from The Coalition Theater’s Fall Patterns and Games Class.

In a Patterns and Games, success and failure hinged on the collective performance of the group. And…this class succeeded. Watch them all support each other through a performance that runs the gamut of games – rubric and organic, shorter and longer, lots of folks and few folks. The show is well paced, varying the use of moves from scene to scene.  Most importantly, as you can see, the group clearly had a lot of fun performing in it.  And the audience loved it. 

When improvisers follow each other, committing to taking the next step together, confident they’ll find whatever end together, the audience leans in, along for the ride. That’s improv as improv does best. Especially impressive given the size of the group, the level of collaboration shown here by a 301 class is alone worth the watch.  Enjoy!

Players are: Gerard Antoine, Sarah Berday-Sacks, Kevin Clatterbuck, Michael Farmer, Patrick Gaskill, Zachary Mann, Shannon Rodriguez, Hannah Rumsey, Max Senu-Oke, Geoff Stone, Vince Sunga, Carter Tait and Elliot Wegman

Nov 14

To The Ether video example – I Can’t…

When building Group Games, trust simplicity as The Coalition’s Big Bosses did in this To The Ether game.

Why? When a pattern is this clearly established and heightened you can reach the point where you don’t even need to finish the sequence before the audience is laughing uproariously, having completed the pattern in their own head. 

More To The Ether video examples –>

Nov 14

Personal & Scenic Games in a two person scene video example

To establish sustainable scenes, it is helpful to remember that each player on stage can have at least one Personal and Scenic game at their disposal to heighten.

Personal Game – how you react to who you are, where you are or what you’re doing
* I love cake; when I eat a piece I’m overcome with joy and I sigh involuntarily

Scenic Game – how you react to who your scene partner is, what your scene partner is doing or how your scene partner is acting 
* Greg is my hero; when he criticizes me I’m destroyed and flagellate myself
* We are scared of ghosts; when we hear a noise we freak and run around

The games represent a pattern of behavior established through evolving rules. Establishing and leveraging these games A) enable players to react through rather than think through scenes and B) engage the audience, letting them know our characters through their patterns of emotional behavior and care about them.


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Jul 23

Spider Furniture tertiary move example video

I get excited every time Alan Volmer and Jonathan Nelson start a scene together.  They’re able to create rich character with rich worlds expressed through rich reactions on a dime.

This scene begins beautifully, with Alan establishing some physical business and Jonathan establishing a Personal Game for himself.

When Alan references his prediliction for spider furniture (you’re just going to have to watch the clip), the resultant game threatens to take over all that’s been established.  But the strength of Alan and Jonathan’s characters prevails and Townsend and John’s heightening and support of the tertiary game makes this an enjoyable scene to watch from start to finish.

The Johnsons are: John Hilowitz, Jonathan Nelson, Townsend Hart and Alan Volmer.

Jul 6

Doubling & Tripling Down – Split-Screen Help-Desk Game example video

Not a super fan of a scene?  Don’t sweep it under the rug – you may want to forget about it but the audience may not be able to.  Better then to double down on it.  Use the Help Desk dynamic to heighten the interaction and turn a “not great” initial scene into the base of a beautiful run of collaborative pattern play.

That’s what The Johnsons do.


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Jul 6

Trusting and Committing – a 2 person scene video example

Boldly  choose.  Boldly commit.  Accept everything your scene partner says and does. Accepting doesn’t mean you have to like it, but you have to allow it to happen – and to repeat.

Commit. Push forward. And you’ll find yourself on the other end.

Stopping forward momentum to discuss, argue or otherwise conflict will kill you as all your scene’s (and the audience’s) focus is on “what do we not understand.” 

Commit. Believe and see. And you’ll kill it (rather than the other way around).


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