Tag Archives: pattern

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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Nov 14

1A/2A/3A Subsequent Beats video example

The clip embedded below shows the 1A, 2A and 3A scenes from a Harold in succession. It shows how, instead of just following plot through the beats, one character’s emotional behavior – in this case, Matt Newman’s reaction to learning that people close to him are sleeping together – can be heightened through scenarios beyond the initial scene’s.  It also shows how the responsibility for initiating subsequent beats is not on Matt, but on his fellow players who’ve been watching from the wings – this helps avoid rehashing the initial scene.

To learn more about the who, what and how behind heightening a scene with subsequent beats, READ THIS.

Aug 28

Be Dynamic: Sharpen Your Vectors

There’s more than one way to build intensity over time.

Keep Them Separated

Both scenes work in an improv context. No doubt. But I prefer the second iteration.

The second scene is more dynamic. Yes, both Bobs are altered by scene’s end and both scenes progress, but in the second scene Bob’s change is clearly delineated to establish a rhythm and to set expectations for heightening repetition with the audience.

It’s one of many improv lessons we can learn from The Clown.  Let’s learn more.
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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.