Video

Videos are great teaching tools – I love having teams I coach watch their game tapes. Having players be able to discuss their thinking as scenes progress can help improvisers to better understand and play to each other. The game tape enables a coach to point out red flags and missed opportunities.

And, as a plus, we can watch videos and laugh because we’re funny.

As videos are uploaded to the site links will be added to this page. Last updated 7/11/2021.

WARM-UP EXERCISES –

Kick The Duck Red Rover:

Invocation

Four Corners
Genres
Foreign Dubbing
New Choice
Carpool

GROUP GAMES –

Organic Group Games:

Run Through The Jungle – energetic game performed through Zoom
Susie & Rebecca – emotional, supportive, organic and a little bit meta
Johnsons’ 100% Organic Family Band Solution – God, I love this ensemble
Johnsons BBQ – a series of walk-ons heightens not just the game but the pattern’s sequence
Ocean/Pool – the location is contradicted but players commit to the juxtaposition
Too Many Dogs – group finds a blackout through committed following
Cat Pelts – chaos is channeled through committed collaboration
Imagine What You Can Do With A Scrotum – enthusiasm, details, patterns and authentic reactions in-the-moment win the day
Samurai At Bat – a group game juggling five perspectives by finding a focus and sharing the air
Psycho Psychics – a full team game that gets into the audience and builds with emotion and physicality
Over My Dead Body and C(at)PA – players follow the evolving pattern, trusting that there will be an edit on the end without worrying about it, forcing it or rushing toward it.
Playing with Typing – boldly following and heightening
Don’t Stop – trust in silence
Hours & Minutes – illustrates the power of the 2nd pass
Archaeologist – consistent building
Weddings & Funerals – a twisted To The Ether
Patrons & Waitstaff – paired trios
Burritos – split screen
Bat Cave – paired trios
Antique Sex Toys – heightening with pivots

One Person Games:

To The Ether Games:

Help Desk Games:

The Pick-Up – rides offered and taken, performed over Zoom
Flower Shop – a “classic” Help Desk, performed over Zoom
Urgent Crepes – a “classic” setup with emotional stakes
Booths – using split screens to build a simple, satisfying progression
Potential – a serendipitous moment caps the pattern
That’s My Thing – organic game leveraging Help Desk tools
I Hate It – Tag-Outs and Pivots in service of a character and the sequence
Awkward Allergies – using Split Screen and feeling emotionally
Stealing The Scene – a series of tag-outs utilizing Help Desk dynamics
Doubling & Tripling Down – heightening a situation and leveraging callbacks to turn coal into diamonds
“Cool” Guy – audio track of a pivot with tight progressions
Body Snatcher & Double Body Snatcher

Hey Everybody Games:

Openings:

Pattern Saves:

When a Tag Out is just a Tap – Patterns and Games Q2 2019 Showcase
Setting sets up the Spike – Patterns & Games Q1 2019 Showcase
Missed Edits Create A Game From Missing Edits – Johnsons 11.19.16
Pattern Progression lost in Organic Game, but commitment to the pattern secures the edit – Johnsons 3.7.15
Most everybody in Hey Everybody drops sequence but the Player that holds to the pattern secures the edit – Johnsons 3.21.15

TWO PERSON SCENES:

Number Problems – reacting through their filters they explore fun verbal patterns and endow their environment
Remodel Couple – the audience loves seeing am improviser committed to feeling strongly about a detail their partner just made up
A-Goy – when in doubt, they have an emotional reaction to the detail of the moment
Sustainable Trajectory – patterns of emotional behavior link characters, relationships and environment in a sustainable scene
Personal & Scenic Game interplay – a personal game initiation, a scenic game join and a sustainable trajectory
Initiation Example #1 – a Self Contained Emotional Statement met with a Scenic Game initiation
Characters Endowing and Reacting Through Conflict – Johnsons 8.9.2015
Trusting and Committing – Johnsons 6.21.15
Pimping – Johnsons 6.21.15
Endowing Environment – Johnsons 9.21.14
Comfortable & Confident – Pack 10.4.14
Details & Space. Character & Emotion. Patterns & Games – Johnsons 1.17.15

SUBSEQUENT BEATS:

1A/2A/3A Subsequent Beats in a Harold
Strong 1st Beat focused on Environment with funny 2nd Beat black-out found by trusting the pattern – Johnsons 3.7.15
Organically found Group Scene sets up final black-out for success – Johnsons 3.7.15
1st Beat’s Sex-Obsessed College Students become 2nd Beat’s Sex-Obsessed Elementary School Students – Johnsons 7.2.16

TERTIARY & POLISH MOVES –

Tag-Outs/Pivots:

Transformation Edits:

Anat Nag Transformations

Split Screens:

Awkward Allergies – a fun Help Desk that doesn’t forget emotion
Doubling & Tripling Down – heightening a situation and leveraging callbacks to turn coal into diamonds
Burritos
Superlatives & Parents

Tertiary Moves:

Embodying Environment on Tinder
Cut-To Peach Pit Cut-Back
Tag-Out Triangle
Walk-on/off with Split Screen
Walk-Ons Heighening Pattern Sequence – Johnsons BBQ
Tag-out example – High Jobs
Johnsons Walk On Acoss the Upper Deck
Off Stage Contributions – players on the wings pimped into adding audio
Body Snatcher & Double Body Snatcher
Dual-Casting & Character Swapping

Blackouts

1st Day of School – see something, say something
Whistling – authenticity earns a huge laugh and brings a quick edit
Too Many Dogs – group finds a blackout through committed following
The Race – when the audience discovers the context along with the audience? Magic.

Thematic Edits