Story Robot

Cameron asks:

hey im doing a improv show but im doing it alone so could you give me a few games that can be played with one person id really appreciate it thanks

Hi Cameron, thanks for your question. I don’t have much personal experience with performing solo improv. But I’ve run across a few things that might help.

Solo improv training

There a good discussion on Yesand.com on How to practice or exercise alone?

There are also some exercises at the back of Mick Napiers’ book Improvise

Solo improv performing (long form)

The most famous name in solo improv is probably Andy Eninger (inventor of the Sybil format), so I recommend having a look at his website.

This is also a great article about some of Andy’s teaching.

And of course there is the wonderful Jill Bernard, creator of Drum Machine. You can read some advice from her here.

There are some great solo improv shows around. Last year I saw Greg Ellis created a one man Sherlock Holmes mystery in ‘Holmes Alone’. And I know I know Dan Allan does a show inspired by Powerpoint Karaoke (to give a couple of NZ examples).

Solo improv performing (Short Form)

There are a few short form games that can be played solo; poems, songs, story telling games, monologue scenes (video diary, dating video, that kind of thing), or multi-character scenes where you play all the characters. (Here‘s what the improv encyclopedia has to offer.)

The other way to go about things is audience interaction, get members of the audience up and play games and scenes with them. Audience members can produce wonderful things if treated with kindness and respect, but it takes a skilled performer to do it.

Final thoughts

So there it is Cameron. I hope it helps a bit. If you’ve got any questions drop them in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Stumbled across this little video of Keith talking about the secret of acting

View Here

(I gave up on trying to embed it)

I’ve been up to my neck in improv of late. Not only am I rehearsing full time for a devised/improvised show (more on which later no doubt), but I recently had the good fortune to attend a series of workshops with Patti Stiles, who is absolutely lovely.

I’ll be going through my notes over the next few weeks. But here’s one thing that stuck in my mind;

I often have the problem of not knowing how to act in situations where I’m not sure exactly what’s going on. For instance, I don’t want to enter a scene if I can’t work out exactly what someone is miming. Patti’s advice was to come in with a strong emotional response, eg walk in and gasp, or laugh, or cry. Which seems to me like a very useful little tip.

In unrelated news. Some Story Robot fan art from Saki Miyamoto!

Dan Bain (Dantastik.co.nz) -one of the most diverse performers I have ever met- gave me a wonderful piece of advice recently. Advice which I believe turned me from a bad stand-up to a good stand-up, and from a good improv MC to a great improv MC.

Like all great advice, it is disarmingly simple.

Dan refers to it as being in the room that you are in.

Simply put, in any audience interactive role, make it a point to, as soon as possible, refer to something in the room that only you and the audience can see. Ideally this would take the form of a joke, but the beautiful thing is that, since jokes are mostly about group membership (you laugh to show you are part of the group that ‘gets it’), almost anything will pass for a joke under these conditions. Something as simple as ‘why is no one sitting in that chair?’ will probably do the trick.

Benefits
-puts you in an observational, interactive state of mind.
-assures the audience that they are part of a unique experience. They may not realize it, but this it why they came. If they didn’t want a unique experience, they would just watch a DVD.
-connectedness.

A fantastic article from Jill Bernard, explaining the different kinds of scene edits (with pictures).

Highly recommended!

Read it here.

1. Turn up on time, turn your phone off.

2. Always volunteer, especially for the things you’re bad at.  Ideally everyone should volunteer for everything, this makes everyone feel braver than they really are.  Too many volunteers is the best kind of problem for an instructor to have.

3. Tell the truth.  Don’t just feed the instructor what you think they want to hear.  They can teach you better if they know where you’re really at.

4. Give it a shot.  Even if you disagree with the activity, or you have no interest in that kind of improv, do your best to make it work.   If you don’t commit to it then you’re guaranteed to get nothing out of it, is your time that worthless?

5. Don’t try to impress us with how good you are.  Don’t bring out your best material, and don’t plan ahead to avoid mistakes.  Approach the workshop honestly and you’ll learn more.  Which is in itself impressive.

6. Fail with good humour.  Not only is making mistakes the best way to learn, but if you can fail with good humour, then the whole vibe of the workshop can become more positive and more supportive.

7. Work with as many people as you can.  Don’t just work with the people you know and like, spread the love.

8. Remember, everything is a muscle.  If you want to get better at something, you just gotta keep working on it.

I’ve been to a lot of improv workshops where, quite frankly, not enough improvising happens.

One possible solution is, as Keith Johnstone says, ‘let nothing be discussed that could be acted out’ (not an exact quote).
Another idea is to allow no discussion at all between scenes, which keeps people in improv mode, not discussion mode.

However, I think there is a lot of value in a little discussion between scenes. This morning I was reading this article by Seth Godin on running effective meetings, and I was quite taken by this idea;

I think most of the time, most meetings should be held without chairs. People standing up think more quickly and get distracted less often. And the meetings don’t last as long.

While I don’t think it would be productive to have players stand during other player’s scenes, it might be good to have everyone stand between scenes.

Advantages;

-People encouraged to stay on topic.
-People are already standing and ready for the next scene to start.

I remember hearing a story about an old stage actor whose performances would always earn a spontaneous round of applause from the audience.

Turns out that as he walked into the wings he would start clapping, and the audience would follow suit.

I felt a bit dodgy at first, but it’s really a great way to signal the end of an improv scene*.

I also use this when I’m judging High School competitions.  If the performers are not finding an ending, I’ll just start clapping.  The rest of the audience always joins in.

*Note: This only works if the scene ends with your character offstage.