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Improv Party: Five Improv Games that Can Be Played by Anyone, Anytime

Improv

You don’t have to get your improv fix by idly watching a live show in a coffee shop or bar or a rerun of Who’s Line Is It Anyway? With a few simple tools under your belt and some game rules, you can throw an improv party! As few as five and as many as 30 energetic, enthusiastic people can rotate performing and watching improv games in a snap. Throw in some chips and salsa and some cocktails and you’ve got yourself a party!

Improv, or improvisation, is the art of making things up as you go. Comic actors, like those featured on Saturday Night Live, use improv to create short sketches. More serious actors use improv to create 30 to 45 minute plays. These two different types are referred to as short- and long-form improv.

For your next party, you’ll want to stick with short-form games. Lasting anywhere from two to eight minutes each, short form games are fun, exciting and can get a whole crowd of people engaged and enthusiastic.

Some improv rules: try to always listen and affirm what the person you’re in a scene with has to say. This will keep the scene running smoothly and both of you will be less confused about what’s going on. Speak loudly so your funny jokes can be heard, and use your body to mime situations and places to make the scene seem more ‘real.’ For instance, if your scene takes place in an office, pretend you’re typing on a keyboard or making yourself a mug of coffee.

These five games don’t need any setup, props or even a stage. You can play them anytime and anywhere!

Improv Game 1: Naturally, we’ll start our list of games with Party Quirks. This is a guessing game involving five players. One player will have the task of hosting this pretend party; he or she will leave the room while the remaining players get suggestions from the audience. The remaining players are looking for suggested characteristics that will endow their party-attending selves with a certain unusual characteristic. These characteristics include having a (insert household appliance) for an (insert nonsexual body part), fear of a common party ingredient, like cheese or party hats, thinking they’re a particular celebrity or historical figure and having a certain reaction (say, screaming) when a certain word is said (cheese). The game begins as one by one the party attendees arrive. The scene evolves into a party with odd guests milling about and mixing, dropping hints about their unique characteristics. When the host guesses the peculiarities of a guest, that guest finds an excuse to leave the party. The game ends when the last guest (usually the hardest to guess) leaves.

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Improv Game 2: 183 Blanks. This game is simple and can be played by all partygoers at the same time! Essentially, the players are going to ask for a suggestion from the audience. Suggestions can be any number of things – something you find in your garage, bathroom, kitchen, etc.; something you got for Christmas this year, a celebrity, anything. Players will then take turn stepping up to tell a joke based on this suggestions. The joke’s format is this: “183 BLANKS walk into a bar. The bartender says, we don’t serve BLANKS here. The BLANKS reply, PUNCH LINE.” This joke relies on the ever-popular pun. Example: “183 bananas walk into a bar. The bartender says, we don’t serve bananas here. The bananas reply, ‘You better hope I don’t slip on my way out!’ or ‘You better not be monkeying around!’ It’s a real groaner, but in a fun way!

Improv Game 3: World’s Worst. World’s Worst can be played with many different types of audience suggestions. It can be played as “World’s Worst Commercial for,” and the suggestion would be a product, like toothpaste, milk, or car seats. It can be played as “World’s Worst Profession,” and the suggestion from the audience would be a profession, like teacher, dentist, construction worker, etc. Like 183 Blanks, each player as he or she thinks of a joke for this would step forward and say it. Players will embody the person doing the “World’s Worst Profession,” or will perform in the “World’s Worst Commercial.” For example, someone with a joke for “World’s Worst Commercial for Toothpaste” might step forward and pretend they don’t have teeth and say “Colgate worked for me!” Someone with a joke for “World’s Worst Dentist,” might step forward and mime they’re holding a tooth in their hand and then say, “Oops, wrong tooth.

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Improv Game 4: ABC lines. ABC lines is a two-person scenic game, meaning the framework is a sketch, unlike 183 Blanks and World’s Worst, the framework of which is more like stand up comedy than sketch comedy. To start ABC lines, ask for a letter from the alphabet. Then ask for a location the scene will be set in, or an emotion that one of the two players is feeling. The scene begins with one of the two players making a statement, the first word of which begins with the letter suggested by the audience. Then the second player will respond with a sentence starting with the following letter in the alphabet. For example, if the letter were A, the first player might say, “Apple pie sure is good,” and the second player would say, “But cake is good too.” And the first player would reply: “Cake is delicious!” The scene ends when all 26 letters have started a sentence. For the example scene, the last sentence of the scene would begin with “Z.”

Improv Game 5: Conducted Story. This game can be played by a group of four to eight. The group will stand in a row facing the audience if there is one. The conductor faces the group. The game begins with the conductor pointing at one person, and continuing to point at them. The person being pointed at will begin with “It was a dark and stormy night…” or “Billy was on his way to the merry-go-round at the circus…” or whatever strikes their fancy. At any point, the conductor can point at someone new, who will pick up exactly where the other person left off. Listening is very important to this game! The game ends when, well, the story ends. Game can also be played in a round-robin style, with one person saying just one word each.

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With these five games and the right mix of energy and enthusiasm, you can have yourself an improv party!