IMPROVISATIONS

Booth Hell: (Synonyms:Sound effects scene, technical errors scene)
Introduction: During this scene the sound effects person will randomly insert sounds throughout the scene that the actors must justify appropriately.  Description: The actors start out and continue, a regular scene. At any time the sound effects tech can insert random sounds, and usually ones that have nothing to do with the context of the scene. The actors do best by justifying the noises in the context of the scene.

Superhero Eulogy: Introduction: We are all saddened by the recent demise of our local superhero [get the name of a superhero that doesn't exist]. Some of her friends are gathered here today to pay their last respects. Description:
Several players get up and tell what they know about the deceased superhero. There is a common pattern of someone knowing her before she developed her powers, a family member, her arch villain, and eventually her demise. The audience likes to hear how the superhero met her fate. It makes it easier for the players if this is left to the last speaker. The previous structure is just an example for those who have not seen the eulogy done before. It might be obvious to most, but doing a eulogy about a real person usually just brings the audience down.

GENRE JUMP: Two players are chosen from the audience and given a task to complete. The only hitch is that two people (the host of the game and a chosen partner) will sit off-stage and be the moderators. At any time during the game either of the two moderators will call out a genre (a theme or type of story). The two players must immediately continue the scene in the stule of the called genre. Suggestions: Western, soap opera, children's show, Amish-Erotica, cop drama, Shakespearean rap, etc.
A variation of this game is for the moderator to use an occupation rather than a genre. The players must then continue the game endowed with the suggested occupation.

Arms Expert:  Introduction: In this scene actor A will talk and supply the body for the character while player B will supply the arms for the same character. Description: Actor A stands with her arms at her side while player B pushes her arms through the armpits of actor A. Ideally the players will be chosen for appropriateness of size. It is ideal if the arm supplying player can hide behind the talking player. The two go about the scene usually in the form of a question answer session with the audience. The talking player is left to justify the actions of the hands that she has no control over.
Gimmicks: Usually come from the arms player, she can make bizarre and inexplicable gestures, or contradictory gestures, or obscene self meandering while the talking player tries to maintain the reality. The interviewer can also make life challenging for the two actors by asking for something from the player's pocket, getting her to adjust articles of clothing. Doing push ups would be the ultimate pimp for this handle. Variations: Arms and legs expert (you have to be close for this one), one player per arm, reversed one player per arm (i.e., a left arm on the right side and vice versa) this looks really odd.

Emotional Boundaries  Introduction: In this scene the stage will be divided into three zones. Each zone will be designated with a particular emotion, as the players move about on the stage they must adopt the emotion of the zone that they are in. Description: The introduction pretty much explains the game. It is important that the players use the entire stage to explore each of the emotional areas. The transitions are best done crisply as the player crosses the boundary. The host setting the scene up should make sure that the emotions are contrasting and simple. Gimmicks: Rapidly crossing the stage and altering every word in the sentence with the emotion. Straddling the boundary and combining emotions.
Variations:  Obviously there can be more than three zones, and emotions can be assigned to furniture and props. There are genre variations where each zone is assigned a type of entertainment. Again the common list of categories can apply to the zones: emotions, genres, animals, professions, political parties.

Endowment Scenes: Synonyms: Repair shop, Crime endowment, home late scene, Santa scene, who am I?   Introduction: In this scene we will ask a player to leave the stage. The player offstage has committed a crime. She is willing to confess to the crime, however she cannot remember what the crime is. If her interrogators can let her know what the crime is she will confess. Ask for [unusual crime, unrelated device, location]. When the criminal is close to getting the crime you-all (audience), must ooh-aah to let her know. When she gets a part of the crime clap. If she confesses to the crime completely go wild.
Description: The chosen introduction is for a crime endowment. The first note is really to the host introducing the scene. It is essential that the game be explained properly to the audience. If the audience doesn't give ooh-aah getting close feedback then the confessor will most likely be lost. The detectives getting the confession must stick to the order of their clues (crime, item, location), and not advance until the actor properly confesses. The detectives will have a lot more fun if they keep to subtle clues in the beginning of the scene, saving the obvious ones for when things are getting slow. The confessor should try and maintain a story within the confession. Giving reasons for the actions. There are ample opportunities for crossovers to help out the detectives.
Gimmicks: If the confessor gets the clues too early she may play stupid, and draw out the game.
Variations: The crime endowment was explained above. The home late scene is identical except that a youngster is explaining to her adults why she has come home so late. The host can get any items she wants, although the confessor (person being endowed) has to know the order of the items. The Santa scene is usually Santa Claus trying to tell a child what she wants for Christmas (usually one item). The repair shop is where some poor soul is returning a broken device, and they have no idea what it is. Who am I? gets an actor to deduce what famous person that she is. The possibilities are endless.

Paper Chase: Introduction: During this scene the players must occasionally stop and introduce sentences that written on these little pieces of paper that are scattered all around the stage. The sentences written on here are unknown to the players, and myself. They must immediately incorporate the sentence into the scene as it is written on the page. [set up involves getting someone to write out some sentences that will be incorporated in to the scene. Getting the audience to write them out is a nice touch. Description: This is a scene just like any other, in that there are offers interjected throughout the scene. Don't worry about stooping to pick up the suggestions. Make sure that you don't spend any noticeable time looking over the sentence. It only appears that you are concocting an easy way out for yourself. Audience members really notice if their particular sentence is sidestepped around. Gimmicks: Blank pieces of paper. Sentences in other languages. Pictures. Variations: Activities can be substituted for sentences.

Actor's Nightmare: Introduction: In this scene one actor will read all her lines from a script, while the other actor must justify those lines and a scene will arise from this chaos. Description: One actor reads from a script, preferably a mundane high school like text, and takes all her lines from the script. She may read from one character, or several characters, whichever allows her responses to be quicker. The reader can help t he justifier by offering emotion and activity to the words. Trying hard to maintain a reality in the scene makes it the most fun, simply hacking on the reader as being crazy is a lazy wimpy way out. Gimmicks: The reader can launch into long texts, the justifier can ask the reader to repeat something (of course they cannot), accidentally reading stage directions.

Show Me That: Introduction: Get an ask for that will allow the beginning of an open scene. Description:
Sometime during the first scene one of the players must make a reference to something that has happened or is going to happen. When this happens the host will call out 'show me that'. The players will break out the scene that they were in and jump to the scene in question. For example, if one of the players says, "you know what happened the last time you brought in the milk." Show me that would cause the players to switch to that scene immediately. Show me that can also signal a dimming of the lights to facilitate a scene change. The is a very hard long form to maintain a connected story. If no temporal reference comes forward the host can simply call Show me that and the players will respond accordingly.

Arms Expert: Introduction: In this scene actor A will talk and supply the body for the character while player B will supply the arms for the same character. Description:Actor A stands with her arms at her side while player B pushes her arms through the armpits of actor A. Ideally the players will be chosen for appropriateness of size. It is ideal if the arm supplying player can hide behind the talking player. The two go about the scene usually in the form of a question answer session with the audience. The talking player is left to justify the actions of the hands that she has no control over.
Gimmicks: Usually come from the arms player, she can make bizarre and inexplicable gestures, or contradictory gestures, or obscene self meandering while the talking player tries to maintain the reality. The interviewer can also make life challenging for the two actors by asking for something from the player's pocket, getting her to adjust articles of clothing. Doing push ups would be the ultimate pimp for this handle. Variations: Arms and legs expert (you have to be close for this one), one player per arm, reversed one player per arm (i.e., a left arm on the right side and vice versa) this looks really odd.

Touch It: Introduction: This is an environment building exercise that helps players work on making the environment part of their story. Description: This is essentially an open scene. At any time that the players are not using their environment, or they are doing the talking heads thing someone calls out 'touch it'. When the players hear that they must interact with their environment is some fashion. This could be picking up a coffee cup, moving a chair, or lighting a cigarette. The call to 'touch it' can be directed at players that are blabbing too much. The players must interact with the environment that already exists, and not create too many new things out of thin air.

Time Line: Introduction: We will first present a simple neutral scene that is based on a suggestion from the audience. Then we will see a series of scenes that led up to or were consequences of the first scene you saw. Description:
The first scene must establish some strong characters. Following the first scene the host will start to call out time references: five minutes ago, ten years from now. Each call out from the host is a signal for a new scene. Each scene will somehow be connected to the initial scene, through either characters, location or consequences. Gimmicks: Call out zero seconds from now, or 5 million years in the past. Variations: Let the audience call out time lines.

Touch To Talk:  The only time that players are allowed to talk during this scene is when they are physically touching each other. This scene is meant to build non-verbal communication skills in the players. There certainly can be a fun scene in it as well. It is no fun to cheat and hold hands for the whole scene for no particular reason. There must be solid reasons for making physical contact within the context of the scene. Only speak during those brief moments of physical contact. Variations:  Touch to shut up. The players have to talk constantly until they make physical contact somehow (an exercise to show how irritating constant blabbering can be).

Last Sentence Scene:  This will be an open scene. The only constraints on this scene will be the first sentence and the last sentence of the scene are chosen by the audience. [get a first sentence and a last sentence from the audience].  One of the actors must state the first sentence as the first words out of her mouth. Feel free to set up the environment without speaking. Don't be afraid to build into the first sentence. The last sentence of the scene is a bit harder to manage, and it is much better appreciated by the audience. The players must remember that they have only been asked to do two things in the scene, and you are expected to do them. Variations: First and last word can be used instead. There can also be a middle sentence, or word, that must appear at any time between the first and last sentence/word.

Modern Fairy Tale: In this scene the players will combine a well known fairy tale with a genre of movie. [be sure to recap the fairy tale and recap the genre].  This scene involves altering a known story with characters and genre clichés from commercial film. Remember to tell the story as it was recapped. If you are combining a fairy tale and a specific film it is important to get an idea of what the film was about. If you have no idea, offer some support, background or sit back and enjoy. What makes this a useful scene is that players can introduce topics from either genre, and it is likely that they will know one or the other. Variations: Combine any known story with a contrasting genre: science fiction, war movie, love story, Shakespeare, triple-X, political party, occupation, etc.

Should Have Said: Anytime during this scene the players can be interrupted by you [audience]. If at anytime you don't like what they have said you make them change their sentence by yelling, 'should have said.' It is important to give the players a chance to build a story, but if you don't like the way that it is going then yell, 'should have said.'  Build a scene like any other. Give a bit of extra pause between your comments to allow for the audience to interject. Listen closely for the audience's input. They will hear the 'should have said.' If you miss one expect to be eaten alive. When you are expected to change what you said make a strong choice that alters the course of the scene. They have yelled it because they don't like what is happening, so change the way the scene is going.The callers can be limited to one or two audience members if chaos is imminen

1-2-3-4:  This exercise is very structured. Each player in it has a specific role, and each sentence spoken has a specific role. It is crucial to emphasize that each step represents only one sentence. It is recommended to talk the players through this the first through times.  ZERO - environment  The first player comes on stage and creates an environment based on the set up of the scene. The environment is created in silence through mime. Once they have clearly defined their environment the second player comes on stage. For the sake of this explanation a kitchen is created.  ONE - relationship  The second player comes on stage and accepts the environment that the first player defined through her mime. The second player on contributes only one sentence to the scene and NO more. That sentence simply defines a relationship between the two players. For example a simple sentence like 'hi mom' would suffice.  TWO - conflict  The first player in the scene then speaks only one sentence. This sentence creates a conflict based on the ask-for, environment, or relationship. For instance 'you are late for dinner' is a simple choice.  THREE - raising the stakes  Player two now has a chance to speak her second sentence. This sentence accepts all of the previous elements of the story, and makes the conflict worse. 'I hate your cooking mom' would be a sentence that advances the story by making the conflict worse.  FOUR - resolution  The two player have to keep their mouths shut. Keep in mind that this is an exercise and not a scene. The third player now enters the scene, accepts the environment and speaks her singular sentence. This sentence will end the scene and resolve the conflict at hand. The resolution must somehow incorporate elements from the scene that went before. For example, 'hi honey, lets go eat at mcswiney's tonight.'  That is the end of the exercise and another three players get set up to do another one. They usually take about one to two minutes each. Variations: If players cannot keep to one sentence. Try doing the steps in gibberish or have someone offstage speak the player's sentence.

Fairy Tale In A Minute:  The players are going to present to you a fairy tale of your choice [get fairy tale known to most, recap it]. They are going to present this story in under 1 minute starting now..  .This is a high energy scene where all the essential components of the fairy tale must be portrayed in less than 60 seconds. Frenetic can be fun but the characters must be clear and sheer chaos will not be fun to watch.  Movie in a minute is another variation. Check to be sure that most of the players know what the story is, and remember to get a recap. Historical event in 45 seconds is fun too.

Free Association:  The group can be structured in circles, and one person starts off by saying any word. The person to her left lets fly with the absolute first thing that comes to mind when they heard the previous word. There should be no pause to find "something funny" or to edit their thoughts. This is not a psychoanalysis exercise, but one to get people pulling down those barriers to creative thoughts. Associations like "boss-napalm" are quite common, and not too much to worry about.  Variations:  Try it in gibberish OR try firing line  where one person is required to do all the word associations. Six people line up and fire off words that they have pre planned;  the player on the firing line responds immediately with a free word association.

Hunting The Whatsit: The player that is on stage becomes a hunter. She is kind of an Elmer Fudd of hunting, because she starts to talk out loud about what it is that she is hunting. "it is a lovely day for hunting deer". The next player in line hops up on stage as a deer, and kills the hunter. The player that was endowed and entered the stage becomes the hunter, and the hunter heads off stage. The hunters can look for anything that they want: winged rhinoceros, happy limping Scotsman, aggressive washing machines, etc. It is up to the player that is called on-stage as the prey to sneak up on the hunter and vanquish them in character.

ABSTRACT PAINTINGS SCENES:  Break the class into groups of 3-5 and give each group an abstract painting.  Allow them about 15 minutes planning time.  Each group is to act out a scene based on inspiration from the painting.  Afterwards, show the paintings and discuss the inspirations in the group that created the scene.

Sounds Good To Me:  Two improvisors play a scene where one of them is limited in dialogue. The limited improvisor can only say one of the following three lines, "Sounds good to me!", "I'll go along with that!", and "O.K., great!". The unlimited improvisor makes offers and the limited improvisor replies. The choices made should be active ones allowing for limited responses. This game is excellent if you are not in the mood to improvise. You can be active in the scene without blocking, or wimping on an idea

HOROSCOPE: A situation is given and a scene played out during which a horoscope from a magazine is read out in parts. The central character in the scene, plays his part according to the horoscope.

Dramatis Personae: Each person is assigned a famous personality from history or current affairs, and a location in which their scene is played

Right The Wrong: Improvisors ask an audience member for an actual experience where something went wrong, they were misunderstood, blamed, etc. The scene is then played in a way that corrects the problem and turns it into a positive story for the protagonist.

Poison Arm Samurai: The outer edge off your forearms, from elbow to pinky, is a poison sword, which can be used to kill and defend. Improvisors stand in a circle, and move their arms up and down in slow motion. Once an even rate is established, the "GO!" is given. The improvisors go at each other trying to hit each other anywhere on the body with their poison sword. The only defense being that persons own sword. If hit anywhere other than the outer edge of the forearm, that person dies in slow motion. A dying samurai may continue to kill until their rump touches the ground. The point of this game is to be aware and in control of your body. Focus on keeping your body moving at the same rate. You want to follow through on your actions, you're not moving slowly, you're moving in slow motion. If you swing and miss, follow through with your arm movement, even if it means being killed. Once you've mastered this, try playing in teams of two, remembering that you can accidentally kill your partner.

ALLITERATION:  Improvisors ask for a letter of the alphabet and incorporate as many words beginning with that letter into the scene as possible. Variation: Each improvisor asks for their own letter. Variation: Every word spoken is started with the given letter, even words that actually begin with other letters. Ex: Kello! Ki kam kan kimprovisor.

SPELLING BEE: 3 players ·like Dr. Know-It-All -- get word--all repeat word--spell word ---- one letter per person at a time--all repeat word--one player - use word in sentence ending with word--all repeat word--start with an easy word and proceed to more difficult and then impossible--impossible - - for sentence, use a pun, NOT the correct word usage- to spell it, start out correctly, then within a few letters, begin to substitute commas, pound signs, and various other types of punctuation.

THREE SCENE:  Team plays a short neutral scene. Then play the scene 2 more times as in "In The Style Of..." a playwright, a period in history, etc.  Some things that work well as styles: Emotions, Playwrights, Movies, Magazines, -isms (eg: socialism, cannibalism, etc.)

BLOCKING: Improvisor A accepts all offers, while Improvisor B blocks all offers. Both should want to tell a story, so a general location should be accepted by both. A's offers will gradually move the story forward. Eventually, A can create action from presenting B with a "negative offer", a offer that in order to be blocked forces B to do an action. Example; A: "Too bad you don't have the ability to fly!" or, "Too bad, your gun is out of bullets." Take your time with this exercise, and do it a lot.

Growing And Shrinking Machine: Begin with Improvisor 1 on stage. Improvisor 2 freezes the scene, jumps on stage, begins a new scene with Improvisor 1. Unlike Freeze Tag, improvisors do not tag out of the scenes. Eventually, all team improvisors will be on stage (up to 4 improvisors).Same for Improvisors 3 and 4. Then!!! Improvisor 4 must find a justifiable reason to leave the stage, the scene reverts back to the original 3 person scene, but time has passed, the improvisors are in new positions WHICH MUST BE JUSTIFIED. Then Improvisor 3 finds a justifiable reason to leave the stage - back to the 2 person scene. Finally, improvisor 2 leaves - back to the solo scene. It is important to justify the new positions during the shrinking phase of the game, not to simply jump into the original scene at the next moment.

Props: Each improvisor is assigned a prop. The improvisor must use the prop thru the course of the scene. The prop may or may not be used to represent what it actually is. 

What Are You Doing: Improvisor 1 begins an action, (eg: jumping rope). Improvisor 2 says, "What are you doing?" Improvisor 1 says something OTHER than jumping rope (eg: "Building a bird house.") Improvisor 2 begins building a bird house, improvisor 1 asks 2, "What are you doing." Etc., etc. Response speed is a must, as is making the action as different from the response as possible

The "Blank" Family: Improvisors ask for an adjective (eg: 'creepy'). Must play the scene with as much 'creepiness' as possible. Or each player may ask for a different adjective.

  MacGyver: Ask the audience for three household objects and a major disaster. During the scene, use the objects to avert the disaster.

 LANGUAGE BARRIER: Two improvisors meet on stage who speak different languages. They both speak in gibberish, as far as the audience is concerned

  BALLET: Scene is performed in the style of a ballet, often with a narrator. May choose to use music, but not necessary. Usually performed without speaking, except for the narrator's part. Works best when the dancers are fully committed to dancing their best ballet, and not just performing funny moves.

KING GAME:  One improvisor is the King, one improvisor is the servant. The two play a scene, if at any time the King is dissatisfied with the Servant, he claps his hands and the Servant instantly dies, replaced by a new Servant. You may wish to time the Servants to see how long they last. This game is for learning how to be a good servant. You assume most people will put up with you, but being a servant is a skill which is acquired. If as servant you make mistakes, but the king enjoys being on stage with you, then your learning good servant skills. If you can keep the person onstage involved, then you can keep the audience involved as well. Kings are annoyed by open ended offers like, "What shall we do now?", they like specific things to do, "Time for your tea, just the way you like it, Sir." is a more solid offer. Kings will sometimes kill for no reason at all, but the game is still worthwhile.

TYPEWRITER:  One improvisor sits at an imaginary 'typewriter', typing a story, while the other actors act out the story. Actors and typist each responsible for endowing the story with narrative line.

STATUES:  Audience members, or other improvisors, mold the body positions of two on stage improvisors. Improvisors begin the scene, justifying their positions. May try to end the scene in the same positions, or having switched positions.

HESITATION: Two players;audience participation ·begin with a topic suggestion from audience ·play the scene for a few seconds, hesitate, then motion for audience members to supply the next word.

REMOTE  CONTROL   An imaginary movie title is given, the movie is begun. At the discretion of an off stage improvisor, "Fast Forward", "Rewind", "Slow Motion" is called out. The actors react accordingly.

ENVIRONMENT IN A MINUTE: Improvisors create as complete an environment as possible in one minute. Variation is to play the scene Without Words, in Gibberish

ANIMAL PEOPLE: Improvisor (or Improvisors) asks for an animal, then plays the scene as a human with that animal's characteristics.

DR. KNOW-IT-ALL: ·4 players  ·link arms
·coach does introduction and tells story of how this group became one person
·take questions from the audience
·the Dr. answers one word at a time
- down vocal inflections indicate DONE
- up vocal inflections indicate GO ON
·BOW as a unit after every completed answer
·make answers as long and convoluted as possible

QUADRANTS: Improvisors divide stage into quadrants and get suggestions (emotions, -isms, etc.) for each quadrant. Improvisors play the scene, changing their style as they change stage quadrants. Changes must be justifiable.

 DRAMATIS PERSONAE:  Each person is assigned a famous personality from history or current affairs, and a location in which their scene is played.

ZULU: Players stand in a line. A suggestion is taken for a generic category of product (like laundry soap or spaghetti sauce). A pointer selects the players in random order at which point they must come up with a new brand name for a product of that type. Players are not allowed to pause, repeat a name, use a real product name, or come up with complete nonsense. Audience yells "Die" on any mistake. Be careful that you name the product and don't just describe it.

RASHOMAN: Short scene is played with realistic characters. It is then replayed from the Point of View of each major character in the scene. Not necessary to repeat the dialogue exactly. Try to endow your character with the 'biggest' emotions, actions, etc. relative to the P.o.V. character.

CHAIN MURDER ENDOWMENT:  Scene is played in Gibberish. One improvisor remains on stage, the rest of the team leaves the playing area. The on stage improvisor gets 1) an occupation, 2) a room in a house or building, 3) an object, not considered dangerous which will be used in the scene as a murder weapon. The actors are brought back into the playing area. In gibberish, the on stage improvisor endows off stage improvisor #1 with the three pieces of information. When the endowing improvisor is convinced that the endowed improvisor knows what the weapon is, he should be killed by it. Then improvisor 2 communicates the information to improvisor 3 and finally, 3 to 4. The MC then asks the final improvisor what the 3 pieces of information were. Score is not affected by correct or incorrect answers. Remember that the scene is timed, usually with one minute per off stage improvisor. The object is to get all the improvisors thru in the allotted time (usually 3 minutes). There is nothing wrong with improvisors REPEATING EXACTLY the actions from the previous improvisor. The audience is encouraged to applaud each time the improvisor correctly "identifies" the piece of information being transmitted.

I SHOULD HAVE SAID: Number of players: 2 and 1 coach
Ask for: You can use virtually any ask for.
Description: Two players will play a scene based on an audience suggestion. At any time during the scene the coach can clap his/her hands. When the coach claps, the player who delivered the last line must go back and say what they "should have said." For example, if player A says, "I just got bit by a dog!" (CLAP) "a snake!" (CLAP) "an old woman with false teeth!" If the coach does not clap then the scene continues. The scene ends when there is a "tag line" and "scene" is called.
Tips and Comments: If you are the coach, don't get "clap" happy. If you clap after every other word, the players will not have a chance to let the scene develop. This will make them mad and chances are, they know where you live.

CONDUCTED STORY (Like "Story-Story-Die")·6 players
·get two movie titles and combine them to make a new story title
·one person starts story and coach points finger to change storyteller at random
·"I" - 1st person - all six people are the same character
·3rd person - everyone tells story 

DUBBING:  6 players - 3 onstage, 3 kneeling facing the stage
·object is the the three on the floor to do the talking while the three onstage pantomime what those voices are saying
·BE PHYSICAL - move mouth to indicate speech and use gesture as the physicality will clue the other players as well as the audience that it's YOUR line

Switch Interview:  talk show format with 2 players at a time while rest form a single file
·topic is given by audience
·interview goes on for 8-10 seconds
·coach calls "Switch!"
·interviewee becomes interviewer, first person in line becomes interviewee
·new topic with each switch

Good, Bad, Worst Advice:  ·3 players
·a "bit" game
·ask for ?s from the audience
·players in turn give good advice (that which is legitimate), bad advice (intention is to help so the advice is valid but misguided), and worst advice (totally off the wall)

OSCAR WINNING MOMENT: ·3 players
·begin scene and play it awhile
·coach calls "FREEZE! OSCAR-WINNING MOMENT!"
·whichever actor is speaking at the time delivers an over-the-top monologue
·the moment happens and you go back into the scene
·the key is to be able to emote over nothing

FORWARD AND REVERSE: ·3 Players (could include an audience member)
·begin scene and play it awhile
·coach has "remote control"
·presses "pause"
·says "reverse, fast forward, slow motion"
·players must play or replay scene according to coach's directive

SURPRIZE PARTY: Suprize Party is a guessing game. An audience member is chosen to host a party and is promptly taken out of listening range. Five "guests" are then chosen. Each guest is then endowed by the audience with some odd quirk or physical deformity (example: has three legs, is cheese-a-phobic, honks whenever verbs are spoken).

The host then returns and, one by one, the guests arrive. It is the task of the host to guess the quirk of each guest. The guests must act out their personal quirk, but are forbidden from directly mentioning what it is. This rule holds for any part of the quirk (i.e., a guest with three legs cannot say, "Look! I'm wearing three shoes!") When the host correctly guesses the uirk of the guest, that guest leaves the party and the next guest enters.

The only special rules are: 1) If the host guesses part of the quirk, then the guest can directly mention that part (i.e. Host - "You have three feet?" (this to the three-legged guest) Reply - "No, but I have three of something below the waist.") 2) If the host is having a particularly hard time guessing the quirk, another guest can enter the party to help give clues. The game ends when the host has correctly guessed all the quirks.

COUNTDOWN: A scene is played out in 1.5 minutes by two players. A second team replays the scene in 1 minute. The first team replays it in 45 seconds, and so on down to 5 seconds. 

RANDOM A-Z (A variation on A-Z improv)  Where in normal A-Z you must start each sentence with consecutive letters, here you have three people, one of whom is not constrained. Players A and B must follow the alphabet, and C can say
whatever she/he pleases. An actual scene must develop, with the random C changing the pattern of the alphabet. The other players must remember the scene, then, as well as the letters.

                        

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