Bored with your current improv format? Here are seven new formats that I’m giving to you for free.
A normal Harold but every scene in the first beat ALSO has three beats within it. In the second beat, you triple that, every scene has at least nine beats, with three beats relating to each of the three initial beats of the original scene. In the third beat, everyone has a nice lie down. Additionally, every character is called Harold. If you like The Harold, then you’re going to love The Mega Harold.
In this form, you are only allowed to play your own parents. All scenes must be uncomfortably sexual.
An improv format based on the popular children’s play, The Nativity. It’s well liked by improvisers because it’s so light touch and flexible. The first scene is completely freeform, just get a location from the audience. The only rule is that at some point a magical flying person must appear and tell one of the characters that they are going to have a baby that will be the salvation of the world.
A format inspired by the quintessential French pastry. The form begins with a base scene that informs everything else in the piece. Really focus on this first scene, the more nuanced you can make it, the more successful the eventual show will be. Like it’s namesake, a good Croissant has many layers, each scene is a rumination and philosophical deconstruction of the last. Also, everyone must speak in a ridiculously overblown French accent and be slathered in butter.
Only one improviser is allowed to endow characters and give new information. To facilitate this, that improviser comes on in every scene. Interestingly, Steamrollers are often performed accidentally in improv theatres around the world.
A small table of knickknacks is set up next to the stage, basically anything that the cast have lying around the house. The improvisers then sit in silence until someone buys one of the items. At this point, they instantly spring into action, doing a scene with the purchased item as the inspiration. After this, they lapse into silence again until another sale is made. Not just an excellent improv format, but a brilliant way to spring clean the house and make some cash.
In this format, if an improviser starts to speak, they must continue speaking for the rest of the show as a stream of consciousness without pause or recourse to grammar or punctuation. Similarly, if another improviser also starts to speak, they aren’t allowed to stop, merely adding to the cacophony. Characters can dissolve, reappear, combine with others or become mythical figures or figurative constructs. Plot and indeed any semblance of linear storytelling are routinely abandoned.
Interestingly, Finnegan’s Wakes are often performed accidentally in improv theatres around the worlHAHA no one saw that coming!!
Please use any of these forms freely and without attribution.