Two improvisers prepare to start a scene.
An audience member gives them a one word suggestion as inspiration.
The improviser stage right must attempt to initiate the scene with a clear premise pulled from the suggestion.
The improviser stage left must INTERRUPT their partner before they finish their first line and cross-initiate with something emotional that they have also pulled from the suggestion. EXTRA POINTS if the emotion is directed at and about their scene partner.
The scene continues from this second initiation.
OBVIOUSLY, the interrupting element of this exercise is a slightly tongue-in-cheek component put there to show the students two ways the scene could go in a playful Sliding Doors style. It is very much not there to teach students to interrupt each other. But there is something viscerally exciting about smashing through the heady premise-driven initiation in order to get to something deeper and more connected.
Having said all that, if your students are not into the idea of interrupting their partners you can always separate the two scenes and have the premise version play out before rewinding and doing the organic version.
If you do teach the exercise as written then it is more than fine to honour whatever premise the first improviser manages to squeeze out before being interrupted.
For example:
AUDIENCE: Giraffe
LARRY: Well, ever since I’ve had my growth spurt, the other giraffes won’t …
AMY: I feel like you’re constantly reaching for something just out of your reach. And I’m nobody’s silver medal.
LARRY: Yeah. I keep craning my neck to find something better and that’s not fair to you. I see that now.
AMY: Then why are you looking over my shoulder even as you say that?
LARRY: I thought I saw a lion.
Etc.