How to Learn Improv Rules and Structure

If you're interested in acting or developing your extemporaneous speaking skills, this will help you understand the three basic rules of improv acting and will show you how to put a scene together and build one yourself.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Understand the first rule: the game. In any improv scene, there are three basics: the game, heightening, and editing. The first (and some argue, the most important) rule of improv is finding the game. The game can also be referred to as "the joke" of the scene, but calling it a mere "joke" can limit the possibilities of what the game might be. Here is a simple example: a man and woman start an improv scene. The woman says "Man, did I have a bad day." The man gets excited and says, eagerly "Tell me all about it! I love hearing about absolute suffering!" This gets a laugh from the audience because it is not the expected response, and here we have found a game.

2. The game is: this man derives an odd (and demonstrative) pleasure and glee from the suffering around him. Truly great improv scenes are almost always simple in their construct. Less is more. When you find that first laugh in the scene, that's when the two performers need to intuitively turn to each other and say, "Aha, we've got something here. What is it?" Take that one game and cultivate it. Explore it. Heighten it.

3. Understand the second rule: heightening. If you are doing a long-form improv then the opportunities for heightening are obvious. In a "harold" you return to the same game three times, giving you an automatic opportunity to heighten. If you are doing just one scene on its own, then the heightening must occur within the scene itself. Either way, the only way to top that first laugh you got from the initial game is to heighten the game. Here is an example: After the initial exchange between the woman and man, where she tells him that she's having a bad day and he delights in her torment, the woman squints and looks into the distance, saying, "Oh my gosh! Is that a homeless child begging for money over there?" The man scrambles over to look for himself and squeals, with joy "Yes! It is! How exquisite! I will treasure this moment for the rest of my life!" The pain and anguish of a child begging for money is obviously worse than someone simply having a bad day, therefor the man's pleasure in this catastrophe must be greater, as well. This heightening of both the given circumstance (by the woman) and the reaction (by the man) will, if played truthfully, garner an even bigger laugh from the audience.

4. Understanding the third rule: editing. In a "harold," the scenes are usually edited by another member of the "harold" team who is not in the scene. In standalone scenes, often the editing is done by the actors in the scenes. Either way, editing is the often most overlooked rule of improv. Many a funny scene has lumbered on for far too long, making the audience forget why they ever laughed at either actor in the first place.

5. When in doubt, USE THE RULE OF THREE. It always works, and it will always leave the audience with enough, that they will want for more. Here is an example: After the woman points out to the man that there is a homeless child begging for money and the man delights in the despair of the child, the woman then, overtaken by grief from seeing the child combined with the despair of her own day, turns to the man and says, "I can't bear to walk this wretched earth for another hour. I'm going home to end it all." The man smiles, about to explode with delight, and says, "Do you think maybe I could come and take pictures?!" This is the right place to end the scene. This example presents a very short scene, and not all scenes need to be so short or simplistic, but with this particular joke, there is no where else to go after this last heightening. The more complex the game, the longer the potential scenes, generally speaking, but don't feel bad if your scene is short. Better a short, funny scene, than a long, boring one.

6. Be on the same page. The world of any improv scene is decided upon by both actors in the scene. Certain improv forms dictate the exact world that the scenes live in (i.e. improvised movie, improvised musical, improvised reality TV show), but when those parameters are not preset, be aware of where the other actor is going. If you have an impulse, act on it, but don't squash another actor's actions just because you thought of a funny laugh line while you were waiting to go on. Comedy is fueled by laughter, but think of the long-term laughs you'll get from planting the seed of a game in the audience's mind at the beginning of a scene, letting the game grow and heighten, and harvesting the biggest laugh of all at the end of that scene when the last heightening catches the audience off guard. These are the most rewarding scenes of all.