Playing the "Half Life" Improv Game

Video Transcript

"Hi guys. We're learning some improv games today and now we're going to show you how to play a game called "Half Life". To play "Half Life", two or three improvisers are going to improvise a scene anywhere from two to three minutes. Once the scene has been completed, the host of the show is then going to say, "Now, let's see that scene in a minute fifty." And then the improvisers are going to do the exact same scene, compressing all the information to a minute thirty. Once that's been done, the host is then going to say, "Now let's see that scene in thirty seconds." Once again, all the action is compressed into thirty seconds. Ten seconds, and so on. Now since Danby and I have a limited amount of time to show you guys how to play this game, we're only going to do an initial scene that's about forty-five seconds long and then only compress it once into ten seconds. But the more times you can compress the scene, the more fun it is for the audience. So let's get a location suggestion from the audience. Let's assume we got a malt shop, a malt shop. So this scene takes place in a malt shop. "Hey Bobby, can I get one chocolate malted please?" "Sure thing, Tommy." "Thanks." "Alright, here we go. You want some more cream?" "Two whip creams!" "Cherry?" "Absolutely." "Here's your malt, kid." "Here's a nickel. Thank you." "Thank you!" "Delish." Alright, now we're going to go ahead and do that scene in ten seconds. Ready? "Hi, can I get a malt?" "Sure thing, Tommy." "Thanks. Two whip creams." "Okay!" "Cherry." "Thanks, Boop, here's a nickel." "Thanks." "Yay!" And that's how you play "Half Life.""