Blog-O-Ween! Spittin' Improv Game

"Find the game" your instructors tell you. "The game will make your scene a piece of cake," they state nebulously. What the hell is the game (aside from Triple H's nickname)? The game of the scene is... wait for it... literally whatever you make it. It's almost like you and your partner have total control of your scene and the game isn't something mystical. Oh my goodness!

Some improvisers spend years hunting for the game of their scenes. I am willing to bet that they managed to find their scenes' games many times during their search but they never realized it. Games can be sneaky and subtle and you can blow right past them if you're not attentive.

Have you done something fun in your scene? Maybe you should take one part of that fun thing and do it again. Now do it slightly differently. How about another time. How many times can you do this dumb thing and still enjoy it? That's your game! The game's only over when you and the audience decide you've had enough of it. Just keep doing dumb and fun stuff with slight variants on the theme.

A game in an improv scene is something fun that you can do several times. Somebody make a dumb pun? Find a way to do another dumb pun. Song lyrics used as a line? Keep slipping lyrics in until the audience can't take it anymore. Somebody can't hear out of one ear? Keep talking into that ear!

Just like there is no perfect improv scene, there is no perfect game for an improv scene. Do something fun and find a way to keep doing that fun thing. If what's fun doesn't seem to make sense, justify it. That's a game in and of itself! Games are everywhere, we're surrounded!

And to go back to my Triple H reference earlier, I'd like to remind everybody that 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GAME

AND HOW YOU PLAY IT