Games Library
77 games — from foundational warm-ups to advanced long-form structures. Filter by tag, difficulty, or just search.
72 of 77 games
Yes, And
The foundational principle of improv, practiced as an exercise.
Zip Zap Zop
A fast-paced energy and focus warm-up to get a group connected.
Freeze Tag
Side-coaching game where anyone can tap in and transform the scene.
Conducted Story
A conductor shapes a group narrative one voice at a time.
Party Quirks
A host tries to guess the secret identities of their party guests.
New Choice
A coach forces players to redo their last choice - again and again.
Gibberish Translator
One player speaks gibberish; another translates in real time.
Emotional Transfer
Emotions pass between scene partners like a hot potato.
Five Things
Rapid-fire listing game that rewards speed over perfection.
Word Association
Players fire back associations instantly, with no hesitation allowed.
Last Line / First Line
Scenes end where they began - an exercise in circular storytelling.
Status Walk
Players physicalize high and low status through how they move.
Slow-Motion Race
A ridiculous slow-motion sports commentary exercise.
The Harold
The foundational long-form improv structure developed by Del Close.
Expert Interview
A 'specialist' answers interview questions about a ridiculous made-up field.
Emotional Symphony
A conductor orchestrates a group's emotions like instruments.
La Ronde
A chain of two-person scenes where one player carries forward each time.
Sound Ball
Players toss invisible balls of sound and movement around a circle.
Pan Left / Pan Right
A camera metaphor game that explores simultaneous parallel stories.
Back Line Narrative
A group creates a shared narrative standing in a line, one sentence at a time.
Bippity Bippity Bop
A classic focusing warm-up where the player in the centre fires commands requiring fast physical and verbal responses. Slow reactions mean a swap to the hot seat.
Big Booty
A rhythm-and-number circle game where the beat must never break. Mistakes rotate the group and renumber everyone, putting you one spot closer to the Big Booty position.
Red Ball
Players toss an imaginary red ball around the circle, building a fixed pattern. More objects are gradually added - each with its own name and physical weight - until the whole group is fully present.
Ninja
Players freeze in dramatic ninja poses and take turns making single fluid strikes at opponents' hands. Dodge or lose a hand. Lose both and you are out. Last ninja standing wins.
Splat
The player in the centre fires 'Splat!' at someone who must duck while their two neighbours draw finger-guns at each other. The slower one is out. Last two face a dramatic duel.
Woosh Bang Pow
An energy-pass circle game with three moves: Woosh sends energy sideways, Bang bounces it back, and Pow fires it across to anyone. Fast, noisy and great for waking a group up.
One Word Story
Players build a story together one word at a time. The challenge is listening so fully that each word arrives not as a deliberate choice but as the only possible next word.
Kitty Wants a Corner
One player in the centre tries to steal a corner while others silently negotiate to swap. A game of misdirection, timing and spatial awareness.
Mirrors
Two players face each other: one leads with slow, fluid movements while the other mirrors them exactly. The goal is to blur the line between leader and follower until the movement feels shared.
Colombian Hypnosis
One player leads with an open palm held near their partner's face. The partner keeps their face at a fixed distance from the hand no matter where it travels. A Spolin classic for physical presence and care.
Clap Pass
Players in a circle pass a single synchronised clap from person to person. The goal: each clap is perfectly simultaneous - one sharp sound, not two. Trains precision, eye contact and shared timing.
Counting Together
The group counts from one to twenty together, one number per person, with no pre-planning, no signals and no agreed order. Two voices at once means starting over from one.
Evolution
Players start as eggs and evolve through stages by winning Rock Paper Scissors. Each stage has its own sound and physical identity. Reach the top of the chain to win - then cheer on the rest.
Category Relay
Players rapid-fire items from a named category around the circle with no hesitation, repetition or deviation. Trains speed, word association and the instinct to commit to the first thing that comes to mind.
Hot Spot
One player stands in the centre and sings any song that comes to mind. When another player feels inspired, they tap the centre player out and start a new song triggered by a word or feeling from the last one.
Questions Only
Two players perform a scene using only questions. Any declarative statement, hesitation or repeated question structure sends you to the back of the queue. Sharp, funny and genuinely difficult.
Dubbing
Two players act out a scene in complete silence while two others provide all the voices from the side. The comedy comes from the collision between physical action and unexpected dialogue.
Forward / Reverse
Players perform a scene while a director controls the timeline: Forward plays it normally, Reverse winds it back in exact reverse, Pause freezes everything. Tests physical precision and listening.
Space Jump
A scene builds layer by layer as players freeze the action and jump in with a new character and location. Then each layer is peeled back in reverse until the original scene is restored.
Hitchhiker
Three players sit in an imaginary car. A hitchhiker enters with a strong character trait and everyone in the car adopts it. When a new hitchhiker arrives, everyone must switch to the new character completely.
Switch & Change
Four players, two in front and two behind. The front pair play a scene until the director calls Switch - they swap characters with each other - or Change, which brings the back pair forward to continue the scene.
Four Corners
Four players rotate through a square on three MC commands. Each pair owns a scene and picks it up exactly where they left off every time they return to the front.
What Are You Doing?
Player A mimes an activity. Player B asks 'What are you doing?' - Player A names a completely different activity, which Player B must immediately begin miming. The pace keeps increasing.
Half Life
A scene is performed and then replayed in exactly half the time, then half again, and again - until the entire scene is compressed into a single second of perfectly simultaneous action.
Genre Switch
Two players perform a scene and then replay it in a series of genres called by the audience. The plot stays the same; everything else - tone, physicality, pacing, language - transforms completely.
Dating Game
One player interviews three secret characters to find their ideal date. The characters must reveal their unusual identity through every answer without ever saying what they are.
Press Conference
One player holds a press conference knowing only that something has just happened. Through the journalists' questions they must figure out what that something was - and commit to it.
Superheroes
The world faces a crisis only superheroes can solve. Players enter one by one, each naming their own absurd superpower, until the full team is assembled. Then they solve it in reverse order.
Scenes from a Hat
The MC draws audience-written prompts from a hat one by one. Players jump up and instantly perform a short scene or response to whatever is read out.
World's Worst
The MC calls out a role or situation and players compete to demonstrate the absolute worst possible version of it. Quick, punchy and great for late in a show.
Alphabet Game
Two players perform a scene in which each line of dialogue must begin with the next letter of the alphabet, starting from a letter called by the audience. Z must be the emotional peak.
Living Newspaper
Players act out a news story suggested by the audience: the anchor reports it, field correspondents appear, experts are interviewed and adverts punctuate the broadcast - all improvised.
Four Square
Four players perform four different scenes simultaneously in the four corners of the stage. The director edits between them, building each one independently before finding the connections.
Emotional Quadrants
The stage is divided into four invisible quadrants, each assigned a different emotion. Wherever a player stands, they must inhabit that emotion completely - and it changes mid-sentence if they cross a line.
185
A rapid-fire joke format: '185 [profession]s walk into a bar...' Players take turns delivering punchlines as fast as possible. The setup is always the same; the punchlines are always improvised.
Party Party
Players attend a party, each secretly embodying a strong character. One player is the oblivious host who must figure out who everyone is before they can leave. A high-energy ensemble guessing game.
The Armando
One performer shares a true personal story. The ensemble listens, then builds a series of improvised scenes inspired by the themes, images and emotions in that story - not the story itself.
Deconstruction
An opening scene is established and then systematically taken apart: backstories are explored, time shifts forward and backward, secondary characters get their own scenes, and themes are examined from new angles.
Monoscene
The entire performance takes place in one location in continuous real time. No edits, no time jumps, no scene breaks. The ensemble must build an entire narrative arc without ever leaving the room.
The Movie
The ensemble improvises a complete film: opening credits, act one establishing the world, an act two complication, an act three climax and closing credits. Genre and title come from the audience.
Maestro
The Maestro controls a series of scenes with a baton, freezing, replacing and redirecting players at will. Players compete to stay on stage by keeping the audience engaged.
The Bat
A long-form format in which a single motif - a word, image or object from the opening scene - recurs through every subsequent scene, transforming in meaning each time it appears.
Montage
A series of loosely connected short scenes, monologues and group moments, all riffing on a single opening suggestion. No through-line is required - the form creates meaning through juxtaposition.
Close Quarters
A long-form format for small ensembles set in a confined space - a lift, a waiting room, a submarine. Characters are trapped together and must navigate the tension that creates.
Mind Meld
Two players free-associate simultaneously until they land on the exact same word. A deceptively simple exercise in shared thinking and group mind.
Circle Rhyme
A rhythmic warm-up where a shared chorus anchors each turn as players build a story line by rhyming line.
Samurai
A physical, vocal warm-up where players pass energy around the circle through synchronized sword-chops and sharp shouts.
Sensei
A circle warm-up of one-on-one encounters: players bow, throw simultaneous hand moves until they match, bow again, and pass the energy on.
Poets' Circle
Each player secretly receives an emotion and a word, then steps forward to perform an original two-verse poem built around them.
The Movie Director
A TV host interviews a movie director about their latest unreleased film — and whenever a scene is referenced, the side players act it out like a clip show.
Say What
Two players improvise a scene until someone calls "Say What?" — forcing their partner to rhyme their last line on the spot. Fail, and the next player in line steps in.
Entrances and Exits
Each player is given a trigger word by the audience. Whenever that word is spoken on stage, they must enter — or exit — and justify it within the scene.