I start every improv session that I run with word association.  I love it.

Here’s the way I run word association:

          Everyone is in a circle (and eye contact is highly encouraged)

The person with the focus ball* (a juggle ball so it doesn’t roll when dropped) starts by saying anything at all, and throws the focus ball to another player in the circle

who catches the ball and responds with the first thing that comes to mind, then throws the ball to another player

Here are the instructions I give:

You can repeat the word given to you, 

You can say gibberish, grunt, or groan
You can say a whole phrase

Please respond to the last thing said

*sometimes we use the whole body, using energy and emotion, movement and sound to throw focus instead of using a ball

notice I said
respond to the last thing said.  Honor the person before you by responding to what was just said, not what was said two words ago, because you have a clever response for that.  Your response should be the first thing–not the second thing, not the third thing that comes to mind when you hear the response of the person before you.  The more immediate and honest one’s connection to one’s response, however idiomatic (inside jokey, only means something to you) it might be, the better.  Even better still if we were all thinking the same thing.

It’s ok to say “what?” if you didn’t hear it and it’s also ok to say a phrase like “I don’t know” when you respond to a word you don’t recognize.

I strongly encourage people to respond to whatever they think was said, whether it was ‘misheard’ (like “salsa”/”seltzer”) or a word unknown to you or something in a foreign language.  What does that word (or sound–if it doesn’t sound like a word) remind you of?

If I notice players that have a habit of saying “um” before everything, I will bring out the “um” ball.

“This purple ball is the ‘um’ ball,” I say.  “You must say ‘um’ before anything else with the purple ball.  The gray ball is regular, no ‘um.'”

Then we pass both balls around simultaneously, now extra aware of when we say, “um,” which is good.

Two balls at the same time is good for a couple of reasons–it really limits your ability to plan your response and it usually provides an opportunity to talk about making sure your partner is ready to receive your communication; throwing to someone before that person sees you usually means a dropped ball.

In an actual improv scene, performing some action where your partner can’t see you will undermine the reality you are establishing together.

After we’ve done that for a bit, tossing the ball randomly, I like to go in order of the circle for several rounds and then back out of the associations.

By that I mean we start with the last response and go backward through each association saying, “I said Y because you said X,” until we reach the beginning of the rounds again.

It’s ok–in fact encouraged–for the entire group to work together to reconstruct the path when someone is stumped.  Usually it doesn’t have to be encouraged and the group will help spontaneously.

If we have to–as a last resort when the group cannot complete the path backward–we start over with the first person and word and try to reconstruct the original path to the point we got stumped.  It never fails.  Maybe once it failed.

The more glib or silly (vs personal and connected) your associations, the harder it is to backtrack.  It’s just a fact, not a judgment.

Occasionally a word-at-a-time narrative will develop spontaneously.  If we’ve done enough free association I will move on to various word-at-a-time exercises when this happens.  If it happens early in the free association, I let the narrative run its course back, as it inevitably does, into free association again, saving it for later.

I have on occasion played “pass the clap” in big groups around the circle while the word association focus ball went around randomly.  More activity means less planning, which is the goal.

1. The audience erupt (positively or otherwise) YAY/BOO = GET OUT NOW!
2. This following sequence in a scene : Statement/Repetition/(Tilt or Return)
   • a. Statement/Phrase/Movement  AND
   • b. Repetition (Pattern/Heighten) AND
   • EITHER c. Tilt(Break Pattern/Surprise) OR d. Return to the beginning
3. Fellow players are stuck; they can always come back to the same scene if they want to
4. There is information you want to add to a scene (tag outs, swinging door, split)

A little detail about each:

1. This is the absolute best time to edit.  If the audience screams and applauds or groans and boos, the scene has peaked.  Edit while you are at the top of the dramatic/comedic energy arc because it will take time to build energy again.  Editing at the right moment will propel you into your next scene.

2. It sounds complicated, but I think we all are familiar with this narrative structure:

Someone says something (“We’re out of chips!”) or does something (opens a door) and then it gets repeated in some varied fashion (“We’re also out of dip!”  or now the person opens a window or a drawer).

This can continue for some time, creating a pattern, exploring or heightening what has come before.

The chips person lists other items missing from the kitchen and a fight ensues between players about grocery shopping responsibilities.

The person opening items discovers something about their scene partner by finding something in one of the drawers that was opened.

At some point–there will be a break in the pattern or it will return to the beginning somehow.

Ideally there will be some genuine emotional interaction between the players onstage, a change of some kind, but when some time has passed and action has happened and you hear or see the original statement (or some close variation) this is a kind of resolution and the scene is over; time to edit.

The chips scene may resolve when the second player storms angrily out of the scene after the fight and the first player says, “IF YOU”RE GOING SHOPPING, MAKE SURE TO GET CHIPS!”

The person opening all drawers, cupboards, windows, and doors at the top of the scene maybe begins closing everything that was opened.

My favorite example that illustrates this is a Harold game I saw some good friends play:

The suggestion was “chainsaw.”

After the opening and first round of scenes, one player initiated the game by moving downstage center and acting like he was starting a chainsaw.

After a few moments of trying to get it started (and no one joining him onstage), he started the chainsaw and began sawing down a tree (all space work, no actual tree or prop) next to him, still alone onstage.

Immediately, a player from the back line joined him by standing in for the tree, standing tall with arms at his sides right where the first player was sawing.  Then the tree player toppled over.  This is the statement: sawing down trees with the chainsaw.

The first player immediately moved on and began sawing at another tree, immediately embodied by another player from the back line, who toppled similarly.  This is the repetition/pattern.

The ‘lumberjack’ moved on to the third tree, immediately played by the last player from the back line, and began to saw.  This time, the ‘tree’ toppled onto the ‘lumberjack.’  This is the tilt or break in the pattern.  Scene over.

3.  This is good teamwork and being part of an ensemble.  You know when your fellow players are struggling to find the scene.  Edit and save them even if you don’t have an idea.  Don’t leave them out there to struggle.  If, for some reason, the players you edited did not feel like they were struggling, they can easily return to the scene at any time.

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Ultimately the edit is about moving the story forward–in the most basic narrative sense, like saying “…and then this happened”–which would, in fact, be a great edit.

To see people in different settings: “At home-at work-at play”, the key player in each scene maybe playing a different status each time.  The high-power (#1 at work) CEO is perhaps hen-pecked (#2) at home and vies for the #1 position with his wife.  The same CEO is low on the totem-pole with his frat buddies (at play) and the butt of all their jokes.

To  support/undermine, make something unbelievable real or show something to be false.  Is that a BLOCK? No, but that is a good question and a good discussion to have.

Example: A scene begins between two players and one asks, “How was last night?” (not a great opening, but still–it’s just an example).  The second player may respond, “Uh, I just sat around at home.”

Someone from the back line announces “CUT TO LAST NIGHT AT HOME” and all the players from the back line rush the stage for a raging party and then immediately “CUT BACK” (to the original two players).

First player says, “Oh, I heard you had a party.”  “CUT BACK TO THE PARTY” and the party host tells everyone “DON’T TELL DAN ABOUT THE PARTY” and then “CUT BACK”–you get the idea.  We learn that the party host is lying to his friend.

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The short answer is: take focus away from the ongoing scene by taking the stage or (if self-editing) moving away from the current blocking of the ongoing scene.

Eye contact is important when you are in a scene.

If you enter a scene (probably an instinct to edit), you will look at the players currently in the scene.

To edit: be bold (not necessarily loud–just don’t stall or dawdle) and address no one in the scene you are editing except to sweep them away if necessary.

Someone on the back line will support you and join you in your new scene.

Here is a list of edits and explanations I came across that is pretty comprehensive:

Though always when I teach ‘standard’ Harold games like Slide Show or Ad Campaign, I would tell students:

“Now I never want to see those games again”

These are a template and the variations are, I think anyone who improvises would agree, only limited to our imagination.

That said, here are some tried-and-true, tested and affirmed, cliché-level in their ubiquity:

1. Sweep/Transition (clap? eh)

2. Tag Out/Tag BACK IN (La Ronde/Slacker)

3. Swinging Door

4. Split Scene/Ajacent Scene

5. Directed Edit (Someone announces a set up, “meanwhile, back at the ranch…” “let’s see that dinner date” just mentioned, “do you want to see this outcome or this one?”, etc.)

6. Travel/Time Dash

I have a secret: I almost always do vanilla 1, 2, and 6.  And that’s a shame.  Shame on me.

Because 3, 4, and 5 are really great too, though 5 can become occasion to pimp other players into doing something they might not want…which can be really fun.

If the scene focuses on its support (whoever enters the scene after it has begun), it is likely in need of an edit and the entrance of the support was when the edit should have taken place.  If two people are in a scene and they indicate it is in a bar, the back line might become bartenders and other patrons.  A scene that is working will continue between the two original players and just enjoy the support.  A scene that is faltering will become about the bartender and other patrons.  Time to edit.

Now–sometimes you actually want to enter a scene, to support the scene that is going on without taking focus.  That’s going to be–generally, to generalize, I’m generalizing here—usually lower energy and more upstage vs. downstage in front of the ongoing scene.