Improv Improv games for large groups
A class of eighteen is not a class of six with more people: waiting kills it. These games keep everyone on their feet, either because the whole group plays at once or because the turns come fast. They're what you reach for in a workshop, a school hall, or a first session where nobody knows anyone.
A to C Thinking
Given a word (A), don't use your first association (B) — voice your association's association (C). 'Beach → not sand → sunburnt tourists.' Trains original, specific offers.
Animal Work
Choose an animal and become it entirely: the rhythm, the breath, the centre of gravity, the way of looking. Then humanise it in stages — 75%, 50%, 25% — until only a person is left, with something animal inside.
Armando
A monologist — often a guest, not an improviser — tells a true story from their life, prompted by a word from the audience. The troupe then improvises scenes: not by re-enacting the anecdote, but by digging into what it woke up. The monologist returns several times — each new story launches another round of scenes, and the evening is built that way, between told truth and improvised fiction.
Big Booty
Rhythmic chanting circle. Each player has a number; on your turn chant your number plus someone else's without breaking rhythm. Mistakes send you to the end. Joyful chaos.
Bunny Bunny
One player does 'bunny bunny' hands at a neighbor who becomes the bunny, while both neighbors flap ears. High-speed silliness that kills self-consciousness.
Categories
A category is called (e.g. breakfast cereals). Going around the circle, each player names one item on the beat. Hesitate or repeat and the category changes. Trains fast access under pressure.
Character Walks
Walk the space leading with your nose, then chest, pelvis, knees. Let each walk generate a voice, an age, an opinion. Meet others and small-talk in character.
Crazy Eights
Shake out right arm 8 times, left arm 8, right leg 8, left leg 8, then 4 of each, 2, 1. End with a group cheer. Physical wake-up in ninety seconds.
Deconstruction
A long ordinary scene is played first — ten minutes, realistic, no games. Then it is taken apart: its moments are replayed, its unsaid things explored, a character's childhood is visited, a line is pushed to absurdity, and back again. The first scene becomes a mine the group digs into for the rest of the show.
Emotional Symphony
A conductor assigns each player an emotion-sound; conducting them like an orchestra — louder, softer, solos, all together. Pure permission to be loud and feel things.
Enemy & Defender
Everyone secretly picks an 'enemy' and a 'defender' in the group, then moves to keep their defender between themselves and their enemy. Chaos with a hidden pattern. Great to shake off the day.
Environment Build
One player enters an empty stage and uses one object; each next player adds an object with detail. Then play a short scene in the built space, respecting every placement.
Follow the Follower
The circle mirrors one leader, then leadership passes silently, then nobody leads and everybody mirrors everyone. The group moves as one organism. Deep group-mind builder.
Freeze Tag
Two players improvise a scene with big physicality. Anyone calls 'Freeze!', taps in, takes over an exact frozen pose, and starts a completely new scene justified by the positions. Keep it rotating fast.
Gibberish Circle
Pass a gibberish phrase around the circle; each player repeats what they heard and transforms it. Then hold short gibberish conversations in pairs. Frees players from clever words.
Give and Take Focus
The group moves in space; only one player may move (or speak) at a time. Take focus boldly, give it generously. Then apply to a group scene. Stagecraft fundamentals.
Group Counting (21)
Eyes closed or looking down, the group counts to 21 — one person per number, no order, no signals. If two speak at once, restart. Pure group listening.
Hot Spot
One player jumps to the center and sings a song; the group supports loudly. Anyone can tag them out with a new song at any moment. Teaches supporting your teammates and jumping in before you're ready.
Improvised Documentary
An invented documentary on a subject called by the audience: pieces to camera, restaged archive footage, experts who contradict each other, a witness in tears. The form alternates direct address with ordinary scenes, and draws its strength from its seriousness — the more convinced the contributors, the funnier the whole.
Improvised Movie
A whole film, in a genre asked for by the audience: opening titles, cuts, slow motion, close-ups, voice-over, final shot. One player can take the director's role and call the edits, the flashbacks, the changes of angle. It is these cinema codes, played by bodies, that make most of the pleasure.
Invocation (Opening)
An opening in four passes on a word from the audience: "what it is", "what it is not", "where you find it", "I am this thing". The group moves from describing to embodying, until it becomes the word itself. Ritual, serious, almost solemn — and often the front door to a deeper show than expected.
Kitty Wants a Corner
One player in the middle asks 'Kitty wants a corner'; others reply 'Ask my neighbor' while players silently swap places behind their back. The kitty steals an empty spot. Playground energy.
Laban Efforts
Eight movement qualities to travel through: punch, float, press, glide, flick, slide, wring, dab. Each player explores walking, then an everyday gesture (pouring a glass) in each quality. Then improvise a short scene, keeping YOUR quality.
Melody Mirror
In a circle, one player sings a short melodic phrase on a single syllable — the group repeats it exactly. The next player offers another. No words, no meaning to find: only a melody to hear and give back.
Name Six
A ball or beanbag passes around the circle while one player in the middle must name six items in a category before it returns to the starter. Fast, sweaty, fun.
Pass the Clap
In a circle, two players clap at the same time to pass a clap around. Aim for perfect synchronization. Speed up, reverse direction, send it across the circle.
Pattern Game (Opening)
An opening, not a show: from one audience word, the players chain free associations, with no scene and no character — a word, an image, a memory, a sentence. The group is not trying to be funny: it is looking for material. After five to eight minutes, three or four themes have imposed themselves, and the show's scenes will come out of them.
Questions Only
Players may only speak in questions. Statements get you buzzed out and replaced. Try to keep it a real scene rather than a tennis match of nonsense.
Samurai
One player 'strikes' at another across the circle with a loud 'HA!'; the target raises their sword with 'HA!' and their neighbors strike their sides with 'HA!'. Big voice, big body, zero hesitation.
Scenes From a Hat
Audience suggestions go in a hat: 'things you shouldn't say at a wedding', etc. Players step out in pairs and deliver quick hits. Fast, low-stakes, great show-opener.
Slide Show
One player narrates their holiday slide show; the others form each frozen slide as it's 'clicked'. Narrator justifies whatever the tableau shows. Alternate who narrates.
Sound and Movement Pass
Circle: one player crosses with a repeated sound+movement; the receiver copies it exactly, transforms it gradually into their own, and passes it on. Full-body commitment, zero judgment.
Sound Ball
Throw an imaginary ball around the circle. The thrower makes a sound; the catcher repeats it, then throws with a new sound. Add more balls, change sizes and weights.
Status Party
Everyone gets a playing card defining their social status (ace low, king high) and mingles at a party playing it. Then: wear it on your forehead so only others see it. Discuss how status physically feels.
The Bat
A long form played in complete darkness: the audience hears only voices, sounds, breathing. With no bodies and no eye contact, everything rests on sonic precision — an approaching step, a door, a whisper too close to an ear. The form manufactures a fear that light would make ridiculous.
The Harold
The founding long form, born with Del Close. One audience suggestion, a collective opening that mines it for themes, then three rounds of three scenes, separated by group games. In the first round the scenes have no apparent connection — in the second they move — in the third they meet — characters cross, ideas answer each other, and what looked scattered turns out to have been about the same thing all along.
The Improvised Musical
A full sung show: one suggestion, one story, and five to seven musical numbers — an opening that builds the world, the main character's want song, a duet, a reversal, a finale everyone joins. The story carries the songs, never the other way round: without a clear want, no chorus will save the scene.
Typewriter
An author at a desk narrates a story; players act it out, and can grab narrative control back through their choices. Author edits, skips, and heightens. Nice showcase for narrative players.
Walk Stop Jump Clap
Players walk the space obeying commands: walk, stop, jump, clap. Then reverse the meanings — 'walk' means stop, 'jump' means clap. Excellent brain-scrambler and focus reset.
Whoosh Bang Pow
Energy circle with commands: 'Whoosh' passes energy, 'Bang' blocks it back, 'Pow' sends it across the circle. Add your own commands as the group learns.
Word Association Circle
Around the circle, each player instantly says the first word triggered by the previous word. No judging, no planning. Variation: 'and that makes me think of…'
World's Worst
Step out and demonstrate the world's worst person in a given profession or situation. Quick hits; step out, hit it, step back. Great pace-changer.
Yes And Circle
In pairs or a circle, build a plan one sentence at a time, each starting with 'Yes, and…'. Then try the same with 'Yes, but…' and feel the difference die. The foundation of everything.
Yes Let's!
Anyone calls 'Let's all… paint a fence!' Everyone shouts 'YES LET'S!' and does it fully until someone offers a new activity. The purest yes-and drill there is.
Zip Zap Zop
Stand in a circle. Pass energy with a clap and point, saying 'Zip', then 'Zap', then 'Zop' in sequence. Eye contact and commitment matter more than speed. Great first warmup for any group.