Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide: Improv Surival Guide, #1
    The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide: Improv Surival Guide, #1
    The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide: Improv Surival Guide, #1
    Ebook53 pages32 minutes

    The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide: Improv Surival Guide, #1

    By Philip Geurin

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    When I first saw improv on stage I *wanted* it. I had never seen anything or anyone so powerful. Envy, desire, and lust filled me. I was terrified and delighted by the mere *thought* of going on that stage. And boy oh boy I wanted that stage. I was determined. I was hooked.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Geurin
    Release dateMay 12, 2017
    ISBN9781386418634
    The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide: Improv Surival Guide, #1

    Related to The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide

    Titles in the series (1)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Table Top Roleplaying For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Artistic Vision

      Jan 27, 2020

      Artistic Vision
      13 min read

    • Article

      IMPROV Your Life

      Oct 25, 2022

      Tom Young is an improvisor, founding member of The Same Faces improv group, and an organiser of The British Improv Project. british improvproject.com Emma Hackett is a wellbeing coach who works with people who are chronically stressed, drawing on p

      6 min read

    • Article

      Meteoric RISE

      Oct 12, 2022

      Meteoric RISE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Scene On Screen

      Jun 2, 2022

      Scene On Screen
      6 min read

    • Article

      What Lies Beneath

      Dec 25, 2019

      What Lies Beneath
      6 min read

    • Article

      8 Ways To Sketch For Animation

      Mar 20, 2020

      Quite often as artists, we fall into the trap of copying our subjects line for line, shape for shape, and render everything out exactly the way we see them based on our knowledge of light, form, composition and so on. When we’re done, we stand back f

      3 min read

    • Article

      Blood Ties

      Oct 30, 2019

      Blood Ties
      4 min read

    • Article

      Miss Congeniality!

      May 25, 2020

      Miss Congeniality!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Improvising Techniques

      Aug 8, 2022

      You are an egg waiting at an El train stop.” I’ve never been an egg before, so I wasn’t sure how to respond. Am I scrambled or sunny side up? If I am vertical, I must be hard-boiled. Another student volleyed the suggestion in the improv class. Saying

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Real Deal

      Nov 25, 2020

      The Real Deal
      3 min read

    • Article

      Knock At The Cabin

      Jan 12, 2023

      Knock At The Cabin
      6 min read

    • Article

      Phoenix Rising

      Oct 16, 2020

      Phoenix Rising
      10 min read

    • Article

      Offstage

      Mar 25, 2019

      Offstage
      3 min read

    • Article

      Achieving The Impo ssible

      Jan 31, 2024

      Achieving The Impo ssible
      12 min read

    • Article

      What I Wish I’d Known: From Judi Dench To Josh O’Connor, Theatre’s Biggest Stars Share Their Advice

      Jan 15, 2021

      Breaking into the theatre industry has never been easy — but right now it’s never been harder. We launched the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund, in association with TikTok and in partnership with the National Youth Theatre, to try and ensure that

      8 min read

    • Article

      Bookish

      May 23, 2020

      Even outside famed improv theater troupes like The Second City, The Groundlings, or the Upright Citizens Brigade, actors use improvisational exercises and games to expand their understanding of a character or to loosen up before a performance. But wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      Offstage

      Sep 25, 2019

      Offstage
      3 min read

    • Article

      What We Learned From Jesse Armstrong About The Future Of Succession

      Dec 20, 2021

      The season three finale threw up as many questions as answers – including whether Logan is chugging maca root smoothies to boost his sperm count in order to usurp his perennially disappointing offspring. Jesse Armstrong, Succession’s creator and lead

      3 min read

    • Article

      Get The Write Idea

      Jun 1, 2023

      Write about a traditional roast dinner. What are the ingredients of a perfect Sunday dinner? Does your recipe for a Sunday meal consist only of the dishes on the table, or are there other ingredients that come into play? Who will be eating the Sunday

      2 min read

    • Article

      THE World’s A STAGE

      Oct 18, 2022

      THE World’s A STAGE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Fall Forward

      Feb 3, 2021

      I’VE found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Nothing. Nelson Mandela said: “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that’s less than the one you’re capable of living.” I’m sure in your experience

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The very Very VERY Practical Improv Survival Guide - Philip Geurin

      CHAPTER ONE

      Introduction

      Copying works in everything except improvisation. When I first began, I would watch someone create a fantastic scene, get up there, try it, and fail. In anything else we can watch another do the activity, try to repeat it, adjust, see the difference, and iterate. Watch a tennis serve, try it, watch where it goes, repeat. But in improv and writing how the heck can we do that!? Every scene is different!

      This stumped me until I heard a side-coach telling players kinds of things to do: Get closer, look them in the eye, say nothing, tell us how you feel and doing those things worked. Thats a big deal. There are kinds of things to do? That meant there is a language underneath the surface. Improvisers are communicating things without saying them, and the actual wording doesn't matter much. Every line, every gesture is a repeatable, classifiable move like a layup or pass in basketball.

      The moves are hard to see and label at first, but like learning any new word - once you learn it you see it everywhere. Joining, complementing, adding, gifting, landing, denying, dropping, embodying, miming, puppeting, editing, painting, inviting, labeling, othering, offering, bridging, hedging, exploring, heightening, assigning, promising, continuing a pattern, raising status (dominating), lowering status (submitting), shutting down, attacking, and normalizing, changing, reacting, joking, and defining are all types of moves the improvisers do. Then the characters have tactics they can do like seducing, bargaining, arguing, stroking, joking, coaxing, bullying, humiliating, taunting, generating rapport, communing, detaching, redirecting, or relating.

      Everything we say and do can be labeled and therefore understood. I cannot overemphasize the power of the label. If you know the word for a kind of action, you can choose to do it or to avoid doing it! Before you know what kind of move you're doing, there's no way to adjust or correct it. It's just 'try again' and you can say or do something that feels completely different, but it could still easily be the same move. Once we can see the language behind each action, we can begin to copy the greats we see. 

      (By the way, this language is immensely useful in understanding how we interact with others in life, too.)

      CHAPTER TWO

      The Question

      Sometimes a scene looks and feels great, and sometimes it doesn't. It behaves unpredictably, like magic, and many people allow themselves to believe just that, magic. But we know better. History is full of phenomena that were once magic, and then became sciences. The sky, air pressure, fire, electricity, the human body, the human mind, and humor. The goal of research is to understand in order to predict and control. That's the goal of this book. To reliably create great scenes and understand why they worked. Now, many will be appalled by

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1