Learning to be spontaneous at an improv weekend
A few years ago I attended an improv weekend with my mate Adam Harris who is in the same business mastermind group. If you have seen Whose Line Is It Anyway? on TV in the 1990s in the UK, you’ll know what to expect. Fifty of us attended workshops to learn how to do improv, or do it better. We had a lot of fun.
On the Saturday night we all had a go at performing in front of everyone else. I was invited up with a lovely guy called Alex. We got a suggestion from the audience, Alex knelt down and started polishing, and then I said the first thing that came into my head, and we went on from there. I recorded the audio on my iPhone and dropped in some photos…
Tom played the keyboards all weekend. He is amazingly skilled. He added emotion to a scene we were making up, or coming up with a reggae, operatic, rap, disco, pop, etc tune for us to make up lyrics to on the spot!…
For one exercise I was paired with a guy called Owen. He was to perform a simple mime, then I had to say “I ____ you” and he was to respond with “I know”. We’d repeat this then develop the scene from there. Watching what Owen was doing, I said, “I forgive you.”…
I recognised one of the other participants, Neil Ben, a TV producer, who I got to know many years ago, but had seen in a long time…
Lunchtime…
The Saturday night party…
The singing workshop…
Jim Shields, far right, the guy who took most of the photos on this page, takes a selfie as Matt, Kirsty and I make up a song on the spot…
Dancing in Kayleigh’s workshop…
Tom pointed to each person in turn for them to sing the next line of the tune Tom played on his keyboard – without missing a beat! 🙂 …
I hope the above photos inspire you to find an improv group in your town and pop along, or to search for some great improv on YouTube. 🙂
