I play video games (too much). A common convention of video games is “side quests.” In addition to whatever the main “story” is your hero has to achieve some other goals.
Like in “Red Dead Redemption 2” the main story is (basically) determining if you, a wild west bandit, should stand by your father figure / leader of the gang Dutch Van der Lind as he gets more reckless. But there’s side quests, like tracking fugitives for bounties, or collecting cigarette cards or hunting legendary animals.
Side quests are fun but also teach you something about the game. They force you to use a mechanic, or bring you to part of the map you might not go to otherwise.
So here’s some fun “side quests” to do in improv scenes that are fun and are also useful tools to know.
Say “Can I be honest with you?” and then be honest. This is my favorite one. I wrote about it last week.
Say “What’s this really about?” - assume there’s something deeper going on, and there will be.
Say “There’s something I need to tell you.” - makes your scene person, honest and important.
Enjoy the environment - object work that’s a bit more than just holding a drink
Open your eyes 20% too wide - Not sure if this really works but I enjoy watching it
Specifics - Use interesting specifics.
Missions
Here’s a way to practice these.
Have 5 people do a set. In addition, have five people watch as “judges.” The judges sit on the side. I take a deck of cards and divide it amongst the judges.
Each judge is assigned a mission. When they see a player accomplish a mission, they throw a card in the air and shout the name of their mission. Like the judge has been assigned the mission of “toys” (see below) they throw a card in the air and go “Toys!”
Here’s dome fun missions for the judges to look out for:
Toys - If an object work gets created by one person, and is then used by someone else, that’s a toy. Water fountains, a plate of hors d’oeuvres, a spyglass, a tin of mints.
Moment of silence - feels like indecision but it looks like confidence
Truthful moment - when someone says something that is surprisingly truthful
True love - Whenever one character shows kindness to another character in a vulnerable way. Not necessarily romantic, this can be love of friendship or family.
Non-round numbers - everyone’s been married for ten years, but what if it were 9? or 4 ?
Interesting choice - When someone makes an interesting choice
They’re fun.
Plugs, Ongoing
High Functioning - Ian Roberts and I do an hour of improv EVERY SATURDAY 7pm at the UCB Annex. See this video for Ian and I showing you where the UCB Annex is.
Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About Comics - Comic book podcast, hosted by my brother Kevin and I. We are going over some John Byrne-created issues of Fantastic Four from the 1980s.
Clubhouse Fridays - WGIS’ weekly improv show. Fridays 7pm at The Clubhouse. Free!
The World’s Greatest Improv School: The improv school I run with Jim Woods and Sarah Claspell. We’ve got classes online, in LA and even a few in NYC!
How to Be The Greatest Improviser On Earth - My improv book, available at Amazon. Kindle or print. It’s a hodge-podge of advice I wrote in 2016 about doing improv. If you’re broke and want a free PDF version just email me and I’ll send it over.
I really like this! Such a fun way of drilling it
I was talking to my teenager about the non-round numbers. I said that if I wanted to state a funny number if too many tacos to eat, saying 9 tacos is funnier than 10 tacos and they said they seen the same. So I said, “well, you couldn’t be more wrong.” And they said “I could be nine wrong.” And we all had a good laugh.