It's important to get your students out of their seats (and their comfort zones) every once in a while. Below are some tried and tested improv games that have worked well in our classes. Contact one of Flatiron's lead teachers if you want a demo.

• Alphabet game (26+ students)
  • Needs instructions.
• Alien-Tiger-Cow
  • "Fun game to warm up and to teach players some Chivalry. Everyone in a circle. There are 3 things a player can be: An alien: hold you index fingers up next to your head, as little antennas and say 'Bleeb bleeb', bending inwards into the circle; A cow: bend forward, hold your right hand on your tummy and go 'Moooo' A tiger: push your right hand forward, imitating a claw and roar. On your sign, every player decides to become one of the three. The idea is for everyone to become the same, which obviously won`t be the case, the first time. We re-do this until everyone is in sync.
• Bowl of Spaghetti
  • Needs instructions.
• Bibbity Bibbity Bop
  • Have students stand in a circle with one student in the middle. The middle student's objective is to "trip up" some student in the outer circle by challenging them in a variety of ways while making direct eye contact. They can accomplish this using the three following commands:
    • If the inner student says “Bibbity-Bobbity-Bop”, the outer circle student they're addressing must say “Bop” before they finish
    • If the inner student says “Bop”, the outer circle student must stay silent
    • If the inner student says "Elephant", they start counting from one to ten. By the time they reach ten, the student in the outer circle should make a "trunk" by plugging their nose with one arm and tucking their arm between that gap. The students directly to the right and left of this "truck" should form the ears.
• Big Booty
  • Everyone in a circle. One player is Big Booty. The others, going clockwise, are numbered: 1, 2, 3 and so on. Now Big Booty establishes a 4-beat rhythm, saying Big Booty, Big Booty, Big Booty (followed by a rest) - repeat this until everyone got the rhythm. The game then goes as follows: Big Booty passes the buck to someone else, saying Big Booty to 7 (say) (this takes 2 beats, one for saying Big Booty and one for saying to 7). Number 7 then passes in 2 beats to, say number 2, saying '7 to 2'. It then continues until someone makes a mistake: if and when that happens everyone says (in 2 beats) 'Oh Pooooop', after which we repeat Big Booty Big Booty Big Booty ( + rest on 4th beat), twice. After that, the player that made the mistake becomes Big Booty, and everyone`s number changes. New Big Booty starts the game again.
• Big Wind Blows
  • Instructions here
• Category game (pattern/memory)
  • Everyone in a circle. Pick a category (e.g. make of cars, girls names, kinds of food, kinds of plants, whatever). First person states an example of the category, and points to someone else. Keep pointing. That someone else does the same, with a different item in the category, and so forth, until everyone points at one person. Then repeat the pattern. Make eye contact when passing your item to the next person. Drop the pointing arms when everyone is comfortable and the series is collectively memorized. Then do the same with a second category, and make sure the pointing pattern is different. Repeat till everyone is comfortable. Then do the same exercise, without pointing, and running the 2 categories at the same time. Add a third, fourth category if you wish. No pointing arms any more! The idea is not only to listen for the item right before yours in the series (so you know when it`s your turn), but also to make sure that when you pass an item to someone else, that someone else actually hears you. If not, then repeat your item, to ensure the series does not get broken."
• Chair Game
  • Active, physical engaging variation on "musical chairs"; can entertain a group for hours
  • Place chairs in a tight circle, with the chairs touching each other.
  • Have 1 person stand in the middle - there is now a vacant chair
  • The person in the middle tries to sit in an empty seat
  • The group prevents the person by someone moving seat, creating a new vacant seat
  • The game moves fast -- due to the strategic "bum-shuffling" by the group, the place of the empty seat is in constant movement, like a Mexican wave, changing directions, tempting, then moving fast - or instantly appearing on the other side if a bold cross is made by someone
  • Eventually the person in the middle makes a successful lunge for a seat (it can get very dramatic), the group member who was aiming for the seat (group consensus) now goes in the middle
  • And so on....
• Concentration
  • Players gather in circle and begin same rhythm all together. A common rhythm is clapping twice and tapping thighs twice. Once everyone is on same rhythm group picks out a category such as girl's names, colors, cities etc. One person begins saying a word that matches the category but they can only speak when they are tapping their thighs. Then the next person must go at the same rhythm. There are no repeats or hesistations. When a student messes up they are out until one winner remains. The rhythm is the most important part of the game.
• Crazy eights
  • Players form a circle. In unison, everyone lifts the right hand, shakes it quickly, and counts to 8. They repeat this with the left hand, then the right foot (kicking it in the air while balancing on the left) and finally with the left foot. Everyone immediately repeats the pattern, except this time the players only count up to 7. In each round, the players count up to one less number, until everyone is quickly waving their entire body shouting "1! 1! 1! 1!" Then everybody cheers.
• Couch Game (great for reinforcing names after a couple days)
  • Instructions here.
• Donuts
  • This is a movement game consisting of many rounds.
  • In each round, there is a pair of "doughnuts" while everyone else is jelly. While the doughnuts know who each other are, no one else knows. There are two ways to end a round:
    • The two doughnuts can end a round by making an arm ring around a jelly.
    • Jelly can end the round by accusing another student of being a doughnut.
  • Make a clear area for students to walk around in. Have students close their eyes then tap two students on the shoulder. They will be the "doughnuts". Have them open their eyes and acknowledge each other, then close their eyes. Then have everyone open their eyes and start to move about the space.
  • If an accusation is made and the accuser is right, the doughnut is out. If the accusing jelly is wrong, they are out.
  • If a jelly gets "doughnuted", the jelly is out.
  • Whoever gets out of the last round gets to select the doughnuts for the next round.
  • As students get out each round, make the territory smaller and smaller.
• Enemy and protector
  • (aka: Assassin/Protector, et al.) Players begin walking around the room (need a fairly open space for this one). Each person secretly chooses one person to be their Nemesis and one to be their Defender. When whoever is leading the warm-up yells go everyone must try and keep their Defender between them and their Nemesis at all times.
  • Similarly, have each student pick one student, then a second student, and have them attempt to make an equilateral triangle where their two selected students make two of the three corners and they make the final corner.
• Evolution(Egg/chicken/velociraptor/immortal)
  • Have the group in a circle. Everyone starts out as an egg and places their hands above their head and together so that they look like an egg. When you say go each person will find another egg. Once they found that person they will then RPS (Rock, Paper , Scissors). The loser stays an egg and the winner becomes a chicken, placing their arms as wings and making chicken noises. The chicken then looks for another chicken while the egg looks for another egg. When you win as a chicken you become a velociraptor, placing your hands out and roaring like a velociraptor. If you lose as a chicken you drop back down to an egg. Velociraptors then find other velociraptors, where they will play to become the immortal people. Immortals put their hands over their heads like superman and look for others like them. If you lose as a dinosaur you go back to being a chicken, looking for other chickens. If an immortal person loses to another immortal they go back to a dinosaur, and if they win they stay as immortals.
• FizzBuzz
  • Circle up. Go around the circle counting off, replacing any multiples of 3 with "Fizz", multiples of 5 with "Buzz", and multiples of 15 with "FizzBuzz". If you make a mistake, you're out.
• Fortunately, Unfortunately
  • Circle up. First person starts a story with one line. Next person adds a line starting with "fortunately". Next person adds a line starting with "unfortunately". Go back and forth.
• Group of Three
  • Fun warm-up. One player offers something, e.g. I am a slice of cheese. 2nd player jumps in and adds something to the offer, e.g. I am a slice of bread. 3rd player jumps in and again adds to the setup, e.g. I am a pickle. First player leaves, taking one of the others with him. Restart from the remaining player, who restarts by saying what/who she is.
• Guess the person’s expression
  • Needs instructions
• Hand Slap Name Game
  • Circle up. Everyone holds hands out. One person in the center. Someone starts by saying another person's name - that person has to say someone elses name before the person in the middle slaps their hands.
• Human Knot (Refactoring)
  • As a team, untangle yourselves to form a full circle again.
  • Arrange everyone to be in a large circle. When you say “go”, everyone needs to join hands with another person across the circle.
  • The object of the game is to work together to untangle everyone to become a large circle. Everyone’s hands must be joined with the other person at all times. This may require some outside help/consulting and coordination, as well as a bit of climbing, etc. This game requires people to be close to each other.
  • If the group is unable to fully untangle themselves after 10 or 15 minutes, let one person unlink and rejoin their hand with someone else’s (the other two people need to join hands). The group can strategize and decide who they’d like to unlink/rejoin.
• Interest Bingo
  • Needs instructions
• Mind Meld
  • Mind Meld is played in pairs, and, at heart, it is a free association game. The goal is for two improvisers to collaboratively free associate together until they reach the same word. It begins by one person saying "one," the second person saying "two," and then both improvisers saying "three" together. They then say anything at all - a person, place, idea, concept, phrase, anything. After processing these two things, we repeat the one, two, three and try to use the two previously stated things to arrive at a third, common one. You free associate together, attempting to reach the same word for the next beat of the exercise.
    • Example
      • Player 1: One
      • Player 2: Two
      • Players 1 and 2: Three!
      • Player 1 (at the same time as Player 2): France
      • Player 2 (at the same time as Player 1): Monument
• Name-Action (Good for day 1)
  • Circle up. Each person introduces themselves to the group with a name, an adjective (that starts with the same letter of their name), and an action to go with that adjective. For example, "Silly Sally" (with an associated gesture). Once everyone has gone around and introduced themelves in this way, you 'pass the focus around' by saying/doing your intro and then doing someone else's. The person who's intro you just did then does the same - their own and someone elses. Do this until everyone has been called.
• Ninja Star
  • Students stand in a circle. Each creates a Samurai “sword” by putting their hands together, palm-to-palm. Raising his/her “sword” above his/her head, an improviser lets out a classic ninja yell and brings his/her hands down, “stabbing” across the circle at another improviser. When the first Samurai has their “sword” up, the other Samurais to his/her right and left have an opportunity to use their own “swords” to stab the first Samurai’s soft underbelly. They will let out a yell when they do so, bringing their arm-swords across the first Samurai’s belly in a lateral motion (they do not actually touch the person, just cut across). Once the “stab” has been passed, the receiver will raise their sword and let out a yell while passing the stab to another player. The players on his/her left will attack the players belly while shouting, as with the first Samurai.
• Nose Typing
  • Needs instructions
• One Word Proverbs
  • Players in a circle. One player starts with first word of a (non-existing) proverb; circle continues, one word at a time, until the group 'feels' the proverb is done; at that point everybody says 'yes yes yes yes'. Hint: start with (a) typical proverb word(s), like 'A', 'He who', etc.
• Pterodactyl
  • Players in a circle. The hold their lips over their teeth, and if you show your teeth (as you are wont to do when laughing) you are out. Players proceed around the circle, saying "pterodactyl" to the player next around the circle to them. They can change direction by making a big "Wraaaaaahh" sound, like a Pterodactyl's mighty cry. They must also flap their arms. Play proceeds until only one champion remains. If there appears to be a draw, a Vegetable-off can be used to determine the winner.
• Random power point presentation
  • Needs instructions
• Show Us How You Get Down
  • This is a Call and Response, Singing, and Dancing warm-up. Circle up! One person picks someone in the circle to “Get Down.” Once that person is picked, the group chimes in with the person who picked the person to say the warm-up together. Here's an example with an imaginary student:
    • Instructor: Hey Jane!
    • Jane: Hey what?
    • Everyone except Jane: Hey Jane!
    • Jane: Hey what?
    • Everyone except Jane: Show us how to get down.
    • Jane: No way.
    • Everyone except Jane: Show us how to get down!
    • Jane: Okay.
    • Everyone except Jane: (spells down while Jane dances) D-O-W-N that's the way you get down
    • Everyone: (spells down while everyone repeat's Jane's dance) D-O-W-N that's the way you get down
    • Repeat!
  • At the part of the song when someone is getting down (“D-O-W-N…”), the person getting down jumps in the center of the circle and dances. When the “D-O-W-N” is repeated, everyone does the dance together. Once the chant is over, the person getting down picks someone new to get down. Everyone chimes in and asks that person to get down, etc…
• Stretch and Share
  • Nice warm up. Circle up. Each person does a stretch that the rest of the group has to replicate. As they stretch, the person talks about something they learned, or something the did yesterday, or anything they want to share - really up to the facilitator.
• Stare game
  • Circle up. Everyone puts heads down and at the count of three everyone looks up and stares at one other person in the circle. If the person they chose is staring back at them, you're both out. Play until there are two winners.
• Three Way Conversation
  • Player A sits between two end player(B and C). Each end player chooses a topic and engages in a conversation with the center as if the other end player did not exist. The center must converse to both ends responding and initiating when necessary, fluent in both conversations and not excluding either player. Then call "switch" and either end player bumps the center over and switch over.
• Veggie-off
  • This is (usually) a one-on-one competition, used to settle draws or determine which partner goes first. Duelists stand back-to-back. They count three, striding away from each other on each count. On three, a third person yells a vegetable, like "Brussels Sprouts!" The two combatants then do their best impersonation of that vegetable. The winner is often clear, but a crowd vote-by-applause otherwise determines the champion.
• What's on that Busted Tee?
  • Needs instructions
• Zip-Zap-Zop
  • Stand in a circle. Someone begins by pointing to another person in the circle and saying "ZIP!" That person then points to yet another person and says "ZAP!" That person points to another person and says "ZOP!" This continues, but the words must be said in order: ZIP, ZAP, ZOP.

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