10 tips for great scenes
These are paraphrased principles — written in our own words — drawn from two books every improviser should own. If anything here lands, please buy the books. The authors deserve it.
Five from Mick Napier — Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out
Napier's big idea is that scenes work when you take care of yourself first: make a strong choice the moment you walk on, and let your partner do the same.
1. Do something. Anything.
Don't stand there negotiating reality. Walk on with a posture, a feeling, an action — give yourself and your partner something concrete to play off.
2. Start from the inside
An emotion or a clear point of view is a much better starting point than a clever premise. Audiences feel emotion before they parse plot.
3. Take care of yourself first
Counterintuitive, but true: when you commit fully to your own choice, your partner has something solid to react to. Vague generosity helps no one.
4. Don't wait for permission
If you have an instinct, follow it. The scene where everyone politely waits for the "right" move is the scene that dies.
5. Heighten what's already alive
When something funny, weird or true appears in the scene, lean into it. Don't keep introducing new things hoping one will stick.
Five from Keith Johnstone — Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
Johnstone's lifelong study was about freeing performers from the habits — politeness, cleverness, fear of being obvious — that kill spontaneity.
6. Be obvious
Your obvious is not anyone else's obvious. Trying to be original makes you generic. Saying the first true thing makes you unmistakable.
7. Accept offers
An offer is anything your partner does or says. Blocking offers ("no, that's not a gun, it's a banana") starves the scene. Accepting them feeds it.
8. Play status
Every interaction has a status dynamic — who's higher, who's lower, who's pretending. Notice it, play it, let it shift. It's where most of human comedy and drama lives.
9. Don't try to be interesting
Interesting players bore audiences. Players who do their job — listen, react, commit — turn out to be fascinating. Get out of your own way.
10. Re-incorporate
The thing you mentioned at minute one? Bring it back at minute eight. Audiences love the feeling that nothing was wasted.
These tips are our own paraphrases of widely-taught improv principles, attributed to the books and teachers most associated with them. They are not quotations from the original works. Please support the authors by buying the books.