11 Exercises to Do at Home

Many resources for teachers and students of improvisa­tion include exercises for a classroom setting. So I thought I'd provide some improvisation exercises you could do in the privacy of your own home.

I've done a lot of exercises by myself in my home, and almost all of them seem silly at first. That's okay. After a while you will condi­tion yourself to just snap into it. (Sound familiar?)

These exercises each have their own area of focus, but by merely doing them you'll gain commitment and initiation skills. Have a bit of fun.

Some strong advice:

Do the exercise first, then read its purpose!

The first set of exercises are about thinking quickly and jolting your mind around.

Dada Monologue

(Dada means hobbyhorse. Dada was an early 20^th century art and liter­ature movement based on deliberate nonsense. Dadaists wanted to "destroy art and replace it with nothing." They replaced it with some­thing, but the something was nothing because it made no sense.)

Launch into a Dadist monologue, one that doesn't make any sense. Look at an object in the room you are in right now and start by saying that objects name. As you talk, try not to stay on any idea too long and to make sense of nothing. I'll do this right now and write it as I go. I see a candle, so:

Candles are dogs when books tell a story of peanuts from heaven. When I was only seven dollars I went to my own factor brush, see? No one knows my father knew his cat was a green in the Texas town of pig boy. Do you understand the flypaper jolly feet? I'll bet your desk wheel knows me.

The second you start to make sense, change it up. In my example, after I wrote jolly, I immediately thought "giant," but that would have made too much sense so I changed it up.

Purpose

This exercise is excellent at freeing up random associations in your mind. It jogs your mind and wakes it up to possibilities you may have not considered. I sometimes do this as I'm walking to the theater to improvise. It brings to light fun and absurd thoughts: dif­ferent tools to associate with while improvising, as opposed to the limited range of associations we usually have.

Word Association

Look around the room and see an object. Say the name of the object out loud, and without pausing, immediately begin to talk about that object. You could describe it, or perhaps more favorably, let it spark an association about an experience you've had with it. After about ten seconds, interrupt yourself by saying the name of another object out loud and without pausing start to talk about something associated with that new object. Do this as long as you like, but for at least ten objects.

Purpose

This is about teaching yourself that you can literally talk about any­thing because you can relate to more than you may have thought.

If you want to advance this exercise, don't rely on objects in the room but come up with disparate words off the top of your head. As with the objects, say the word out loud (e.g., "ocean"), and without pausing launch into a story or association about the word. Bible, puppy, envy, frog gigging, cigar. Really make the words different.

I ask you not to pause before you start talking because that's a good way to practice talking and catching up with yourself. In the beginning, people will often say the word out loud, then repeat the word to give themselves a buffer, then launch into the association. Try to avoid repeating the word.