Improv Game - The Dolphin Training Game:

The Dolphin Training Game:
It’s just like the hot/cold game you used to play as a little kid, but without the cold and with the sound "ding" instead of hot. It’s the same concept as the one you use to train dolphins to jump through hoops and stuff. You send a person out of the room and decide on a single simple task for them to do: Sit on the chair; put their hand on their head; hug Whitton; lift the chair off the ground; etc. Try and keep the tasks to single activities when you start out. Putting on a jacket is a couple of activities, not just one.

When they get closer to doing the activity everyone in the audience says "ding". When they get it you go "ding ding ding ding ding" and someone else gets to try. People tend to think in categories, so if you try to think outside of the same category for the next person, everyone will get more out of the game. So if the first person had to sit on the chair, the next person will be thinking about moving around the room. If you have the second person put their hand on their head, you’re giving them a chance to discover something they weren’t thinking about.

This is a great game for learning that it’s ok to be wrong about stuff, not to get stuck on your ideas, and how to learn from mistakes. As the person going, the more you cycle through incorrect activities and have it be ok that you tried something that didn’t work, the closer you can get to discovering what the right activity is. Humble, bold improvisors tend to be really fast at this game, two great qualities in an actor.

This game can be really satisfying to finally succeed after struggling on stage for 20 minutes, but you also want to keep the game fun. Try to balance getting struggling improvisor all the way through it with keeping your cast happy. If people aren’t happy make it ok to give up and try again. If the game isn’t fun, no one will want to learn from it.