Reference

The improv glossary

Every bit of jargon a teacher will use in week one without explaining it. Definitions are plain-English and note where usage differs between traditions, because a surprising amount of it does.

A

Armando

A long form in which a monologist tells true personal stories and the cast plays scenes inspired by them. Named after Armando Diaz. See other formats.

Agreement

Accepting the reality your scene partner has established. Agreement is between performers, not characters — characters may argue freely. See yes, and.

B

Back line

The performers standing at the rear of the stage, watching, waiting to edit or enter. Being useful on the back line is a skill, not a rest.

Base reality

The ordinary world a scene establishes before anything unusual happens in it — who, what, where, and how everyone feels about it. See base reality.

Beat

One visit to a thread or scene. A Harold typically gives each of its three threads a first, second and third beat.

Bit

A reliable comic routine a performer reuses. Occasionally useful, usually a sign that somebody has stopped listening.

Blocking

Refusing the reality another performer established — denying the offer happened. Also called denial. The most common way a beginner scene dies.

Breaking

Laughing out of character on stage. Charming once in an evening, corrosive when habitual, because it tells the audience the performers are their own best audience.

C

Callback

Returning to something established earlier in the show. The primary pleasure of long form and the reason listening matters more than invention.

Commitment

Playing a choice fully rather than hedging in case it fails. Most weak scenes are not badly conceived, only half-played.

Cut-to

An edit performed by announcing the next location aloud — "cut to the hospital." Blunt and cinematic. See edits.

D

Deconstruction

A long form that begins with a single extended grounded scene and then mines it — backstories, themes, objects, the same moment from other angles.

Denial

See blocking.

E

Edit

The act of ending a scene and starting the next. Sweeps, tag-outs, split screens and walk-throughs are all edits. See edits.

Emotional reality

How the characters actually feel about each other and the situation. A scene with a location and no emotional reality is a diorama.

Endowment

Giving your scene partner a characteristic, a history or a relationship — "you've been my accountant for eleven years." A gift, and one of the fastest ways to build a world.

Exploring

Staying at the current level of absurdity and investigating why it exists, rather than escalating past it. The counterpart to heightening.

F

First unusual thing

Often abbreviated FUT. The first deviation from base reality, and the usual seed of the game. See game of the scene.

Framing

Explicitly acknowledging the unusual thing so that both performers and the audience agree it is what the scene is about.

G

Game (of the scene)

The repeatable comic pattern a scene finds and then plays deliberately. Distinct from a short-form game, which is a rule imposed before the scene starts.

Gift

Anything a performer hands their partner to work with — a name, an accusation, an emotion, a job. Improvisers describe generous play in terms of gifts almost universally.

Group game

A section involving the whole cast, playing with a pattern rather than a scene. A structural feature of the Harold.

Group mind

The state in which a cast is attentive enough to make the same choice simultaneously without discussion. Less mystical than it sounds; mostly a symptom of nobody planning.

H

Harold

The canonical long form associated with Del Close and iO: an opening, three threads, group games, and three rounds of beats. See the Harold.

Heightening

Finding a larger, more consequential version of the pattern already established. Not the same as getting louder or stranger.

I

Initiation

The first line or action of a scene. Strong initiations carry information; weak ones ask a question and wait.

Invocation

A style of Harold opening that explores a single word through escalating layers, from literal description to direct address.

J

Jam

An open session, usually free or cheap, where anyone present may perform. The traditional on-ramp for beginners and the healthiest part of most local scenes.

Justification

Making sense of something that has already happened — an accidental line, a strange movement, a mistake — by supplying a reason after the fact. Arguably the single most useful improv skill.

L

La Ronde

A form in which each scene shares one character with the previous scene, chaining through the cast and usually closing back at the start.

Long form

Improv in which one suggestion produces a single connected piece, typically 25–45 minutes, with recurring scenes and characters.

M

Monologue

A solo spoken piece, often true, used to open a form or bridge between sets. The engine of the Armando.

Montage

The simplest long form: one suggestion, a series of scenes, no required structure connecting them.

O

Object work

Mimed handling of objects that are not there. Also called space work. Builds the location, occupies the hands, and slows performers down — all three of which help.

Offer

Any piece of information a performer puts into the scene: a fact, a relationship, an emotion, a physical action. Everything is an offer.

Opening

The group section at the start of a long form that generates themes and images before any scene begins. Not a warm-up.

P

Pattern game

An associative opening in which the group builds chains of related words and phrases, favoured by Del Close as a Harold opening.

Pimping

Forcing your scene partner into a difficult position for your own amusement — "why don't you sing us the song you wrote?" Distinct from a gift, and usually resented.

Platform

Keith Johnstone's term for the established normality of a scene before it is disrupted. Roughly synonymous with base reality.

Point of view

A character's specific belief about how the world should work, held strongly enough to generate consistent choices. See character.

R

Reincorporation

Bringing back an earlier element so it acquires new meaning. Johnstone's preferred term, and slightly broader than callback — it implies the returned element does structural work rather than simply earning recognition.

S

Scene painting

Describing the environment aloud to build it in the audience's imagination, used in forms where narration is permitted.

Short form

Improv structured as a series of self-contained games, each governed by a rule. See short form.

Sidecoaching

A teacher calling instructions to performers mid-exercise without stopping it. Viola Spolin's central teaching technique.

Space work

See object work.

Specificity

Choosing the exact detail over the general one — a Hamm's rather than a beer. Free, and the most reliable gift available.

Split screen

Two scenes occupying the stage simultaneously, alternating focus, each commenting on the other.

Status

The moment-to-moment power relationship between characters. Keith Johnstone's most exported idea. See character.

Steamrolling

Talking over your partner and driving the scene alone. Usually anxiety rather than ego, and it looks identical from the seats.

Suggestion

The word or phrase taken from the audience to start a show or scene. In long form it is taken once and then largely abandoned.

Support

Everything done to make a partner's idea work rather than replacing it with your own. The whole job, arguably.

Sweep

An edit performed by walking briskly across the front of the stage, wiping the scene away. The default edit in most long form.

T

Tag-out

Tapping a performer out and replacing them, usually to show the same idea at a different moment. Also called a tag.

Tag run

A rapid series of tag-outs, each heightening the same pattern. Compressed escalation, and thrilling when a group is listening.

Theatresports

Keith Johnstone's competitive short-form format, in which teams play games against each other and are scored by judges.

Transactional scene

A scene consisting of a service interaction with no relationship underneath it — ordering coffee, buying a ticket. A common beginner trap, because it feels like something is happening when nothing is.

W

Walk-on

Entering someone else's scene briefly to provide something it needs — a waiter, a phone call, an interruption. Best used to give, not to take focus.

Walk-through

An edit performed by crossing through the scene in character, so the transition feels like continuation rather than a cut.

Warm-up

A pre-show or pre-class exercise for attention, connection and physical readiness. Not a rehearsal, and not optional in most groups.

Wimping

Accepting an offer without adding anything, handing the work straight back. Looks cooperative; starves the scene.

Y

Yes, and

The agreement principle: accept what your partner established, then add new information. See yes, and.