Week 7 - Perspective Changes Everything

This week’s stretch was about something we’ve splurged on. Not necessarily the most expensive thing we’ve ever bought… Just something that, looking back, was completely worth it.

A Worthwhile Splurge

Brave Brett

  • A state-of-the-art fog machine.

Mechanical Mike Mine was actually two things; buying my apartment and getting Jasper. One gave me somewhere to call home, and the other made it feel like one.

Caring Colm Bought an entire case of Grappa… with zero regrets.

Kamikaze Ken Ken originally mentioned something else that completely escapes me now. His Golf membership also comfortably fits the category though.

Random Ria Bought shoes specifically for mountain climbing; a purchase with a purpose.

Vicious Vika Arrived after the stretch this week, so we never got to hear her answer.

Repeated Activities

Zip, Zap, Zop

At this point this has become our default warm-up. Everyone is noticeably quicker now than they were in Week One.

Bunny Bunny

Still just as chaotic. Still just as good at making your brain misfire.

Yes Let’s!

One person suggests an activity.

Everyone enthusiastically shouts:

YES, LET’S!

Then immediately commits.

It’s impossible to half-heartedly play this game.

Three Line Scenes

Participant A:

  • Line 1
  • Line 3

Participant B:

  • Line 2

Three lines.

That’s all you’ve got.

The challenge is making those three lines feel like a complete scene.

New Activities

Slide Show

One participant becomes the presenter and everyone else creates the slides using nothing but poses. The presenter has no idea what they’re looking at until the slide appears. Their job is to confidently explain every photograph as though they personally lived through each one. The audience gets to watch somebody reverse engineer an entire story from complete nonsense.

Bippity, Bippity, Bop

A new variation on the Bunny Bunny, one person is in the center; and they must say “Bippity, Bippity, Bop” before the person on the outside can say “Bippity, Bippity, Bop” if the inside person gets to say it the roles reverse, if not they remain trapped, on to the next outside person.

Switching Themes

Two people perform a normal scene and then… They perform exactly the same scene again, almost word for word. Except this time they’re given a completely different theme, where the dialogue barely changes, but everything else does. It’s amazing how dramatically the meaning shifts simply by changing the characters’ motivations and behaviour. The same words can become a completely different scene.

World’s Worst

The group sits in a circle, and a topic is chosen. Everyone takes turns explaining why they’re the World’s Worst version of that thing. The fun comes from constantly trying to outdo the previous answer without repeating ideas, Loads of room for creativity.

Thoughts After Week Seven

This week felt like it was all about perspective, the same pose becomes a completely different photograph depending on who’s explaining it. The same dialogue becomes a completely different scene depending on the theme.

Ask six people the same question and you’ll get six completely different stories, the more we do improv, the more I’m noticing that very little actually changes.

It’s usually the perspective that changes and somehow… That changes everything.