The Improvisation Book

I recommend you print the Improvisation Cards onto card and then laminate them. I would suggest that they are printed on different coloured card for each category so they are easily distinguishable. If you don’t have a laminator, most high-street printing or stationery shops should offer the service. Laminating the cards makes the process slightly more time-consuming but will give the cards longevity. I suggest that the lamination overlaps the edge of the card and the corners are snipped off, making the cards easier to handle and more resilient.

The cards can certainly be used without lamination, but they might be slightly flimsier. With careful handling, they can easily be shuffled and used on a regular basis. If you do this, I suggest that you snip the corners as suggested above.

Characters

• Addict

• Ambitious person

• Bossy person

• Competitive person

• Compulsive Liar

• Contraray person

• Person at a Crossroad

• Do-gooder

• Egoist

• Elusive person

• Expert

• Fallen star

• Generous person

• Guilt-ridden person

• Holidaymaker

• Hypochondriac

• Indecisive person

• Lazy person

• Leader

• Loner

• Lover

• Melancholic

• Optimist

• Perfectionist

• Physical person

• Romantic

• Searcher

• Servile person

• Shy person

• Sycophant

• Vain person

• Victim

• Winner

S Simple Scenarios

• A job interview

• A blind date

• A customer and a shop assistant

• A teacher and a student

• Strangers in an all-night café at 5.00 in the morning

• Flat-sharers on their first evening in a new flat

• A hairdresser and a client

• Live-in partners at breakfast

• Strangers sitting next to each other on a bus

• Homeless people

• People having a break at work

• People in a hospital waiting room

• Painters and decorators

• People in a gym

• An employer and a new employee on their first day at work

• People at an airport waiting to get on a delayed flight

• Friends meeting for an evening out. One person is an hour late

• Siblings meeting for a drink

• People by a swimming pool in Spain

• Friends camping in the woods

• People on a platform waiting for a train

C Complex Scenarios

• Strangers trapped in a cellar after an earthquake

• A parent and a grown-up child meet after fifteen years apart

• An armed householder discovers a burglar

• People lost in the woods settle down for the night

• A householder and a plumber, electrician or repair person, etc.

• People in a jail cell. One has been there for ten years, the other arrived today

• A kidnapper and a victim

• The partner and the lover of a dead person meet after the funeral

• A television host and a celebrity meeting just before a television interview

• A boss giving a trusted employee the sack for economic reasons

• A fan has won dinner with a famous person

• Two parents of different children meet a school parents’ evening

• A customer and a barman/barwoman in a quiet pub

• Musicians in a successful band discuss their future

• Extras on a film set

• A step-parent and an adult stepchild with nothing in common

• Ex-partners meeting after five years

• Two ex-partners of the same person meet in the street

• A long-term couple breaking up, divide their belongings

• Strangers stuck in a lift

• A musician and his/her manager after a gig

E Extreme Scenarios

• A person tries to rob a bank

• Father Christmas (or Mother Christmas) and an elf on Christmas Eve

• Identical twins meet for the first time

• A wounded soldier is cared for by a friendly enemy civilian

• Aliens from a different planet arrive on Earth (looking like humans)

• Passengers on a ship which slowly starts to sink

• A person who has become invisible tries to talk to a friend about it

• People watching the news on TV which says a nuclear war has started

• People who have just been shipwrecked on a desert island

• A meeting between a superhero and an evil villain

• Witches/wizards make spells or create a potion

• A person and a ghost

• People who seem to be the only survivors after a nuclear holocaust

• Astronauts who have survived massive damage to their spaceship

• A wild-west outlaw and a heroic cowboy/girl

• Time travellers go backwards or forwards in time in their time machine

• Iron-age cave-dwellers (who can speak)

• A ship’s captain rescues a person who has been shipwrecked for ten years

• Mountaineers on Everest. One is injured

• Goblins in an enchanted forest

• People drink a shrinking potion

• Wildcard! Make up your own