The Improv Handbook

Part One: Improvisation

History

Antiquity: Forms of improvisation from before the 20th Century
Johnstone / Calgary: Keith Johnstone, the Theatre Machine, and the Loose Moose
Close / Chicago: Del Close and the Chicago scene
Spolin: The Compass Players and Viola Spolin's continuing influence
The World Over: The spread of improvised theatre across Europe, America and the rest of the world
The Spontaneity Shop / UK: Improvisation in the UK - a personal history

Performance

TheatreSports: The grandaddy of them all
Micetro, Gorilla Theatre, LifeGame: Later inventions of Keith Johnstone
The Harold and Its Relations: Del Close's way of doing things
The Rest: Less interesting, influential, or popular forms: "Whose Line Is It Anyway"; "Improvised" films and television; TellTales; X-improvised.

Intermission: Great Teachers

Part Two: How to Improvise

Core Beliefs

Storytelling: Improvisation isn't about jokes, or about "anything goes". It's about telling a story.
Failure - on and off the stage: Why "we suck and we love to fail" is the most important thing anyone's ever said to us.

How To Use This Section

Day One
Spontaneity: Pointing at things; What are you doing?
Saying "Yes": Block/Offer/Accept; Yes and...

Day Two
Fundamentals of Storytelling: Platforms - go through an unusual door; Breaking routines; The right trouble for the right hero; Reincorporation

Day Three
Status: What status is and what it isn't; High status and low status "triggers"; Status and space; Status is relative

Day Four
Working Together: Tug of war; Word at a time; Speak in one voice; Dubbing

Day Five
Being Changed: Status switch; Gibberish; It's Tuesday

Day Six
Upping the Ante: Jump and justify; Boris; He said she said; Questions only
You can't learn mime from a book

Day Seven
Characters: Changing the body image; Characters from a hat

Day Eight: Blind Offers

Intermission: The rules and why there aren't any

Part Three: How To Improve

All Talk and No Action
Silent scenes
Gibberish
Three word sentences

Can't Define, Won't Define

Solid as a Rock
Shoe shops
It's Tuesday

The Gagmeister General

Story Woes
Continue or thank you
Shoe shops

Character
Twins

Intermission: Game Corruption

Part Four: How To Improvise In Public

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Nuts and Bolts
The group
The venue
Press and publicity
Preparation
On the day
Next steps

Pick Your Format
Licensed formats
Unlicensed formats
Innovating formats

Intermission: Truth in Comedy in Bits and Pieces

Part Five: How To Improvise All Over the World

Getting On the Television
Getting On the Festival Circuit
Hosting Your Own Festival

Intermission: "Please don't..."

Part Six: Making Improvisation Pay

The Corporate Market
Corporate Training
Corporate Entertainment

Intermission: Why Improvisation

Part Seven: Talk the Talk - Interviews with Improvisers

Tom and Deborah interview each other
Keith Johnstone
Dan O'Connor
Patti Stiles
Paul Sills
Charna Halpern
Plus several more alumni of shows like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, who we should be able to include

Part Eight: Final Thoughts

Glossary, bibliography, index, useful contacts