Improv Warm-Ups: Machines

Video Transcript

This is an improv warm up called machines. And it's a real classic warm up that you might of done in an acting class or something like that. How it works is, you get all the players out in the space, and one person is going to start building this machine, and each person is going to come on until you've got one big machine that's working together. So a person is going to step out, and they're going to do some kind of movement, some kind of gesture and a sound that goes along with it. And you want them to do something that they can repeat for a couple of minutes, nothing that's going to help them, have them run out of air or get exhausted, or something like that. So maybe I come out and I do this one, [sound]; and so on and so forth. I keep repeating that, while someone else comes and adds on to my machine, and hopefully they're building on with the idea that I put out there, so maybe they're going to go, [sound]; and I'm still going, [sound]; and those two pieces are now working in the machine, and then people are going to come on and start adding to it, [sound], and so on and so forth, until the whole group is there creating this huge machine that's working together. Once everybody's in the machine, a fun thing I like to do is speed it up until it explodes, or slow it down until it runs out of gas entirely and comes to a halt. Another fun variation is giving it a machine with a concept, maybe it's a machine that makes laughter, or maybe it's a machine that makes a kind of a person, like a doctor, or maybe it's a celebrity send up, and we do a whole machine about that celebrity. Anything can inspire a machine, and it's a fun way for the group to work on, paying attention to each other's ideas, building on those ideas with something connected, and really working together as a team. And, yeah, it's called machines, and you might want to give it a try.

Watch these related videos

• 
  The Sound Ball Improv Game

  playlist Views: 505

• 
  Improv Mouth Warm Ups

  playlist Views: 540

• 
  Improv Vocal Warm Ups

  playlist Views: 801

• 
  Improv Comedy Games: Machine

  playlist Views: 377

• 
  Summary of Improv Warm Ups

  playlist Views: 501

• 
  The Improv Beasty Wrap Game

  playlist Views: 490

Community Members who...

• Favorited this Video
• Rated This Video

Top Tags