Comedy Improvisation: Exercises and Techniques for Young Actors

From the Renaissance commedia dell'arte to today's Second City comedy troupe, improvisation has been a hit. Learn the structure behind the spontaneity of comedy improvisation. Over 35 performance-tested improv structures and performance tips in this book help even a beginner tackle this "off the cuff" humor with confidence. Learn the elements of successful improvisation: setting, characters, conflict and action, and dialog and humor. Then have fun polishing your new skills in comedy clubs, coffee houses or acting classes. Instructions on loosening up, writing routines, coping with audiences and protecting original routines through contracts and copyrights are also included.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-- While the numerous and varied acting workshop techniques that Horn has compiled are certainly suited to young actors, his text is not. He begins with an examination of the history and structure of improvisational comedy, then works his way through five chapters of exercises that demand increasing levels of expertise. A series of posed, black-and-white performance photographs detract from the authenticity of the work. Additionally, much of the same ground--Mirror, Mirror; Gibberish; character and location improvisations--has been covered more thoroughly, if less conventionally, in Viola Spolin's Theater Games for the Classroom, A Teacher's Handbook (Northwestern University Pr., 1986). Similarly, this volume would be more effective for teachers than for students as the exercises call for an impartial, guiding hand. The last three chapters are devoted to the formation and management of the comedy/improv troupe, a topic on which the author gives sound advice, gleaned from personal experience. Still, only the rare high school student will be able to pick up this book and know where to go with it.-- Dianne Greene Mahony, The Harvey School, Katonah, NY