Quickly generate ideas, serious or silly
One of the key concepts of improvisation is the idea of accepting and building upon the ideas that a fellow improviser gives to you (the concept of “Yes, And”). If two improvisers are performing a scene on stage together and one character exclaims that the constant downpour is ruining your day in a boat, the two people are thus established to be in a boat in a rainstorm. If the second improviser refutes the first person and contradictorily states that the sun is beaming down on them on a beach, then the scene quickly falls apart.
This idea of accepting and building off of others’ ideas is the key to the following exercise working. This is a variation of the exercise mentioned in the first article in this series, regarding team efficiencies: