Improviser !

Scene Sale

When I’m told that the spectators expect the scenes to be based on their suggestions, I say that it’s because we’ve trained them that way, and that we’ve also trained them to make stupid suggestions.

I invented the Scene Sale as a way to affirm that the players are not the audience’s slaves. Use it once and the audience understands instantly that a stupid idea that gets a laugh may be useless as the basis for a scene.

A player becomes an ‘auctioneer’ and gets the spectators to ‘bid’ for a scene, checking with the other players to see whether any suggestion inspires them.

- We want a suggestion that thrills us.
- Brazil!
- What does that mean? You want a scene in Brazil?
[The improvisers give it a thumbs down.]
- Climbing a mountain?
- What do you want to happen on that mountain?
- You meet a yeti!
- Anyone want to accept that? What else are we offered.
- Your daughter arrives home with an old schoolfriend of yours.
- Er . . . Does anyone like that idea?
[The improvisers shake their heads.]
- You’re an old man, and the schoolfriend is even older than you are!
- And your daughter is only fifteen!
- We accept!

The enthusiasm that this creates among the actors gives a reasonable chance that the scene will be worth watching.

Impro For Storytellers, Keith Johnstone (Chapter 2 - Audience Suggestions)