An exercise that helps people to be obvious, honest and true. It also demonstrates how being honest and real is often more funny than actually trying to be funny.
5 improvisers stood in a line across the stage.
They take it in turns to tell the audience about a pet peeve of theirs (a minor annoyance). They are honest and real about it, rather than trying to make it a stand up routine. They also give specifics about it and expand on when this pet peeve might happen and how they feel about it.
Go along the line until everyone has been and encourage them to be honest and real about it.
Example
Try to the person writing this resource!
Hi my name is Steve and one of my pet peeves is myself and especially my habit of chewing paper or tissues. I don’t know how or why it happens but often when working I suddenly discover that yet again I’m chewing paper or a bit of tissue and I have no recollection of how it got there and I’m like dammit Steve stop doing this why are you doing this, and then 30 minutes later it is back. I’ve probably got some on the go at the moment without me realising.
Teaching Purpose
- Being honest.
- Being real.
- Using own life experiences.
- Being specific.
Origin
We first learnt this from UCB.