Acting Improv

Acting Improv is THE best activity there is.

The format is supremely basic. Students sit in a circle and suggest games and game scenarios. Then the RA (or the student designated to lead the activity) selects the game, the situation, and the actors involved. There is no requirement to be in the games; indeed, many CTYers just come to Acting Improv to be entertained, but all persons present are encouraged to join in the fun.

Lancaster

Acting Improv, or AI, is offered almost every day, usually twice. Since the start of the weekly/daily system in 2009, it has been offered consistently as both a weekly and as a daily activity, but only once per day. AI is usually led by the Jester and someone else.

AI traditionally starts with Park Bench and concludes with Amazing Sphinx. During 11.2, however, Graeme McGuire and Alex Kohanski replaced Amazing Sphinx with a variation of it called Monks. The only actual change between Sphinx and Monks is that in the latter the participants stand in a circle instead of a line, so that everyone can hear the answers equally. The name "Monks", however, tends to lead to a lot more religiously-oriented questions than Sphinx does.

Starting in 2011, AI has a cap of 100 people, due to consistently having over 200 people sign up. The administration had several problems with this, including not feeling that 2 RAs is enough to supervise over 200 students, and that if there is rain, there would be nowhere inside to efficiently put 200 kids. Although this is not an ideal situation, most students have agreed that it is better than having AI and GLOW always be during the same activity block.

Games

There can be many games played in a single AI session, and they include, but are not limited to:

• Park Bench
• Freeze
• Slideshow
• Late to Work
• Party Quirks
• Press Conference
• Dating Game
• Amazing Sphinx
• Subconscious
• Chain Death Murder
• Foreign Film Dubs/Translator
• Superheroes
• Film Critics
• Questions
• Auctioneer
• New Choice
• Perpetual Machine
• 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
• Sports Announcers
• World's Worst
• Half-life
• What Are You Doing?
• Madrigals
• Time Jump
• VCR

Also see Project Ektelo, an ongoing project for the introduction of new AI games.

Common Themes/Jokes

• Frank Wang
• Scientology
• Blood of the Innocent (Nixon)
• He was my friend! (Papa T)
• I don't think that's the right way to go to the bathroom!
• There can only be one! (on the park bench)
• Michael Jackson
• Zeke Weiner
• Killing Jokes (started by Nixon, who would walk into the center and pretend to shoot the offender)
• Giving birth
• Electric Shock, which started with Hal in 05.2.
• Crucifixion of Christ
• Dick Cheney's shooting of his hunting partner
• Necrophilia (started by Race, who would lick the bodies of those pretending to die)
• ANY KIND OF PUNS ABOUT OTTER'S NAME
  • "I'm a killer whale" was a park bench tactic often used on Otter Lee by John Harrison in 08.2. At its crux, the joke escalated in a food chain from Otter/Killer Whale/Inuit/Alaskan Oil Driller... This gag became popular among others as well and was transplanted occasionally in other games.
• Earth-Moon-Sun-China was somehow created by John Harrison in 08.2. New Chinas, one incorporating the nearby Quiznos, soon popped up.
• Bawls, among other energy drinks.
  • "Can you help me fit my Bawls into a CTY appropriate joke?" (Arthur Schechter)
  • "Can I get some of your Black Mamba?" (Daniel Tracht)
  • clinking one's Bawls with the Bawls of the one on the park bench (Daniel Tracht)
• Recursion (Recursion Recursion Recursion Recursion)
• The mockery of preceding unfunny park bench jokes
• Pretending another person is a vehicle or a piece of furniture, such as the Rips Gondola, the Eli Table, or the Max Chair
• The mockery of CTYers taking Humanities courses (park bench is the main one)
• Bashing Justin Bieber
• "Ladies?..." (Ben Lai)

Carlisle

Until 03.1, Acting Improv was a common activity at Carlisle. In the second week of Session 1, though, an offensive joke about 9/11 was made. It has not been offered since.