My Favorite Improv Game: Because I Said So!

Improv (as I’ve learned it) is taught by learning various games, where each game develops a certain skill. Eventually one builds a repertoire of skills and is able to combine a bunch of them and so some impressive stuff.

However, some games I find to be a ton of fun just on their own. (Which is probably because I’m naturally best at them.)

What I also like about the “Because I said so!” game is that if someone asks you about improv, it’s fairly easy to explain the game to them and get them up and running DOING some improv so that they can get a feel for it.

So here’s my understanding/explanation of the improv game “Because I said so!”

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Improv in Dysfunctional Families

I’ve written about the importance of improv in daily life.

The way one gets better at improv and having an “improv outlook” to life is to practice it in various ways throughout the day.

Which leads to the design of my first game, Dysfunctional Families.

I got tired of card games where the only funny things said were things
pre-written on the cards. So I created Dysfunctional Families.
— Eric Shefferman

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The Importance of Improv in Daily Life

One of the most powerful self-improvement things I ever did for myself was taking improv classes (the other biggie was weight-training).

I see improv as somewhat like a meditation training — it trains one to be as in-the-moment as possible.

When I was in high-school taking karate, I loved the sparring because everything else in the world disappears while fighting another person. If you let your mind drift to something that happened that morning, you wind up getting hit. Improv is a similar experience, but without the “getting hit in the face” part.

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