Tip & Exercise: The real estate agent

I believe that we can have more different types of people as improv teachers. To encourage you to start, or to improve your teaching, every month I will share with you a tip and an exercise.

Tip: Empower your students

It sometimes sounds easier than it actually is: making stuff up on the spot. As teachers we can easily forget how for many our students the ‘just come up with something’ can be a huge task.

I have limitless faith in the ability of my students, but they themselves don’t always feel like that.

I know my hospital drama cast can list 7 names for medicines. But they block at the third.

I am confident my beginner students can find a character voice. But then they stay silent.

It is for those moments that I use a short in-between exercise to remind them how much they already know or can. With the entire group, we casually brainstorm words related to the content (e.g. names of medicines) or whatever else is relevant (e.g. all the sounds your mouth can make).

Because they do it with the entire group, they also get inspiration from others. Now all of our brains are filled with seeds to grow scenes from. We warmed up our muscles and we don’t need to invent anything anymore.

Exercise: The real estate agent

This exercise works especially well online. But it is also possible in person, especially if your workshop space has access to other rooms.

Let the participants brainstorm words and phrases that a real estate agent could say about a house. You can use the chat for this. You can kick off with an example like: ‘All original details’ or ‘turnkey’.

Ask them to read through the chat. “Just to get some inspiration.” Next, you explain the exercise.

In groups of 3 or 4, you will go to a breakout room. There, player A will walk through their own house as if it is the first time they are seeing it. Player B is the real estate agent leading the viewing.

Player B explains the amazing features of the house, every so often using real estate jargon. Player A can ask questions about this beautiful house they are looking at, while player B can get as creative as they want with what can be seen (and cannot be seen).

After approximately 3 minutes send a (broadcast) message to tell the groups to switch roles.

I use this exercise for owning the expert character, getting up from staring at our screen and it is a fun way of getting to know each other through seeing our homes.