Is There A Better Way To Say “Game Of The Scene”?

Students of improv, particularly at The Free Association, will have heard the phrase many many times. But what do we actually mean when we talk about “the Game of the Scene”?

Popularised by UCB, the term describes a comedic pattern that repeats. In an FA class we teach you how to find it – spotting the funny thing that has happened in your scene – and how we get that funny thing to happen again.

The reason we teach it in improv is because, if something’s working in your scene, then we think it makes sense to invest your energy into that thing that’s working.

But now, as I’m writing this, I’m already moving away from words like “comedy”, “Game”, and “pattern”. I’m talking simply about something “working” in the scene.

Indeed, as a topic, “game of the scene” can quickly get very heady and very theoretical – but the whole point is to help players find an agreed “comedy language” to play with.

So are there other ways we could talk about this concept that are more useful?

I've come up with some synonyms for ‘Game of the Scene’ that you can use to try and simplify it. Instead of thinking about your scenes in terms of ‘what’s the Game’, perhaps you can try phrasing it like this:

• What’s fun in the scene?
• What’s working in the scene?
• What feels joyful in this scene?
• What made you laugh?
• What are you enjoying?
• What stands out?
• What’s interesting?
• What’s this scene ‘about’?

In class, I find that the students who were frowning very hard when I asked them “what’s the Game of your scene?” could talk at length about what they found “fun”.

So, if you feel you’re getting in your head about the term “Game of the Scene” then using a different phrase might help free you up. The goal is just to keep doing what’s fun! That’s it.

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