Starting an Improv Scene with Prompts
Improvisation serves a variety of purposes beyond its common association with comedy. While many envision improv as a platform of entertainment where performers spontaneously create dialogue and scenarios, it also serves as a valuable tool for exploring authenticity and truth in acting, particularly in educational settings.
Improv prompts are designed scenarios that allow actors to improvise freely, helping those who may tend to overact to instead engage more naturally with the circumstances presented. This approach fosters a more genuine style of performance.
Once a foundation of naturalism is established, instructors or performers can introduce modifiers to enhance the scene. For example, a comedic twist can be introduced by starting from a sincere premise and then adding a single unusual element and heightening. Ultimately, the purpose of these improv prompts is to remind performers that simply being human is sufficient.
To help you get started, here are 45 engaging improv scenarios. Regardless of the prompt you choose, keep in mind the importance of authenticity.
Improv Scene Starts
We’ve organized these prompts into three main categories: familiar real-world scenarios, which are situations that nearly everyone has encountered; unfamiliar real-world scenarios, which are events that are uncommon for most people but still possible; and supernatural scenarios, which involve experiences that are exaggerated to the point of being impossible.
Everyday Encounter Scenarios
These are simple, common situations that happen constantly.
Waiting in a Long Line: Two or more people are stuck waiting in a painfully slow line (e.g., at the DMV, a coffee shop with a broken machine, or airport security). They could be strangers, friends, or a parent/child.
The Unexpected Guest: Someone shows up unannounced at someone else’s home (or apartment), usually at an inconvenient time (e.g., during dinner, when the host is cleaning, or just about to leave).
The Awkward Potluck: A small group has gathered for a potluck, and two or more people have unknowingly brought the exact same dish (e.g., three different people brought a seven-layer dip).
Assembling Furniture: Two people are attempting to put together a piece of flat-pack furniture using confusing, picture-only instructions and are missing a vital screw.
Service and Customer Scenarios
These involve interactions that almost always happen when you’re out and about.
The Overly Enthusiastic Employee: A group of friends or a couple is shopping, and a very eager salesperson is aggressively trying to upsell them on something they clearly don't need (like a warranty for a stick of gum).
Calling Tech Support: One person is the frustrated customer, and the other is the unhelpful/script-reading tech support agent who asks them to "turn it off and on again" for the tenth time. (Can involve a third person as a frustrated family member.)
The Restaurant Order Mix-Up: A diner receives the completely wrong meal, but the server is convinced it is exactly what they ordered.
Social and Family Scenarios
These tap into universal feelings of social pressure or family dynamics.
Meeting the Parents/In-Laws: A person is meeting their significant other's (or friend's) very intense and judgmental parent(s) for the first time.
The Neighborhood Dispute: Two or more neighbors are arguing over a trivial but intense issue, like where to place a garbage can, a property line, or a wandering pet.
The Bad First Date: Two people are on a date that is clearly going terribly, and one of them is desperately trying to find an excuse to leave while the other is oblivious. (A third person could be the observant server).
Getting Ready for a Big Event: A small group (friends, family, roommates) is in a rush to get ready for a wedding, graduation, or job interview, but everything is going wrong (e.g., a stain on a shirt, losing car keys).
Workplace and Group Scenarios
These focus on common interactions in a shared environment.
The Mandatory Team Meeting: A group of disinterested co-workers are stuck in a meeting with a manager who is presenting a very boring or nonsensical new corporate initiative.
Car Trouble on a Trip: A small group is on a road trip, and their car suddenly breaks down in a strange, isolated, or inconvenient location.
The Break Room Fridge: Two or three people are arguing over who stole/ate a specific item of food from the communal office refrigerator.
At the Gym: Two or three people are sharing a workout space, and one of them is using the equipment incorrectly, making weird noises, or giving unwanted advice.
High-Stakes and Unusual Professional Settings
These scenarios involve job roles or situations most people only see in movies or news reports.
The Subterranean Discovery: A team of city utility workers accidentally uncovers a strange, very old, and clearly important historical artifact while repairing a water main in a busy downtown street.
The Reality Show Twist: Two or three contestants on a remote survival reality show realize that the production crew has suddenly packed up and left, stranding them without a camera or safety net.
The Museum Security Breach: Two night-shift security guards at a major art museum discover that the most famous painting is missing, but the alarm never went off.
The Remote Lighthouse: Two people are serving as the only keepers of a remote, storm-battered lighthouse, and they receive a mysterious, coded message that appears to be from the past.
Unexpected Environmental and Travel Events
These situations take place in settings or under conditions that are far from the everyday routine.
The Unclaimed Baggage Auction: A group of people are bidding intensely on an unclaimed suitcase at a baggage auction, and when it's opened, they discover something truly shocking or nonsensical inside.
Hot Air Balloon Emergency: The pilots and passengers of a hot air balloon realize they are drifting rapidly off course and need to lighten the load, forcing them to decide what to throw out.
Deep-Sea Discovery: A group of marine biologists or researchers in a small submersible discover a never-before-seen creature or structure at the bottom of the ocean.
Extreme Weather Shelter: Strangers are forced to take refuge in a tiny, crowded storm shelter during a sudden, historic blizzard, and one of them is clearly hiding a big secret.
Twists
These deal with complex or unlikely personal administrative problems.
The Mistaken Identity Heist: Two people are approached by a dangerous-looking stranger who mistakes them for a pair of master criminals they clearly are not, and demands they execute a plan.
The Heir to the Fortune: A person receives a letter stating they are the last surviving heir to an eccentric relative's vast estate, but to claim it, they must complete a ridiculous task with the estate's lawyers watching.
The Witness Protection Mix-up: An agent in charge of a witness protection program realizes they've accidentally swapped two people's new identities and must try to fix it without anyone noticing.
Bizarre Social and Group Scenarios
These tap into slightly fantastical, yet grounded-in-reality, group situations.
The Cult Exit Interview: A person is attempting to quietly leave an unconventional communal living situation or cult, but the leader and a devotee insist on giving them a very intense and bizarre "exit interview."
Winning the Lottery (Small Group): A small group of co-workers who pooled their money for a lottery ticket realize they've won a massive jackpot, and the immediate arguments and paranoia begin about how to split it the winnings.
The Time Capsule Opening: A town or school group gathers to open a 50-year-old time capsule, only to find the contents are completely unreadable, mundane, or deeply confusing messages.
The Doomsday Prepper Sell-Off: A lifelong doomsday prepper finally realizes the world isn't ending and is trying to sell off all of their highly specific, extreme survival gear to baffled customers at a garage sale.
Mystical Misunderstandings
These scenarios involve common household or personal problems being complicated by magic.
The Overly Honest Mirror: Two roommates are getting ready for a date/job interview, but the bathroom mirror is now a brutally honest entity, voiced by a third person, that refuses to lie about their appearance or terrible life choices.
The Teleportation Traffic Jam: A commuter discovers they can teleport, but they keep accidentally landing in the exact same spot as three other people who are also teleporting to work, causing a bizarre, invisible rush-hour pile-up.
Possessed GPS: A family on a road trip is hopelessly lost because their GPS device has become possessed by a trickster spirit that delights in giving them ridiculously complicated and dangerous directions.
The Sentient Fridge: A person opens their refrigerator to find their food is having a loud, intense argument about who should be eaten first. A third person can be the fridge owner trying to calm their produce.
Magical Mishaps and Curses
These revolve around powers that have gone wrong or sudden, bizarre transformations.
The Uncontrollable Wish: A small group has been granted three wishes by a genie, but every wish they make immediately backfires in the most literal and catastrophic way possible.
The Identity Swap: Two frenemies (or co-workers) accidentally swap bodies just before a major, high-pressure event (like a presentation or a talent show).
Talking to Animals: A person suddenly gains the ability to talk to their pet (dog, cat, goldfish), only to discover their beloved animal is a cynical, genius jerk who hates them.
Rewinding Time (Badly): A person realizes they can rewind time by ten seconds, but every time they do, the other people in the scene move backward at awkward, jerky speeds and forget what just happened.
Cosmic and Sci-Fi
These take place when the ordinary world collides with the extremely bizarre.
The Portal in the Pantry: Two people are arguing about who left the kitchen cabinet a mess when one of them accidentally opens the pantry door and discovers it now leads to another dimension/planet.
Invisible Roommates: A group of roommates are trying to pay rent, but they've realized one of their roommates has been invisible for three weeks, and they need to convince the landlord/bank that they exist.
Super-Power Acquisition: A group of strangers on a bus or in an elevator suddenly realize they have each developed a completely useless super-power (e.g., ability to perfectly tie knots, seeing exactly 10 seconds into the future, smelling lies).
The Time Loop Complaint: Three people realize they are stuck reliving the same mundane 5-minute conversation over and over again, and one of them is desperately trying to get the others to notice and break the loop.
Legendary and Mythic Encounters
These scenarios drop legendary figures or concepts into a very boring, modern setting.
Vampire Job Interview: A very old, very formal Vampire is conducting a job interview for a low-level data entry position, but the sunlight keeps peeking through the blinds and he keeps getting distracted by his hunger.
The Ghostly HOA Meeting: A Home Owners Association (HOA) meeting is being held, and two of the members are ghosts who are trying to file a complaint about the noisy living residents.
The Magic Wand Repair: Two wizards/witches have to take their broken magic wand to a normal, modern electronics repair shop, and they have to explain the issue without sounding completely insane.