Foreword -- Introduction to the second edition -- Introduction -- What is improvisation? What was improvisation? ; Improvisation in performance ; Intermission: "What should improvisation be?" ; "From innovation to art form" ; "Two stories" -- How to improvise. How to use this section ; Teaching and learning ; Spontaneity ; Saying yes ; What comes next ; Status ; Go through an unusual door ; Working together ; Being changed ; More on masters and servants ; Twitching, topping and paperflicking ; Playing characters ; You can't learn mime from a book ; Control freak ; Finding the game in the scene ; Continue or thank you ; Agree, agree, agree ; Playing games ; Final thoughts ; Intermission: The rules and why there aren't any... -- How to improvise in public. Feel the fear and do it anyway ; Starting a company ; Nuts and bolts -- Making improvisation pay. Performing? ; Teaching workshops ; Corporate entertainment ; Corporate training ; Corporate events ; How to get corporate work ; Intermission: Women in improv -- Talking to improvisers. Keith Johnstone---The innovator ; Neil Mullarkey---The Comedy Store player ; Randy Dixon---The synthesizer ; Jonathan Pitts---The impresario ; Charna Halpern---The keeper of the Harold ; Mick Napier---Power improviser ; Dan O'Connor---West Coast legend ; Patti Stiles---Our teacher ; David Fenton---Theatresports MC down under ; Tobias Menzies---The actor ; Jeffrey Sweet---Illegitimate grandfather of American improv ; Dylan Emery---Starter of Showstopper ; Paul Rogan---An English actor and improviser in LA ; Mike McShane---Transatlantic improviser and actor ; Tom Salinsky discusses the improv show Voices in your head and its spin-offs with Deborah Frances-White -- Afterword -- Appendix one: Games -- Appendix two: Syllabus

Exploring the history of the genre, alongside modern theories and practice, The Improv Handbook explores Theatresports, Micetro and Gorilla Theatre, as well as the innovations of Keith Johnstone, Del Close and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Spontaneity, storytelling, collaboration and character are examined in detail, before concluding with practical advice on improvising for audiences, asking the crucial question: How do you attract an audience in the first place? First published in 2008, this new edition features a foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as fresh exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master/servant games, along with new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan--back cover