r/improv • u/hoolapoops • 3d ago

Workshop for 70 people

Hi all, I've been brought on to do a workshop for about 70 women for an hour. It's for team building as well as just a moment to be silly. I am thinking of splitting them into groups of 10, using my mic to tell the group as a whole what game we are playing and then walking around and assisting the groups. Simple simple games like Word Association, One Word Story, Zip Zap Zop.

Id love to hear how you would do it differently, or if anyone has experience leading large groups - how did it work best?

If needed, I could pull help and bring another to help lead and assist.

Thank you all I really appreciate the insight

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u/Booktor 3d ago

This sounds like a smart way to do it!

I would probably demo the games with a small group on stage, after explaining and before walking around correcting.

It’s easy to not know what you’re doing wrong if you’re playing a game for the first time ever.

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u/hoolapoops 3d ago

Oooo this is good. Demonstrating will significantly help thank you!

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u/JuFuManChu 3d ago

I think bringing someone else along to help is a good idea. I’ve helped out with similar trainings, where I walked around encouraging the participants after the trainer/improvisor explained the exercise, and it helped things run smoothly. Overall, everyone involved had a lot of fun from what I observed.

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u/hoolapoops 3d ago

Thank you, yeah I think bringing someone is a good idea.

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u/remy_porter 3d ago

So, for large groups, I like to have some "mixer" games, where it's "all play" (everyone doing the same activity) but "find a pair". For example, a game I and a collaborator have used to get people's feet wet is "Celebrate Failure". Walk around the room, find someone you haven't talked to, and tell them a way you've failed or made a mistake recently. They will "celebrate" that failure with you (via applause, cheers, laughter) and then share one of their own. Similarly, I like to have people come up with a "boring" fact about themselves as part of introductions. This is to take the pressure of "invention" or "funny" or "clever" off of people: just tell us something boring about yourself. Then, as a mixer later in the session, I have people find partners and do quick interviews with each other about their boring facts. Just ask a few questions about the boring fact. See what you can learn about someone. Then the whole group can come together and we can take a small handful of volunteers to share what they learned in those interviews.

Mixer games are also a good way to shuffle your circles. Yes, you should absolutely divide up your large group into groups of 10-15 for things like Zip Zap Zop and pass the clap, etc. But you play a few of those games and then do a mixer, and then create new circles of 10-15, so people get a chance to play with some new folks (and some faces they recognize already).

100% you'll want co-facilitators. For a group as big as 70, you might want more than one.

Also, not to contradict myself, but with a group as big as 70, and also knowing that you're only going for an hour, keep in mind that you're going to lose several minutes of that hour in just logistics. Switching games, instructing games, getting everyone's attention, starting a bit late because stragglers are filtering in, etc. Show up with a long list of games to play, but be ready to scrub and discard games.