(Part 2) Top products from r/improv

Look to the right of your screen and down a little bit.

Based on your recent post, I feel like you're looking for a training program in book form. The UCB Manual is the most comprehensive and closest thing to that, but take it all with a grain of salt as at a certain point it does start teaching the UCB style. Novices may take some things to mean these are this-is-the-only-way-to-do-things hard and fast rules, but it's just the way to play their aesthetic. Be open to other possibilities.

Some books, like the recent Will Hines book or Napier's Improvise, are very good but I recommend them after you've done a bit of improv. Same with this, this, and this.

Johnstone's Impro is great for a peek into story-based
British style improv. His passages on status are invaluable.

I personally don't care for Huack's Long-Form Improv, mostly because at the beginning of the book he tries to distill all improv comedy down into an equation, which is way too simplified for my tastes. Improv Wins is a decent, breezy book, but I don't like how they pose scenario questions and then suggest that there is a "correct" response you should make. Still, if you can glean insight from a book, even an understanding of disagreement, then that makes the book valuable in some way.

The only real way to learn improv is to do it and not be afraid to make mistakes and missteps along the way. You will not get improv right the first time.

Hello! I'm in a duo at my college and we have practiced for a full year honing the form we learned from the duo TJ and Dave where they set out 4 chairs and each chair is defined to a character. The players may then switch to other characters whenever they want (or feel the beat). We always do it as one long scene but in the form on TJ and Dave's DVD Trust Us, This Is All Made Up they switch between three locations when they feel the beat. It's a super fun form and you guys should try it. You should also practice together a lot and hang out a lot.

Grab yourself a copy of Business Improv and/or this Second City book. There's enough in both of these to keep things fresh for a while if you keep doing this. Also, this book is intended for Agile teams but the games work (with some tweaks) for pretty much any corporate environment.

Bob Kulhan's book is supposed to be good but I haven't personally read it.

Here you go!

That plus the Dialects Archive as /u/Bmc1217 pointed out are the best resources.

Learn IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

The book will teach you where your tongue goes and give you the main points of difference from Standard American.

The Archive will give you a way to listen and figure out what you want to work on.

See if you can work on one a week, in a year you'll have 50 times as many voices as you do now.

If you’re in the improv programs at The Second City Training Center and iO Theater, then you’ll likely be interested soon in auditioning for the Conservatory program, which requires completion of Levels A-E and one post-high-school acting class. Acting 1 of Second City’s Acting program qualifies and its required text is “An Actor’s Guide to Walking the Razor’s Edge” by Michael Pieper.

I enjoyed the text but overall disliked the course. I found a lot of it contrived and useless with my goals in improv. The course was overwhelmingly dedicated to the memorizing of a monologue, which we practiced for hours shouting at a wall in a room. There was one session, however, that reviewed the basics and professionalism of headshots, résumés, wardrobe, and audition etiquette that I found very valuable. I used that lesson in all of the headshot and résumé submissions after that.

> Edit: Oops, I lied, there are a few, like Improv Wisdom, Getting to Yes-And, Second City Yes-And, Improv for Actors. Most are related to applied improv-oriented.

I feel like Improv Wisdom is not really a how-to, but more of a spiritual book.

Do you know if any of those really teaches about the art of improv?

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The Triangle of the Scene: A simple, practical, powerful method for approaching improvisation by Paul Vaillancourt

Or, actually buy it. You know, so the film makers get paid for their work. http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Us-This-All-Made/dp/B006YEQ7EO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1373561658&sr=1-1&keywords=trust+us+this+is+all+made+up

I would suggest this book by a former professor of mine: Amazon Link

Amy Seham's, http://www.amazon.com/Whose-Improv-Is-It-Anyway/dp/157806340X

*edit*

Links:

First book: https://www.amazon.com/Improvise-Scene-Inside-Mick-Napier/dp/156608198X ISBN: 156608198X

Second book: https://www.amazon.ca/Behind-Scenes-Improvising-Long-Form/dp/1566081998 ISBN: 1566081998

> need to write this book!

You're only a little late http://www.amazon.com/Theater-Games-Classroom-Teachers-Handbook/dp/0810140047