ComedySportz

A competetive improv comedy league founded in Milwaukee and still concentrated in the Midwest, although teams do exist in other locations. In Madison, Wisconsin, I was on my high school's ComedySportz team. It was a lot of fun.

ComedySportz is played with two teams of four players, one referee, and one audience. There are three rounds of play:

1. Each team picks its own improv game.
2. Each team challenges the other to play a specific improv game.
3. The ref chooses a game for both teams.

Points are awarded based on performance of the teams in the above games. Hopefully, you'll see soft links to some of the games played at ComedySportz soon.

CSz is very similar to the TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway". It is derived from the earlier (Canadian, IIRC) TheatreSports. Most of the CSz games are adapations of standard improv. Some of the games I recall:

What are you doing? - a game in which one player from each team is gets on the playing field, and one of them starts doing something. The other player says "What are you doing?". The first player then has to say something completely unrelated to what they are actually doing (much harder than it sounds). The second player must then do the activity that the first player said, at which point the first player asks "What are you doing?". You can be thrown out for repeating a previous activity, saying something too close to what you are actually doing, or being boring. When a player is eliminated, another player from their team steps in until all players from one team have been eliminated (last man standing type game).

Object Tag - The ref collects objects from audience members (like Rocky Horror Picture Show some people come way too prepared. Some guy tried to give the ref a front panel from a '68 chevy once.) while the players have their backs turned. He will place on object on a stool in the center of the playing field, and players will jump forward and use it in any manner other than that which it is actually intended to be used. Teams get a point for each good tag (audience laughs, ref laughs, very inside jokes are fair game) and no points for a bad tag (audience doesn't laugh, ref blows a duck whistle, player is glad they still have their day job).

I also just remembered that one of the rules of etiquette is "thou shalt not ask a question". If you are in a scene with another person, such as "Day in the Life", don't ask them questions. Declarative sentences are good, questions are bad. You are making the other person do all the work, and that's just not nice.