You Are Creative
In groups of three, participants take turns speaking Gibberish, English, and translating between the two, discovering their inherent creativity.
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Related Exercises
Gibberish Games
Gibberish Games is an applied exercise in which two participants hold a conversation entirely in made-up, invented language -- gibberish -- while a third person translates for the rest of the group. The exercise trains attention to nonverbal cues: tone, rhythm, gesture, facial expression, and physical presence carry the meaning that words normally would. Participants learn to read and respond to a speaker's full communicative body rather than filtering attention through vocabulary alone.
Remote Associates Test (RAT)
Given three seemingly unrelated words, find the single word that connects them all. Based on Sarnoff Mednick's creativity assessment, trains lateral thinking.
Cocktail Party
Cocktail Party is a multi-scene ensemble exercise and game in which several pairs of performers simultaneously engage in separate conversations at an imagined social gathering. The overlapping dialogues create a rich, layered environment in which performers must maintain their own character and scene while tracking the conversations happening around them. As connections emerge between the separate conversations, performers weave themes, characters, and references across the pairs. The game trains ensemble awareness, the ability to sustain a character in the background, and the skill of recognizing shared themes and patterns across simultaneous scenes. As described in Truth in Comedy, the Cocktail Party allows performers to explore the value of connections in improvisation.
Same Time Story
Same Time Story is a collaborative exercise in which two or more performers tell a story simultaneously, attempting to say the same words at the same time without prior planning. The exercise demands extreme listening and the willingness to follow collective impulses. It is a powerful demonstration of group mind when executed successfully.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). You Are Creative. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/you-are-creative
The Improv Archive. "You Are Creative." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/you-are-creative.
The Improv Archive. "You Are Creative." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/you-are-creative. Accessed March 17, 2026.
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