Instagram Slide Show
Instagram Slideshow is a scene game in which performers present a slideshow of imagined social media posts -- each one a frozen tableau or brief enacted moment -- while another player provides commentary in the style of a social media caption, voiceover, or live reaction stream. The game reflects contemporary digital culture and the gap between curated online presentation and actual lived experience. It rewards visual clarity, the ability to capture a moment in a single frozen image, and the comedian's skill of finding the gap between caption and content.
Structure
Setup
A suggestion establishes the Instagram account being presented: a specific person, a business, an influencer type, or a lifestyle category. The host introduces the presenter and the commentator.
The Slideshow
Performers strike a series of frozen poses representing Instagram posts. Each pose is held for a moment -- long enough for the audience to read the image clearly. The commentator provides the caption, the hashtags, the voiceover, or the reaction, building the social media context around each image.
Slides can be:
- Perfect aspirational images with perfectly curated commentary
- Behind-the-scenes moments that complicate the polished presentation
- Accidental or revealing slides that break the account's intended brand
Escalation
The game escalates as the gap between the account's presented image and its actual reality becomes visible. A slide that accidentally reveals something the presenter would not have chosen to share, or a comment that misreads an image in an illuminating way, is the game's comic engine.
Ending
The slideshow ends after a set number of posts, or when the presenter's carefully constructed image has been fully, gleefully complicated.
How to Teach It
Objectives
Instagram Slideshow trains the ability to create and sustain a visual world with frozen imagery, the comedian's skill of finding the gap between surface presentation and underlying reality, and the commentator's ability to build a social media voice that serves the game's comedy.
How to Explain It
"You're curating your perfect online life. Every slide is the version of yourself you'd choose to share. The question is -- what happens when the curation slips?"
Scaffolding
Begin with a clear account identity before attempting the comedic complications. The game works best when the original account type is specific enough that its curation choices are predictable -- the gap only opens when there is an established pattern to deviate from.
Common Pitfalls
Performers sometimes begin with the ironic complication before establishing the polished surface, removing the contrast that generates the comedy. The coaching note is that the curated perfection must be real first -- the audience needs to believe the account -- before the cracks appear.
How to Perform It
Audience Intro
"We'd like to take a look at a very special Instagram account. Tonight's featured account is..."
Cast Size
Ideal: 2 to 4 performers. One commentator or host, and one to three performers creating the slides.
Staging
A designated presentation area for slides -- center stage, slightly upstage -- with the commentator at a microphone or downstage position. The audience should be able to see each frozen image clearly before the commentary arrives.
Wrap-Up Logic
End when a slide lands a particularly strong comedic beat, or when the account's curated image has been sufficiently complicated. A final slide that reframes everything that came before provides the cleanest close.
Worth Reading
See all books →The Triangle of the Scene
A Simple, Practical, Powerful Method for Approaching Improvisation
Paul Vaillancourt
Group Improvisation
The Manual of Ensemble Improv Games
Peter Campbell Gwinn; Charna Halpern
Improvising Cinema
Gilles Mouëllic
Theater Games for Rehearsal
Viola Spolin
Acting Through Improv
Improv Through Theatresports
Lynda Belt; Rebecca Stockley
Mask Improvisation for Actor Training and Performance
the compelling image
Sears A. Eldredge
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How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Instagram Slide Show. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/instagram-slide-show
The Improv Archive. "Instagram Slide Show." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/instagram-slide-show.
The Improv Archive. "Instagram Slide Show." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/instagram-slide-show. Accessed March 17, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.