What's the Object?
What's the Object is a physical mime and object-work exercise in which participants handle an imaginary object with sufficient specificity and consistency that observers can identify what it is, training precise physical commitment, object permanence, and the performer's spatial relationship to invented material.
Structure
The Setup
Participants stand or move through the space individually or in pairs. Each participant is given or selects an imaginary object to handle.
The Handling
Participants interact with their object as specifically as possible: the object has weight, texture, temperature, and shape that affect how it is held, moved, and used. Observers attempt to identify the object from the physical information alone.
The Reveal
After a set period, observers name what they saw. Discrepancies between the object intended and the object perceived point to specific physical habits to correct.
How to Teach It
Objectives
What's the Object trains object permanence: the ability to maintain a consistent imaginary object through a full interaction without its size, weight, or position shifting. Most participants unconsciously transform their object mid-interaction.
Facilitation Notes
Begin with simple, familiar objects before introducing unusual shapes. The goal is precision, not complexity.
Common Pitfalls
Participants perform the idea of handling an object rather than actually handling the specific object. Encourage them to feel the weight and texture before demonstrating it to observers.
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Related Exercises
Where's the Object?
Where's the Object is an object permanence exercise in which participants establish imaginary objects in a shared performance space and then hold those objects in consistent spatial locations throughout the scene, training the ensemble's collective memory of the fictional environment and the physical discipline required to maintain it.
Ordinary Object
Ordinary Object is an exercise in which a player picks up a common item and uses it as if it were something else entirely, without explaining the transformation. The audience or group must recognize the new object through the specificity of the performer's handling. The exercise develops object work versatility and the ability to communicate through physical precision.
Object Narrative
Object Narrative is a storytelling exercise in which a participant picks up a physical object and tells a spontaneous story inspired by or centered on that object. The object serves as a concrete anchor for narrative invention, giving the storyteller something tangible to react to rather than generating a story from nothing.
Object Endowment
Object Endowment is a scene exercise in which one performer enters a scene and, through their behavior and reactions, reveals the nature and significance of an object that the audience has suggested but the performer's scene partner does not know. The partner must discover what the object is through the first performer's physical and emotional treatment of it, not through direct naming or description.
Infinite Box
Infinite Box is an object work exercise in which a player mimes opening a box, removing an object, using it, and discovering another box inside, which contains another object, and so on. The exercise trains sustained object work, creativity under repetition, and the ability to generate variety from a single premise.
Object Circle
Object Circle is a warm-up exercise in which participants stand in a circle and pass physical or mimed objects to each other, transforming each object through imagination as it travels. One participant sends an object with a specific size, weight, and character; the next participant receives it, uses it briefly, then transforms it into something new before passing it on. The exercise develops physical specificity, collaborative imagination, and the habit of accepting and building on what a partner offers.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). What's the Object?. Retrieved March 19, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/whats-the-object
The Improv Archive. "What's the Object?." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/whats-the-object.
The Improv Archive. "What's the Object?." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/whats-the-object. Accessed March 19, 2026.
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