Expert Interview
Expert Interview is a variant of the Expert game in which a host conducts a formal interview with one or more improvised experts. The interview format allows for follow-up questions and deeper exploration of the expert's absurd claims. The game rewards the host's ability to ask grounding questions and the expert's ability to elaborate with increasing specificity.
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Related Games
Expert
Expert is a short-form game in which a performer plays a world-renowned authority on a topic suggested by the audience, fielding questions with total confidence regardless of actual knowledge. The comedy emerges from the contrast between the character's unwavering certainty and the absurdity of the claims. Scene partners or audience members ask questions, and the expert responds with authoritative detail, treating every answer as established fact. The game rewards commitment, verbal fluency, and the willingness to build elaborate fictions without hesitation.
Word at a Time Expert
Word at a Time Expert is a game in which two or more performers answer audience questions as a single expert, each contributing one word at a time to form complete sentences. The group must listen intently and follow collective grammatical instincts to produce coherent responses. The game rewards patience and the ability to follow rather than lead.
Job Interview
Job Interview is a scene game in which one or more performers audition for a position while endowed with secret traits, habits, or identities that the interviewer must guess. The interview setting provides built-in status dynamics, clear stakes, and a familiar social ritual that audiences instantly recognize. The game rewards clear character physicalization, the ability to embed clues through behavior rather than exposition, and the comedy that emerges when inappropriate qualities collide with a formal setting.
Gibberish Expert
Gibberish Expert is a performance game in which one player delivers an expert lecture or demonstration entirely in gibberish while a translator renders it into English for the audience. The expert's vocal commitment and physicality must be so compelling that the translator has rich material to interpret. The game rewards both the speaker's expressiveness and the translator's inventiveness.
Interview Switch
Interview Switch is a scene game in which the roles of interviewer and interviewee suddenly reverse mid-conversation. The performer who was asking questions is now answering; the performer who was answering is now asking. The power shift catches both performers off guard and changes the scene's relational dynamics in an instant. The game trains the ability to adapt to a changed status dynamic, to find and occupy a new position in a relationship immediately upon the reversal.
Guest Game
Guest Game is a short-form guessing game in which one player hosts a party while other performers arrive as characters with secret identities or traits assigned by the audience. The host must determine each guest's secret through interaction. The game rewards clear character physicalization and the host's observational acuity.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Expert Interview. Retrieved September 28, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/expert-interview
The Improv Archive. "Expert Interview." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/expert-interview.
The Improv Archive. "Expert Interview." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/expert-interview. Accessed September 28, 2026.
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