Is There Any More?
Is There Any More? is a scene extension technique and game in which the host or audience prompts performers to continue exploring a scene or relationship after it appears to have reached its natural conclusion. The prompt forces performers to find new layers, new complications, or new dimensions beneath what seemed complete -- discovering that a scene's apparent end was not its real end. The technique trains the ability to mine depth from a premise that could easily be treated as finished.
Structure
Setup
A scene plays to what feels like a natural ending point: a decision made, a revelation landed, a relationship moment completed. The host pauses and asks: "Is there any more?"
Continuation
Performers re-enter the world of the scene and find what exists underneath the apparent conclusion: a feeling that was not expressed, an action that follows from the ending, a dimension of the relationship that was present but not yet surfaced.
The new material does not restart the scene but deepens it: what has just ended is now the foundation for another layer of exploration.
Multiple Extensions
The host may ask "Is there any more?" repeatedly, requiring performers to find multiple layers of extension from a single premise. Each extension should reveal something genuinely new rather than recycling what was already expressed.
Ending
The technique ends when the performers have reached a genuine new ending -- one that feels more complete than the one they arrived at first -- or when the host determines the scene has been fully explored.
How to Teach It
Objectives
Is There Any More? trains the ability to go beyond a scene's surface completion into its deeper available material, combats the improv habit of ending at the first satisfying moment, and develops the patience to look for what is not yet said or felt before declaring a scene complete.
How to Explain It
"When you think you're done -- you're probably not done yet. There's usually more. I'm going to ask you to go back in. Find what you didn't say. Find what happened next. It's there."
Scaffolding
Use the technique on scenes that clearly had more material than was explored in the first pass. Scenes with established relationships, specific stakes, and genuine emotion are the richest candidates for extension. Thin scenes that ended appropriately because they had nothing to develop often do not benefit from extension.
Common Pitfalls
Performers sometimes treat the extension as a repetition of what was already expressed rather than a genuine deepening. The coaching note is that each extension must reveal something that was not in the original scene -- a new feeling, a new action, a new understanding -- not a rephrasing of the same emotional note.
How to Perform It
Audience Intro
"That scene appeared to be over. It may not be. Let's find out if there's anything left."
Cast Size
Same as the extended scene.
Staging
Performers return to the scene space they were in. The host signals re-entry clearly.
Wrap-Up Logic
End when the extension produces a genuinely new and satisfying conclusion that could not have been predicted from the scene's first ending.
Worth Reading
See all books →
Improvising Now
A Practical Guide to Modern Improv
Rob Norman
Improvising Cinema
Gilles Mouëllic
The Triangle of the Scene
A Simple, Practical, Powerful Method for Approaching Improvisation
Paul Vaillancourt
Creating Improvised Theatre
Tools, Techniques, and Theories
Mark Jane
Spontaneous Performance
Acting Through Improv
Marsh Cassady
The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual
Matt Besser; Ian Roberts; Matt Walsh
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Is There Any More?. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/is-there-any-more
The Improv Archive. "Is There Any More?." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/is-there-any-more.
The Improv Archive. "Is There Any More?." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/is-there-any-more. Accessed March 17, 2026.
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