Six Drivers and No Safe-Cracker

The question improvisers always ask each other is probably the wrong one.

“How long have you been doing it?”

Nothing wrong with asking, but it turns experience into the measure of ability. And that measure tends to stick. “Jenny’s been improvising for seven years, so she must be good.”

Maybe. But would Jenny make a great teammate?

I’d argue the best improv teams aren’t built on experience, or even friendship. They’re built on diversity of playing style. Whether the people in a room bring different things to the table.

Think of it like a heist movie

Six getaway drivers can outrun anyone. But they’re useless when it’s time to crack the vault.

A basketball team of five centres will dominate the paint and lose everywhere else.

The most compelling teams — in sport, in film, in improv — are the ones where each person covers ground the others can’t.

Types of improvisers

Here’s one way to break it down. A strong ensemble might include a mix of:

• Actors — lead with emotion and character
• Energy players — control the temperature of a show, lifting or settling scenes as needed
• Glue players — hang back, watch the whole, and make the connections that tie everything together
• Cerebral players — bring layered concepts, metaphors, and structural thinking
• Witty players — razor-quick with wordplay and clever framing
• X-Factor players — come up with things nobody else would. Invaluable. (Two of them in one team? Chaos.)

These aren’t fixed categories, and most performers span a few. The point isn’t to label anyone, it’s to notice what’s in the room.

Because the magic happens in combination. An X-Factor player makes a wild move that brings the house down. A Glue player quietly ties it back into the show. A Witty player drops a clever concept. An Actor gives it the emotional weight it needs to land.

None of those moments work as well in isolation.

Which one are you?

That’s worth sitting with. Knowing your natural playing style — not just what you’re good at, but what you reach for instinctively is genuinely useful. It helps you understand your value to a team, and where you might look to balance things out.

If you’re not sure, I have an RPG Improv Character exercise that can help you figure it out. Give it a go and let me know where you land.