In addition to providing a comprehensive history of improvisational theater as a backdrop, this book also looks at modern theories and practices of improvisation on a global scale. The Improv Handbook also contains an essential performance segment that details different formats of improvisation. Chapter topics include Theatresports, Micetro, Gorilla Theatre, and the inventions of Keith Johnstone and Del Close as well as other popular forms of improv, like those on ""Whose Line is it Anyway."" The core section of the book is called simply, ""How to Improvise"" and delves into issues of spontaneity, the fundamentals of storytelling, working together, upping the ante, and character development. The book concludes with sections on how to improvise in front of an audience and- just as crucially- how to attract an audience in the first place.