I’m still riding off a bit of a high from last night’s improv show, so kindly forgive me for this entry being epically late. Last night marked the end of the Theatresports 3 class, which is pretty sad if I think about it. I started in the Theatresports series of improv classes in September, and the lot of us rode it out all the way to the end. Half a year later I completely trust every single one of those people to support me in a scene, and I hope that they feel the same way about me supporting them. After each level we had a class show to present our skills in front of an audience. Last night was one such show.
You know, I admit to being entirely nervous prior to this one. I mean, being the last show of the last class I wanted to make sure we all did well. I had jitters, which normally wouldn’t come so easily. To compound things, one member of our team of three was stuck in an airport and didn’t seem to be able to make it in on time. So, we ended up with a two hander. It’s OK because we knew the games well enough and I trusted my scene partner.
In terms of the games, everyone was really on. People were spot on and to the point. Laughs were flowing freely from the audience. It was awesome. We started out with all people playing. We did a warm up game of “99 Blanks.” It involves getting a suggestion from the audience and working that into the joke. This is the setup:
99 <blanks> walk into a bar
The bartender goes: we don’t serve your kind here
The <blanks> go <witty rejoinder here>
The one I was particularly happy with was with the suggestion of lumberjacks.
99 lumberjacks walk into a bar
The bartender goes: we don’t serve your kind here
The lumberjacks go: what, you don’t serve any logger?
See…logger sounds like lager…anyway, I had fun with that one.
The first game my and my teammate played was “Oscar Moment” in which the host can call “Oscar Moment on…” on any one of us, at which point we’d get the spotlight and we’d have to overact. The previous class did this game in their show so I was concerned with how we’d make it better. We managed to, though. The scene dynamic given was a “loving relationship.” I immediately came in with food combos in hand for my mother and I. She made the offer that she was trying to get me out of the house after all these years. I countered saying how I was comfortable and needed for to continue to tuck me in at night. It was a weird mother-son dynamic but we made it work. The host kept on calling Oscar moments for both of us. He even tossed in an odd one like: “Oscar Moment on Jay for most unexpected reaction to drinking chocolate milk!” I couldn’t figure out what to do so I proceeded to act like the chocolate milk was giving me near orgasmic overload. The host also gave “Oscar Moment for both: best tangent unrelated to what you were just talking about.” I proceeded to rant about how if she was going to pack my bags for me the least she could do is roll the clothing so it wouldn’t come out creased when unpacked. Hey, worked for me. The audience loved our scene and scored it highly.
Our second scene was a game called No “L” which involved me getting a letter from the audience, then telling them to buzz us out any time we used a word with that letter. Instead of the standard game show buzzer I trained the audience to point at us and yell “DIE!” That made for an odd dynamic. Any time we were buzzed out a third player waiting in the wings would swap out the offending player. We had to borrow someone for this game. The letter we were given was “S” and the location was a spa. Heh. Yes, that meant we couldn’t even mention the location. The audience was on their game. We were frantically swapping in and out every time we were told to DIE. It was high energy, and it got the audience worked up. It wasn’t scored as highly, but it was enjoyable.
Our third scene was a game of “Forward/Reverse” where the host could at any time call “Reverse” at which point we’d have to replay the scene in reverse line by line. He could then say “Forward” to bring it forward again. We were given the suggestion of water skiing. We both knew we had to make big gestures and distinct actions to encourage reversing. Out of the gate I bent down to do a water ski. I sighed really loudly and exclaimed “GOD!” That got a few replays, but for the life of me I could not get the order of my sighing and cursing correct each time. From that point forward the scene went well. There were many repetitions of my teammate scratching my face while I was making a goo-goo face. The audience loved it and scored things highly. I was satisfied.
We ended with all playing in a game called “No Laughs.” It was at this point that our third member made it in from the airport. We got him to play. We’re supposed to be entirely serious in the scene and every time someone elicits a laugh from the audience we have to justify an exit and leave the stage. The suggest we were given for a location was a funeral. I don’t know why I did it, but I chose to pet a cat. Who does that at a funeral? There was a point where people were commenting on her preservation state. I went up and joined them. Someone said how you couldn’t tell she was dead. I quipped: “she looks waxy now as she did in real life.” That got a good laugh from the audience so I left the scene pretended to chase after the cat which left my arms.
And that was the night. Overall my team won the match by a slim margin. That’s besides the point though. This was an awesome night and an awesome show. The audience seemed to genuinely love every moment. It’s nights like these that make me glad I do this kind of things. It’s tiring and exhausting but also bloody glorious. So good.
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