Schwim’s Blog

After six enjoyable weeks of improv 101, we were able to showcase some of our favorite games in front of a live audience.

Here’s a recap as best as I can remember…

I was on the red team, but for our show being on a team didn’t really matter since we didn’t keep score. We started the show off with all of us on stage for a round of Conduct A Story. Our story title? The Running Birds. I got to add two lines to the story. One had to do with the birds be flightless ostriches and another about the Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. I don’t quite recall how we got to Sesame Street, but there it was.

The next game was the ABC game, but I was not a part of that game. I do remember that the three people on stage were at an office swimming pool party. They did a great job.

Next we played Mr. Know-It-All. There were five of us on stage and I was dead center. We fielded questions like ‘what’s the meaning of life’ and ‘how does a chicken lay an egg’. There were two or three others, but I can’t for the life of me remember them.

After that we did Left Hand Larry. I wasn’t in this game, but if I remember correctly, the guy who always won when we played during class won once again when the final topic was Superheroes.

Our fifth game was the Pentagon of Death. This was the same thing as Four Corners, but with 5 people instead of 4. My first scene was set in Medieval Times and my second scene was simply based off the emotion, rage. All I could think about for Medieval Times was battle-axe and King Arthur so I started the scene with something about waxing my battle-axe and after several rotations, we ended up getting drinks before our big fight, yelling “Cheers!” and stating that “It’s a good day to die!”. My partner on my other scene started us out with how angry she was that I painted her pinkie toe black and after several rotations I had retorted that since all of my toes were black it seem fitting that at least her one toe should be as well. If she didn’t like that, then she shouldn’t have asked me to paint her toes.

Once again, this is all based on what I can remember. It was a big 30-minute blur so forgive me if I get something wrong or leave out some details.

Our finale was 185. As much as I really wanted to participate in this last game, I just couldn’t think of anything worthy. The first to enter the bar were 185 cheetahs. Most of the obvious puns were used by my classmates so I stayed back. Next up were 185 vampires. I was going to say something about it not being a Twilight convention, but a classmate before me referenced Twilight some other way so I again kept silent. Finally, the audience suggested that 185 Oprahs walked into the bar. I’m was like, “really?”. All I could think of was something book club related but none of that was funny so alas I said nothing. It wasn’t until our show was over and we were all getting a drink when I thought of this great line for 185 Oprahs…

185 Oprahs walk into a bar. The bartender says, ‘Sorry, we can’t serve your kind here.’ The Oprahs say, ‘Well, why not?” and the bartender replies, ‘Because we don’t have enough room for 185 Steadmans!’

Anyway, the show is over and it was a great ride. Our teacher was fantastic and my classmates are a bunch of funny people who I never would have met under normal circumstances. I hope I get to cross paths with them again in another improv class. Yes, I’m very interested in taking more improv classes, but exactly when I do not know.

For those of you who attended my improv debut I hope you had as much fun watching it (and the other shows from the other 2 classes) as I had performing in it. I hope you can make it to my next big show whenever it may be.

Well my six-week improv class has come to an end. It went by much too quickly. I met some really great and funny people, learned a lot about improv and was lucky enough to have a very talented and extremely funny teacher. I’m not just saying that, he really was a good teacher. This week we concentrated on the games we are going to be performing live on Tuesday the 26th.

We ran through CONDUCT A STORY, THE ABC’S, LEFT HAND LARRY, MR. KNOW-IT-ALL, 185 and a brand new game that I had seen first hand this past Thursday when I finally made it to a show. It’s called FOUR CORNERS. When I saw this performed on Thursday evening I really liked it and thought that it would be something our class could do. In fact it was a game that I thought I would be good at or at least have fun trying.

After six weeks, I have found that the games I really like are the ones that I pretty much had carte blanche to say whatever came into my head. Games like THE ABC’S, BUNCH OF EXPERTS, SIT-STAND-LEAN, TRY THIS ON FOR SIZE, and FOUR CORNERS. So what exactly is FOUR CORNERS you ask? Well, I’ll explain.

FOUR CORNERS

As the name suggests, four of us step up on stage and form a square. We are all facing forward. The two people in front are giving some topic that sets their scene. For instance, they could be a married couple. Then we all shift right and the next two up front get their scene and so on until everyone has 2 scenes. There are some things each person must remember. They must remember each of their two distinctly different scenes and almost as important, they must remember which way to move when the referee shouts “Rotate Right!” or “Rotate Left!”. This may sound like a simple task, but when you have your scenes in your head, it is easy to forget which way is right and which way is left. This can add to the humor of the game as well as the scenes themselves. So now the game begins and the first two people up start their scene. At some point the referee will shout, “Rotate Right!” and we all shift right and the front two start their scene. This continues until all four sets have started their scenes. Then the referee will have us rotating left or right and when you find yourself in front, you must continue your scene were you left off last. I really enjoyed playing this game and hope those of you who come to see me on Tuesday will enjoy it too as this is definitely a game I will be performing that night.

The second half of the class we went over some staging for the night of the show as well as the order of the games we will be playing. We also picked colors. Half of us will be the red team and will be wearing red the other half will be the blue team. Normally, a show at the Comedy Sportz Theatre has a faux competition and one of the two teams “wins”. For our show, the colors are more for aesthetics since we will not have nearly as much time to perform as we would if it were a normal show.

I am feeling pretty good about performing, but that could change come show night. I have never performed in front of an audience and I’m sure once I get up there under the lights in a packed theatre, I’ll be plenty nervous. Thankfully, some of my classmates are in the same boat so we will help each other. Either way, this will be a night to remember.