Time for me to get nervous

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Tonight is my big night. Tonight I prove whether I deserve this forum name or not. Well, not really. But tonight is my Improv stage debut. A year ago I began improv classes, after years of watching it I was finally getting the opportunity to take the classes at my, now, place of employment - SAK Comedy Lab.

I found the thread I started when I first got signed up for classes, LAST June:

It seems like it wasn’t that long ago, but it’s been a full year since I began. A lot has happened in that year: I got the job with the theatre, I lost my mom, I grew up.

And tonight we find out if I am any good at this thing. I had a blitz of stage fright and panic during the weekend, a five minute attack of sheer fear coursed through my body. I didn’t let it take over, I stayed calm and worked through what I was feeling.

All my life I’ve sought something I had a natural gift for. For the first eighteen years I was looking for something that I didn’t even have to work at, I wanted to just be a natural great at something, anything! Eventually I realized that those people are usually 1 in a billion, if that common. So after that I began seeking something that I just had a natural inclination for, but also didn’t hate working at. Improv seems to be that thing. I’m not claiming to be great at Improv. I’m not even claiming to be okay. But I didn’t suck right out of the gate and I’ve gotten better over the last year.

After I worked through that I began realizing that the show isn’t just me, there are thirteen other improvisers up there with me and the show is a product of us all. We’re a team and when there are fourteen of us, we’re going to be fine. We’ll combine our skills and strengths and together the show will go okay.

Lastly I began realizing that just being on stage is a victory. Like being the fat guy in the gym, you’re still IN the gym, which is farther (further?) than most people get. Being on stage is something few people can do, and so to be up there and fail is still a victory.

Tonight’s show is a win no matter how the show goes. And I’m in it!

– Improv Geek

2

Pretty cool! Enjoy your big night, break a leg!

3

Break a leg! I’ll be tossing a bunch of roses onto the stage in spirit. :slight_smile:

4

So … how’d it go?

Tell us all the details!

5

I’ll bet you moidered 'em. Details, please.

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It was an absolute blast. We filled the theatre to the brim (it seats 200 and we had people sitting in the stairwells…) The show was a bit long (but with four teams what else would you expect?)

There were a number of people taking video so I expect clips to pop up over the next few days or weeks but the first ones came up last night. Here is a clip of our opening game “Blind Freeze.” I’m the second person to come in, the big lumbering hulk of a man.

My team didn’t “win” the show but we ended it with the final scene of the night. We took it out on a high note though, the scenes are all rated from 1 to 5, 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. We pick 3 random judges from the audience to judge the scenes of the night. My team got 3s mostly with one or two 4s, for our first three scenes. Our last scene though was what we called a “Moving body” scene. The players are puppets to people picked from the audience. I won’t spoil it for hopes of bringing a video for you all to see, but we rocked the scene and got the only unanimous 5’s from our judges.

If you guys have any questions, let me know :slight_smile:

– IG