Look, I know I write constantly about how great improv has been to me, and how good its been FOR me. I dont want to sound like a broken record. But its the truth. Anymore, Ive realized, its not even so much about stage time. I mean, yes, that can be magical. Its great when its magical. But really, the best part is the people. All of my dear friends, both at my theatre and those Ive met around the country, or friends who have moved on to other cities (or countries!). A gaggle of us went to Hanrattys after shows tonight. I often avoid Rattys because its loud, and cramped, and I just dont care for bars overall. But man, tonight... was... a handful of us sat in a corner and went around and around the table, first replacing words in movie titles with naughty words, then doing the same with songs. We did an extended cover of Bohemain Rhapsody in which we replaced a word in each line with shart. Immature? I aint even care. Because look, Im immature. I am okay with this. I am who I am, and Im finally able to accept that. I cant say the word poop without grinning, like Im 10 or something. Im grinning right now, just having typed that. I fought for a long time, a LONG time, with myself, trying to force myself to be something I wasnt. I could never figure out why I would either be way too loud or completely withdrawn at parties... never anything in between, always one of the extremes. And it was because I was trying to live up to some societal ideal about What It Means To Be a Grown-Up. Look, I dont walk around making bodily-function jokes all of the time. (Just some of the time.) And not everyong who does longform improv is like me in that regard. But you know what?? They accept that of me, and accept me for who I am. And thats what makes them amazing. Longform improv is all about working together with others to create the best show you can (unless youre doing a one-person show, in which case its all about working with your multiple personalities to achieve same). But anyway... back to my first point. Longform improv is not where someone can be successful by trying to prove theyre the funniest person on stage, or by using the people around them to make themselves look better. You play like that, eventually people wont want to play with you anymore. Like attracts like. The people that I know that have been doing this forever, their best shows are easily distinguishable by the fact that they helped SOMEONE ELSE look like a genius in a moment. And this extends off-stage, because this community attracts people into its core who are like that both on- AND off-stage. tl;dr - I fell asleep on my couch at the end of the previous sentence. Im not even going to proofread this... Im sure its just a bunch of disjointed rambling. In a nutshell, I love you guys... all of you. My Monday mornings are the WORST, because I have to go back into the phone booth and put on my Clark Kent glasses, and I know its going to be three days until I get to hang out with you again. tl;dr(2). Fell asleep again. Good night! Dont try to extract too much meaning from this post. Except for the part about loving my frirneds. Truth.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 10:13:23 +0000
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