On Improv, part 1

I thought it was about time I wrote about improv. While I don't think of it as a passion, looking at my involvement in it and what not qualifies it as such I suppose. Hell, I've considered it as a career, so yeah...

Anyways, I'd like to compile a little bit of an autobiography for my experience with improv, cause why not? When I was a kid, Whose Line Is It Anyways? was always one of my favorite shows. I remember a few times (usually in the back of a bus on school trips) I'd try some of the whose line games with friends, and tended to do fairly well with them. It wasn't hard being funny and being in 7th grade at the same time, though. Just have to make a dick or outlandish sex joke and you're solid.

Throughout high school I never did theatre or anything like that. I had always wanted to try it, to see what it was like, but I was always a bit intimidated by it, so when I came to college I never expected I'd do anything close to it. I had first heard about the Agents of Improv from the posters they had. I almost went to their first show, but my schedule conflicted (think it was Chem lab). It wasn't until two of my friends (Liz and Brenna, and I met Dan through them) had joined Agents that I wanted to try it. I thought they were pretty funny, and Liz and Brenna kept talking about how much fun it was.

Then one day, sitting in my usual seat in the lounge, Dan happened to run past me. He was on his way to improv and he invited me to come. Thus began the dark chapter in my life that will likely land me an E!True Hollywood Story. It was definatly intimidating at first. My first day was the day the Agents pulled off their Mobeus. Everyone was talking a mile a minute and bouncing off the walls. I was the only new guy in the room, and besides Dan, Brenna, and Liz, I had only seen these guys on stage (talk about a wierd feeling, it felt like some kind of mockery of reality). They started with their business, while I sat their, not quite sure what was going on. I think everyone is a bit disoriented at first, just because Agents isn't quite like many other clubs you'll find. It wasn't until Ted (our former MC) had mentioned that he'd like to be able to get a gorilla costume for a new form of improv that I was fully inducted into the Agents.

"I have a gorilla costume." I said after raising my hand. The room went fairly quiet and they all stared at me in surprise.
"Welcome to the Agents!" Ted ran over and started shaking my hand, "Come, sit over here in the center of the group."

Business quickly concluded and then games began. Since my first meeting was an advanced practice (before they became audition only) I didn't really play that many games as opposed to did exercises. It was a lot at once, but becuase everyone was involved with them at once, I didn't have the pressure of being center stage. Eventually, though, it was time for my first scene. We were doing work on status and I was paired up with Emily. The game was we both had to be as high status as possible (there are nuances with this, that unfortunatly I've been too wordy to get into an explanation of here). I just so happened to be wearing a blazer and can be somewhat of a pretentious bastard if the mood strikes, so I lucked out. My first scene went really well, and that felt awesome.

My second scene, however, wasn't that great. The current MC of Agents puts people up on stage with intention. Other than games like Freeze and Questions only, I have yet to see an entire scene comprised of people with little to no experience. He usually has at least one person with some experience up there. He has good reason to. My second scene was with Kyle, who himself was new at improv. It was a really awkward scene that seemed to last forever. I had to demonstrate the characteristics of a snake. While I could likely list off a ton now, when I got up on stage all I could think of was talking in a lisp (and a horrible one at that) and flicking my tongue, occasionally adding a wiggle. The scene bombed, and the high I had from my previous scene was instead replaced by a bout of self consciousness.

I kept going to more and more meetings, occasionally getting up for a scene here or there. There would be times where I'd get some laughs, times when there would be silence, and I personally would range from flying on clouds to feeling like pure and utter shit. Improv at first does that, so don't worry about failure. Honestly, all the fuck ups I had were worth it. It was rough, but it taught me get over my stage fright. Hell, no one really gave a fuck if I screwed up. They'd give me some advice if I asked for it and then go about their games. It's a shame there are so many people currently. Don't get me wrong, its great for the group, but its harder for everyone to get a chance to go up or perform.

It was after another scene with Kyle that I had experience carrying a scene. When you're new its often fairly hard to be in charge of a scene. Most people just stand in the sidelines and let the experienced people make shit happen, waiting for a chance to interject a quip here and there. This time, however, I had to carry the scene. I had no clue what to do, and I just kind of blanked. The thing was, my mouth just kept moving (much to Kate's dismay, it has yet to stop). I didn't think about what I was saying ahead of time, instead I almost did pure word association. Looking back at it, I adopted a character (in this case, it was just the trait of being purely apathetic), and just stuck to it. I didn't think, I improvised, and it felt really fucking amazing! After you get compliments on a scene afterwards nothing can quite compare to how much of a badass you feel.

Anyways, since this is pretty long I'll write other parts as time goes on. I'll really start getting into tips and techniques in the next one.