Two Buck Butler

A little while ago, I got back from an improv comedy showcase event after which this post is named. I thought I would write some about it, as I generally seem compelled to do these days. My roommate (who also performed) and I left North Hollywood around 6 o'clock. Originally, I was going to go with a friend from Toastmasters, but it worked out better the other way. I met her there, and she seemed to have a very good time at the show.My roommate and I stopped at 7-11, where I got a hot dog, chips and soda. Little did I know what would transpire later. We then got to the location in Culver City right on time at 7. The show would not start for another hour, so we had time to get ready. At first, it was relaxed, and we chatted with people a bit. We then separated into our individual groups to go over our events and warm up. It's good that we did so, because many of the games were new to me.

The show then started, and it was a good crowd. The room, which was of good size, was pretty full. First up was a standup comedian, who wasn't bad. Then came two or three improv groups, and we followed after that.We started with Go, which is a fairly vanilla game wherein two people just go out and start something, ending only when the leader says Go! again, which calls for two new people. I believe I had a good one. After that, I believe it was myself and another guy who played Mannequin. This one has been seen on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Two people go up, but cannot move. Two other people do that for them, and the first two must make something up based on the movements made for them. We started with the suggestion of Subway, so he was an employee and I was a customer. I pulled a gun on him when he didn't make my sandwich fast enough. It worked fairly well.

After that were a couple of games in which I didn't participate. It was tough, because we had so many people. The first was Pillars. Two people improvise a scene, along with two other people who ostensibly are the titular pillars, but who provide words to finish sentences when tapped. It's a neat game. The second game was four square. It's kind of intricate. Four people are arranged in a square, with two facing the audience at any one time. Each person has two scenes, and the square rotates to bring them to the front. You'll have one scene when you're on the left and another when you're on the right opposite a different person. It starts out straight forward, but becomes more complicated as the rotations come more frequently and start going in different directions.

And with that, we were done. We stuck around to watch the rest of the show, and made plans afterward to go celebrate our good showing at In-N-Out. It was late, and many of us were quite tired, but we had a good time laughing and talking over burgers, fries, sodas and shakes. It really feels good to be among these people. We're different from one another, but share certain qualities. I like them, and laugh at their stuff a lot, and they seem to like me and find me quite funny. I get a peculiar feeling when I receive praise- sometimes I'm suspicious of whether a person means it, and regardless, a certain person's praise may not be worth a lot to me. Even with the people I'm with in improv, it feels weird to hear people say great things to me about my work, but I value their opinions, and believe them when they say that I'm good at this. The next class will be Monday, and I certainly can't wait. More so than that, I can't wait for the next chance to be in front of an audience like that. It was really wonderful.