Contested

It was, last night, another night at the LA Improv Fest for me. It seems only sensible to spend as much time there as possible when there are so many special things going on and I retain a panoply of discounts and privileges. Of course, I would have been there last night anyway on account of certain good friends who were set to perform. There was a team featuring a couple of friends, one of whom has been an instructor of mine, but it didn't end there.

In addition to that first show I took in, there was a cage match competed in by a team featuring a number of friends and current or former instructors, all of whom are affiliated with the Monkey Butler program that got me into improv in the first place. A cage match is simple enough: two teams each perform the same form of improv, and a vote is held to ascertain which was the best. It naturally breaks down to which team has the most friends there most of the time.

This time around, the good guys (which would be my friends) triumphed. It's fair to note that we had the most people there, or so it appeared to me. Certainly I felt as if I knew more of the people in the room than I didn't, and when you take the opposing team's members out, the disparity was even more pronounced. I feel a little bit bad that the team I favor benefited from such an odious factor as that, but you are the victim of that stuff sometimes too.

Luckily, I feel I can say objectively that the winning team was also the better team. I cannot imagine having voted other than as I did, but I felt very good about voting for my friends. That's not to say that the opposing team was bad. They did some really neat stuff, and I laughed plenty. I laughed more at my friends, but the gap may not have been so severe if I did not know either team personally. Anyway, it was a good time and I'm glad for how it played out. The days ahead will reveal whether more victories in the ongoing contest are forthcoming.