A Song In My Heart

As I said I would, I went to improv class last night, and it was great indeed. I found out upon revival (but ought to have realized beforehand) that we would have a pair of substitute teachers in the absence of our usual teacher. These two are members of the improv program's musical improv group. This was good, as we are in the midst of studying that very thing.

I can't quite recall all of what was done, but we had some good stuff. There was Doo Run Run, wherein participants improvise new lyrics to the tune of the Ronettes song 'Da Doo Run Run'. We've done that a number of times, and it's always fun. There was also Limerick, which is just a group of several people quickly improvising a limerick. There were others as well, but the big thing was doing the musical scenes. You start out a two person scene as normal, leaping into song midway.

In my scene, I established things quickly. I was a treasure-seeker in the jungle who had contracted a guide whom he met in a bar. It comes out that the guide (a woman) lied about knowing the location of the 'City of Gold' in order to get closer to me. This led to the song, which might be entitled "You're So Damn Hot', as that was the substance of the chorus.

The song was fairly catchy, and the lead instructor said that the details which we both put out there made the scene quite effective. Unfortunately, she also noted that I lessened the impact of my performance by not 'opening up' to the audience. What that meant was that I was facing my partner too much and not 'cheating' toward the audience so that they could see me better. Mostly that hasn't happened, but it's something to keep an eye on. The big thing to me was gaining comfort and familiarity with the concept and structure of musical improv. I'm getting better, I think.