I'll Show You: Part Two

Yesterday I began the story of my latest improv show. Where I left off, a friend and I had just driven to the location in order to get there early after helping another friend move. The show was to be held at the same place as the beginning students showcase which preceded it by a month. It was a great space, and we were sorry to hear that this would be the last thing to take place there. It was in essence a cafe connected to a church. It felt like a very legitimate place to perform. As it was rather smaller than past locations but very much in line with big time improv shows, it was most conducive to what we were there to do. As always, our 'too cool for school' class from Sherman Oaks trickled in fashionably late, and I daresay that we were perhaps  intimidated by the passionate and energetic preparations already well underway on the part of the class from South Pasadena. They looked like the Cobra Kai dojo about to deliver a beatdown in the big karate tournament. After a fashion, we warmed up and got loose. I know that finally I'm beginning to really relax before a show. It felt pretty natural this time, nearly as though it were just another class. Keeping the same bearing is something I have had trouble with, so that was good.

The show got started with the Cobra Kai class, who did great. Their effort of late really showed, and there was one particular lady (who had been in the class for some time but was there for her first show) whose exploits on stage delighted me. I knew how well she would do having seen her in class, and it came to pass just as I thought. They were great. Following them were the bunch from Culver City. They were small in number but great in funny. Just as their predecessors and their successors alike, they did what's called a Crazy Uncle Joe, whose nature put a really challenge on them (having as they did five people in my recollection). I'll have to get down to their class one of these days to see what is helping them out so much. It must be the water. After they carried the baton handed to them by South Pasadena so well, an intermission was necessary to ensure there was no fire sparked by the hot comedy action.

Whose name was called to get the laughter going again from a dead stop? You know of course that it was none other than us. We are technically still the Studio City class, though we've wandered rather far afield as of late. As the show was reconvened by its dynamic host, we shuffled over to the stage slowly. I've noticed that there is an incredible effect created by improvisers just quietly taking the stage without mugging for the crowd, all with thumping, heavy music playing. It's rather intimidating. You feel like these are some tough thugs ready to rumble in the finest tradition of LA's street gangs. Well, we got started after hopefully having instilled that impression.

I regret that many details fled my mind, so I can't say exactly what the chain of events was. We did a great job if I may say so. I wouldn't if it weren't confirmed by objective sources. We had a scene with two men driving to Vegas in a driving instructor's car which had a body in the trunk. Really it looked like the car was more of a hatchback the way they moved in it. There was also a scene in which a young man must content with his father and a panoply of stepfathers, somehow all in the picture at the same time. My big bit had me as a lawyer with the attitude that my suit fit poorly on my unique frame. My partner became the wife who does the shopping and I the husband who chafes at her spending habits and selection of clothes for me. Everything I said was filtered through the rich lexicon of the legal world. It resonated with the audience, as I found out. We really did do a fine job.

Tomorrow, I'll tell of the celebrations which followed the show!