Sitting In

I had a nice improv comedy experience the other day. I got an email from a friend who also does improv asking if I'd like to perform with a team of his the next night. I'm more given to saying yes these days than I used to be, so I quickly agreed. I didn't know at that time much more than the time and place, but I figured it would be a great thing to do, so I said yes and waited for the time of the performance to come.

A regrettable consequence of accepting the opportunity was that it came at the expense of other things I was hoping to do. I had to leave a roller derby game early, and I was left with too little energy afterward to go to a birthday party. Still, I find that it's always good to do things instead of being a spectator at things, which isn't to say that birthdays are less valuable, but there are times when a subsequent opportunity supersedes a prior commitment.

The show did go well, although things did not get off to an auspicious start. I had rushed away from the roller derby game so that I could catch the train, and the train wound up leaving fifteen minutes late. That made me fifteen minutes late to the warmup of the team with whom I'd be performing, and that's a pretty lousy first impression to make on the team members I didn't already know. They were fairly understanding, happily.

Like I said, the performance went well. I belatedly had concerns that they might be doing a format that I was unfamiliar with, but that turned out not to be the case. If there's anything I'm not entirely happy about, it's that I sometimes was more reserved than I would like to have been. That's a common problem for me though, and perhaps this time it's attributable to the fact that I was new to the team and that I regarded myself as a guest. Still, the experience was generally positive.