Year's Journey

Today is the start of the LA Improv Fest. It's been going on for something like 12 years, and it amounts to a festival celebrating iO West specifically. That's a comedy theater in Hollywood. I've been around for a little of it a few years, but last year was the first time I experienced it very fully. That's because my one of my improv teams was accepted to perform. It was a wonderful experience in which I saw more live improv and sketch in a week than I'd seen before in my life.

I was anxious to return to the festival the following year, but the team that had taken me there hit the skids in the intervening period, and by the time submissions were being accepted, it had folded. I despaired that I would manage the festival this year, and wondered even whether I would be able to afford supporting friends in various contests that the festival holds. It was much more unpleasant to think of being left out after having been in.

In the same year that my improv team was declining, my involvement with "Top Story Weekly" grew. In fact, I first learned of them at last year's festival. At some point in the night of my own team's show, a few of us slipped in halfway-through the show. We had missed the sketches, which occupy the first half. We saw only the comedian and the medley,which is something like Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. I really liked it, and when I learned of a chance to write for them, I jumped on it.

I didn't understand the show that well, and my submission was rejected, but I got the chance to write two liners for the medley, and I have done so vigorously ever since. That has led slowly to a few sketches getting in, and I am presently at an all-time high, having gotten to sub in on staff for a week and receive a pass to the whole improv festival. I hope soon to be on the staff properly, but in the meantime, I plan to have a blast seeing every show I can at this thing.