Heartbreak Makes for Darn Good Entertainment

Not MY heartbreak, mind. Just the whole concept in general.

I've been trying to think recently about my favorite experiences from the time I've been a Jester. Every time I try to narrow down which scene I've loved the best, I come back to the same one - a heartbreaking little moment when a man and a woman who had (supposedly) moved on met up at a club one night.

Heck, I wasn't even IN this scene. Still, it's my all-time favorite - has yet to be topped.

So we see a man and a woman, standing on opposite sides of the stage. They glance around the room casually until they catch sight of each other. Immediately, they turn away, shuddering.

The woman gets up the nerve to move in first. She closes the gap and says, with a great big whitewashed smile, "Hi Brady."*

Brady returns the forced grin. "Hi, Keri."

Small talk is exchanged - the usual niceties that people share when they don't REALLY want to talk right now. Finally, Brady asks, somewhat nervously, "How's the love life?"

Another man walks in. He strides confidently up to the talking couple and puts his arm around Keri. Keri laughs nervously and introduces them. "Darian, this is Brady. You've heard me talk about Brady before, right?"

Darian sizes Brady up. "Nope," he says, then excuses himself to get a drink.

Now the emotions really start to muck up what was otherwise a pretty polite exchange.

"I can't believe you moved on so quickly!" Brady says.

Keri throws her hands up. "What else was I supposed to do? We're broken up. It's over!"

Brady shifts uncomfortably. "Look, it's not that easy..."

"Besides," Keri says, "I thought you had a new girlfriend, too."

"She left me!" Brady snaps.

The audience goes nuts with laughter. Cue curtain.

I have to admit - I'm not 100% sure what made the above scene so FUNNY to watch. I mean, the exchange itself is anything BUT humorous. The only thing I can think of is that we all experienced the unadulterated delight that comes from watching a tense, emotional scene literally grow out of nothing.

People I talk to know that improv is a source of frustration for me. But when it works... MAN, is it rewarding!

* - Names have not been changed to protect the innocent, because who cares?

Human Centipedes and Synchronized Swimming: A Night of Improv

Well, technically, two nights, but still.

I keep saying that I need to just compile a list of my all-favorite improv scenes - the brilliant little gems of pure comedy that keep me so excited about this hobby that dominates my weekends. Best way to handle it will probably just be to document them as they happen.

This past weekend, there were two DOOZIES:

1 - Friday, January 21

The game is Fast Forward/Rewind, wherein the MC gets to stop the scene at any point and either fast forward or rewind. It's one of the more physically demanding games in our repertoire.

Our scene suggestion is Human Centipede - which, apparently, is a movie. I'd post a link to the Wikipedia page, but, after reading what the movie is about, I actually feel a little sick. You can research on your own, but prepare to be disgusted if you do.

STAY AWAY

I start the scene off alone onstage, miming an experiment with various unidentified chemicals in a laboratory. From behind me, Tony (one of our bright young students) comes in.

"Guess what?" he says excitedly.

"Careful," I say, "I'm performing a delicate experiment with transformation enzymes and centipede... monacles."

"No, but listen," Tony says, and he shakes me. Now doused in the chemicals, I start to transform, flicking my fingers out by my sides to indicate legs sprouting from my body as I twist and twitch down to the ground. Tony screams in terror and steps back.

"Pause," yells Blake, the MC. "Fast forward."

I convulse and collapse to the ground. Tony runs away as I scramble towards him. He runs around the stage, then he runs up behind me and shakes me. I bobble wildly back and forth.

"Pause," yells Blake. "Rewind."

We do the whole thing in reverse - the bobbling, the running, the crawling, even the transformation. I make loud sucking noises as the centipede legs retract back into my body.

"Play," yells Blake.

Tony busts into the room. "Guess what?" he says excitedly.

So we do the whole thing again. Blake continues to fast forward and rewind through the transformation (he told me later that he really liked to watch me bobble). Finally, he lets us play through the end of the transformation.

"You tried to kill me!" I yell, then I make to eat Tony (I'm a human centipede monster at this point, remember?).

"Freeze!" Blake yells, and then, "Skip scene."

So I stand there, stomach distended, as if I'd just finished eating Tony. Then, from behind, Tony dives out on stage, as if he'd just somehow broken through my stomach.

Blake storms out on stage, triumphantly yelling, "And that's our game!"

As fun as it was to get shaken around so much (I'm not sure "fun" is the word I want), without a doubt, Tony picking up on the cue that he had been eaten and busting out of my guts was a FANTASTIC moment of improv. Kudos to Tony the Quick-Witted. I was proud to be in the scene with him.

2 - Saturday, January 22

We had a lot of great games this night. I think it'd be a shame not to mention the fantastic round of What Are You Trying To Say? that I played with Andrew (set in a Dance Dance Revolution competition, no less). For me, though, the best moments came in scenes with Brady.

Brady and I have actually been friends pretty much our whole lives. Brady's mother was my teacher in grade school three years in a row. When it comes to working together and reading each other's intentions, Brady and I have a bit of an advantage, I guess, given our history. We showed off a little how in sync we can be during a game of Accents, when we both started yelling at each other in Italian and shaking our fists. Still, though, nothing will top our game of Half Life from this night.

The game requires two or three actors to perform the exact same scene repeatedly, cutting the time taken in half each time. We get our scene suggestion (Synchronized Swimming, something I've never seen work on stage before).

Brady and I step up to do the scene. We dive down onto the stage, rolling and kicking our legs at EXACTLY THE SAME TIME. I think we both had to keep an eye out and make sure we were following the other person precisely, but we actually made it look like we were swimming in unison.

Above: Me and Brady

I don't think I've ever been that in tune with what another improv performer had in mind, and the scene has definitely gone down as one of my all-time favorites.

Of course, I DID tear out the knees in my jeans, so it wasn't a PERFECT game, but still.

Improv Journal: Homeless Dan

In addition to the daily sketches and writing I’ve been doing more or less consistently since January 1, I need to spend a little more time developing my skills in improvisation. See, I love performing (or being the center of attention – they’re often the same thing), and, right now, my weekly antics with The Jesters Royale comedy improv team are the only times I ever get to take the stage anymore.

I used to think that, outside of our Wednesday workshops, there was very little I could do to “prepare” myself for performances. After all, isn’t “improvisational comedy” by definition unrehearsed? However, one of the teachers at the workshops recently started emphasizing the importance of keeping an “improv journal” – a record of things you notice that can help you with your performances.

Improv relies a lot on memory – what you’ve seen and experienced, as well as everything you’ve ever noticed about other people, has to be available for instant recall when needed. Recording these observations and impressions can, at first, feel a bit like scripting, but, in the end, writing is simply a memory tool.

I’ve started working on my “improv journal” – recording techniques I learn at workshop, making lists of plot twists, and writing up brief bios on some of the “stock characters” I’m developing. Here’s my most recent entry: a bio on a new character I developed last night at performance.

NAME: “Homeless Dan” (featured in the game “Bad Advice” 1.22.10)

COSTUME: orange overalls, leather jacket, rockstar wig (all costume pieces negotiable)

ACCENT: southern redneck

MANNERISMS: drunken stagger
frequently dozes off
does not make eye contact
distrusts technology
is LOUD

HISTORY: Dan has almost always been homeless. He comes from a long line of homeless men and women who took great pride in their homelessness. As a rebellious teenager, Dan got a job folding clothes at a K-Mart. He has since learned that people treat the homeless with more respect. Dan has hitchhiked across the USA and has tried every variety of local vermin and roadkill. He loves Arby’s Sauce. He says he once got a handout from Patrick Swayze, whom he now worships as a saint.