:)

Lately, I have enjoyed doing improv. I have loved it. 

I did my first Kaleidoscope on Monday and had a blast playing with Erik Tanouye’s Team. When I got the email asking me to be on Erik’s team, I was ecstatic. I had Erik for 201 and half of 301, and I have had immense respect for him ever since. I was genuinely sad when he left the Scam, and I was genuinely happy when I saw him come back to Harold Night with Bastian. Erik is the man!

Then, on Friday (yesterday), I had practice with SWOON (It was Aaron, Betsy, Rudy and myself), and I had a fucking BLAST!!! I was happy with what I did, and I was stoked on my scenes. I am usually in my head on Fridays because I am still intimated by Brian, mainly because I respect him so much as a performer and as a coach (I am still very intimidated by certain members of the UCB community because I respect them for what they do, and for doing it so much better than I will ever be able to). I was happy with my scenes, and I thoroughly enjoyed our practice, and this is a big deal because I am usually super hard on myself and I convince myself that I am incapable of doing good work. So, when I write about being proud or happy with what I have done, it is a big deal. I am not one to give myself compliments but I will, rarely.

And, on an unrelated, or, possibly, related note, I am dating someone who I enjoy being around. I have been very happy lately, so maybe this affects my improv.

Today, I did a scene where me and Rudy were baristas. I came in the milk and Rudy cut himself in the restaurant. We did those things because we wanted to feel something, anything, and complained about having a shitty boss and shitty jobs.

Alexis and I told David how his camera-in-a-bat idea was stupid since the bats spent most of their time in a bag and, when anything cool happened, the camera-bats would break. It turned out I didn’t like baseball.

I was a kid who begged his mom for a meal that was anything except gritty, dry polenta, but it had to be foreign or gourmet.

I made Rudy watch The Little Mermaid even though he said it was “gay.” I compared it to WWE and, eventually, John Cena was compared to Ariel’s “shirtless, pitchfork wielding” dad.

I made Aaron clean my floors. He was Bertha, my incompetent, Hispanic maid who was also my secret lover. I was a rich piece of shit of a human being who wore a white glove to check for cleanliness.

I asked Aaron, the lunch lady, for another chocolate covered hammer (I couldn’t deliver the line without breaking).

(These scenes don’t sound necessarily funny, but they were. And they were fun. And that’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Having fun?)

I don’t like writing about Improv scenes from practices or shows, and I don’t like to only write about scenes that I was in since we are a group (Boybutter). But, after a terrible practice last week, and three weeks of over-thinking and brain-farts, I was happy with the Eddie Murphy-esque levels of rawness I played with tonight. I reacted instead of thinking. I left my judgment outside of the room.

Every once in a while (twice a week), I feel like a shitty improviser and consider investing my money and time elsewhere. Dedicating more time to photography would be nice. But, on a day like today, I feel like I could take the disappointment of a dozen Harold auditions, knowing, at the end of the day, that I am capable of improvising well at least once per month. That good day means a lot. Today meant a lot.

And, if you ever need a coach, I cannot recommend Dave Siegel enough. Today’s practice was great because of him. Keep your shit grounded y’all!!!

(Fun Fact: I am awake at three in the morning because I have terrible heartburn. Ugh.)