I started Level 1B of improv last night, so you know what that means–a lot of improv blogging. In the day after the first class, I feel good. My first thought: I didn’t suck. Second thought: The first class wasn’t nearly as haha bellybusting fun as the first class in 1A. That could be because of a different teacher, or it could be because we already know improv is fabulous, fun, and there’s no need to tease us by making us laugh so much we want to pee.
My class consists of three of my fellow 1Aers, two 1Aers who had a different teacher, and two guys who didn’t take 1A. Unlike last time when I foresaw one or two ‘mates dropping out (only one did), I don’t see that likely happening this time. Which is good because I generally like all of them (especially the three I know from previous class, of course) already, and I think we’ll be a nice cohesive, fun group.
The class mainly focused on everyone getting to know each other and just getting back into the improv groove. It’s nice that it didn’t take me long to feel comfortable at be or feel goofy. Among some other games and exercises, we paced around the room, focusing on increasing and decreasing our range, tension, and pace (? No, it wasn’t pace, but I can’t recall what we called it) and emotions–going from a scale of neutral to 10, back to neutral and then down to a 1. Blah, blah, boring. Basically, at times I was walking around all jelly-like, arms waving about (that’s a 10 for tension) and at other times, walking in super slow-motion (that’s a 1 for speed/pace). And I yelled a lot and cried a lot and gave big yelps of joy for anger, sadness, and happy respectively.
We ended the night doing the thing I hate doing most – two or three line … eh, there not really scenes. Just saying a line and responding. I hate them! I just don’t really like initiating very much, which means I’m going to have a GRAND OL’ TIME next week when that’s the focus of the class.
Unfortunately for this session, the run of shows doesn’t start until the end of February, meaning I have to go about a month before I get to see any of the shows and see how everything I’m learning falls into magical, improv place.
J is going to Charleston at the end of the week to see Caveat and Season Six perform at the festival there. He’s just going for a day. He’s also taking Level 2 concurrently with 1B. I have mixed feelings about all this, but overall, I’m OK with it. Performing is something he wants to do, and wants to do now. It’s also wonderful to see him have such a strong passion for something like improv, which definitely fits his outgoing personality.
I’m already mulling over possibilities trying to decide what I want to do next. I’m talking of taking golf lessons again, but really–they are just nowhere as near fun as the classes I take now.
UDPATE: In October, I posted my improv geek score after taking a quiz. While I’m still “improv weak” at 12.72727 percent, I have doubled my geek percentange. Yes, I’m proud.
