Funny on Purpose (Mostly)

After last week's freeze-tag fiasco, I was a little hesitant about improv class. But I told myself that it couldn't be that bad and that the point of the class was to learn and get better at instant comedy. Also, I had nowhere to go but up after blacking out and screaming about melons.

The first lesson was an exercise in trusting the subconscious and just saying the first thing that popped in your head once prompted with an acronym. After that we literally threw emotions at each other. We stood in a circle and made faces, sounds and actions and tossed emotions around the room. I received what I thought was a lion's roar and followed it up with an emotion that unintentionally resembled gastric distress. Apologies again to whomever I passed that to. After that we practiced something called space objects; a fancy phrase for playing with imaginary stuff and worked in small groups passing objects to each other. 

I, again with my uncanny abilities, carefully mimicked playing a concerto on the piano and passed it to someone in the group, who said “Thanks for the piano” and I felt so original and proud until I turned around and realized I was standing in front of the only piece of equipment in the entire room...the piano. Determined to come up with something other than the one object in the room, I hunched over, placed a log on the block, picked up my axe, spit in each hand (as is the custom) and chopped the log in half. I then passed my axe to a person in the group who proceeded to use it to murder the person next to him, so I was kinda 0 for 2 on the space objects exercise.

The third exercise was called the emotional roller coaster, where one person is given a topic and begins speaking about it, then members of the audience throw out emotions and the actor must alter the story by using the new emotion. Our teacher told us that the quickest way to make a decision in improv is to use emotion, and I thought that was particularly useful advice for life in general. So away we went into groups to practice the emotional roller coaster game.

I volunteered to go first this time and was given a topic (cars) and off I went. I started touting the joys of sports cars when I received my first emotion (disgust); I then expressed my disdain for the sports coupe, which is neither a sports car nor a sedan, but the result of many years of car inbreeding and then (excitement) I climbed behind the wheel of a convertible and off I went driving fast with the wind blowing through my hair (disappointment), but then I realized that I just came from the salon and driving with the top down just ruined my new hairdo and it made me sad. Then (fear) I looked over from the rear-view mirror to notice that I was careening toward the edge of a cliff and when I stomped on the brakes nothing happened. Just as I was about to go over the edge (comfort) the brakes kicked in and I came to a screeching halt mere inches from the cliff. Panting with relief I looked up to see that the sudden stop restored my perm to its former glory.

Having the emotions thrown at me made it surprisingly easy to shift from one part of the story to the next. The sudden change forced me to ignore the doubt and fear I had felt last time in this situation and tap into an emotion to drive (pun intended) the story in new directions. That was a real confidence booster compared to the last time.

After class I met a few people for post-improv tea at a nearby café. We chatted about the class and got to know each other a little better. It is nice to feel like you have friends in the room, so you feel supported even if it is in the pursuit of silliness. 

I headed back home with a renewed sense of comfort, the good feeling of making some new friends and the satisfaction that I didn't say anything remotely melon-related.