Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

I have plenty of time to write a Musing today, because I'm walking with our doggie, Una, to the video store to return a DVD.

I was going to drive, because the roads look better, but when I popped my head out the door to assess the situation, our neighbor across the street was screaming about somebody parking in front of her house.

I took a quick glance on our side of the street and realized that if I left my neatly shoveled spot and somebody took it while I was out, there's be no place else for me to park. So I figured it was safer to hoof it. Besides, Una would appreciate the longer walk.

So I've got time now to write about improv class with ComedySportz on Sunday. As I said previously, it was a lot of fun. We were working on characters. Our instructor, Dave, emphasized how a strong character can make the difference in a scene.

He had us do a written exercise to start us off. He handed out paper with questions on them about a character. We would each start a character off by writing down a name, gender and occupation. Then we passed it to the next person, who filled in more information, and so on down the line until the sheets returned to us.

Then we were supposed to supposed to study that character, because we would be playing it in two games that we did. The first game was Expert Panel, which is something we did back in Beginner's Class. You play a character and you answer questions from an interviewer and from the audience.

We had an interesting group of characters. First up were me, as Sylvia Broadstreet, a 46-year-old dean of students for a private school. I had a degree in medieval studies, three cats whom I'd given very pretentious names. I enjoyed dusting my collectibles and attending opera. My greatest shame was having had an affair with a married professor while pursuing my master's degree.

My physical characteristics were that I was 6'3". I liked to wear tweed suits, and one of my mannerisms was inhaling for a long time through my nose before I spoke. I also frequently said, "I would say that..." and "Such and such can be compared to the Edwardian period."

This gave me a pretty good sense of who I was playing.

Also up front were Jennifer as a bartender named Daphne, who I know from looking at her sheet had a college level degree and was looking for another job. She was trendy, young and full of life. One of her favorite hobbies was attending Eagles games.

Finally, there was Colleen, who was a bricklayer named Willy. He had some atypical interests for a bricklayer, pursuing Zen Buddhism. His greatest shame was that he had once built a house that had poor Feng Shui.

Dave told us we didn't have to include all aspects of our character into our performance, but they would inform what we knew about that character and how we'd respond. Expert Panel is a pretty simple game. Three characters answer questions from an interviewer and takes questions from the audience.

Imagining my 6'3" character, I stood up as tall as I could, clasped my hands in front of me and looked down my nose at people. Dave asked us a number of questions, which we went down the line and answered.

One of the questions was what's the proper way to ask someone out. My answer was to quote Leonardo Da Vinci, who supposedly said that if you show somebody your highest qualities they will fall at your feet. Daphne harumphed at this. We had an interesting by-play between us. I had a British upper crust accent, while she was clearly working class. Sometimes we'd give each other the eye after one or the other of us answered.

Another question was where should someone move in Philadelphia. I said to move where they speak proper English, which means move to England, dear. Daphne similarly evaded the question. I think Willy suggested looking for a place with good Feng Shui.

It was very cold in the building that day, so one of the questions from the audience was how to deal with the cold. I went first and said that, "In the Edwardian days, it was frightfully cold, and they used to cope with it by simply freezing to death."

I think Daphne might have suggested imbibing a pint of lager to heat yourself up.

Only six people attended class that day, since Geoff and Liza were absent. So the remaining three classmates got up, J.T., Carol and Tim.

J.T. was a former football player, Ricardo, who was supposed to talk with his hands a lot and who had a variety of almost conflicting interests, such as interests in art and coin collecting. Carol was a grandmother, Lucy, who had 12 grandchildren and wanted more. She was the first to graduate from high school in her family and had everyday working class values and interests. Tim was an emergency room administrator, also named Tim, which is very similar to what he actually does professionally.

They seemed to have fun with it. Carol immediately asked to sit in a chair, because she was very old, 83. One of the first questions was what would you do for a kid who had a boo-boo. Ricardo said to suck it up, that everybody gets boo-boos. Lucy gave a very grandmotherly response, and the ER administrator said to check their vitals and then call a social worker to turn the parents in for child abuse.

Another question was what to do with leftovers. Lucy had a very lengthy response about how you should make a huge stew with a ham bone in it. Tim said, "We have no leftovers. We are very efficient in our emergency room."

The final question was what reality show you'd be on. I think Tim said he'd be on a "Survivor" type show, where he was bound to succeed because of his knowledge of backwoods medicine and proper health. Lucy thought for a while and said, "I'd like to be on 'Days of Our Lives'." That brought the house down; we all laughed for a long time.

Afterwards, we talked about how we felt about the game, and Dave gave us some comments on what went well and what we could improve. He suggested that Jennifer and I could have had more interaction between us, and we both confessed that we saw that opportunity while on-stage but had been afraid of upstaging the other performers.

I know that back in my Penn State Monty Python Society days, I would have been shameless about it, but I'm trying to reign that instinct in nowadays. Still, Dave said by-play between characters in this game is not only acceptable but can add a lot, as well.

Then we did the same characters for the Dating Game, but with a twist. The Dating Game is a very similar game. A group of characters answer questions, this time by a suitor they're trying to win over. The twist was that we would be playing the same character but would all choose new professions from slips of paper Dave had written.

I was in the first group that went. Interestingly enough, I chose guidance counselor, which is very similar to what Sylvia had been doing, although somewhat of a demotion. I thought Sylvia would take it in stride, stiff upper lip and all that, and be the best guidance counselor she could.

Then there was Carol as Lucy, who was now not only a grandmother but also a mountain climber! Definitely, one of the more amusing choices of us all. Finally, J.T. as Ricardo was now a boat captain.

The first round, Dave played a very meek, timid mousy kind of character. I was standing right next to him, and he was seated in a chair. So I imagined in my head how Sylvia would be towering over him. I sort of bent over when I talked to him, as if talking to somebody who was much, much smaller than me.

First, we introduced ourselves, and then he asked us individual questions. Sometimes he'd ask the same question of everyone down the line. He told me Sylvia had several cats and asked how I felt about cats. I actually forgot for a moment that Sylvia had three cats, but I did mention that I had some delightful porcelain cats. I asked him if he kept his cats on a leash. He said no, and I said if he brought them over we could work something out.

He asked Lucy something about her experiences with mountain climbing, and he asked Ricardo one of most interesting things that happened to him when he was on a boat. He said that a really rare coin washed up onto his deck. At one point, I believe in answer to a separate question, he waxed ecstatic about how boating is an art and how captivated he is by the beauty of the ocean.

My next question was what I liked about being a guidance counselor. I said that I'd like to ask a question of my fellow contestant. I turned to Ricardo and asked him if he'd ever considered being a boat artisan, someone who crafted boats. I told him that he might be uniquely suited for it.

He agreed it could be worthwhile, so I said, "I've got some brochures for Boat University right here" and passed them over. That got a laugh. Then I turned back to Dave and said that the great joy of my position was helping people find their career paths.

The last question was what would your idea of a perfect date be. I think Ricardo suggested a moonlight stroll along the ocean or something similar. I went next, and I said that we would first dust our collectibles to make sure they were neat and tidy. Then we would go out for a wonderful night at the opera. I told him that I'd almost forgotten I had three cats, because they were so well behaved they were almost like porcelain figurines. I said that we could take our cats along, since I had taught mine to yowl in harmony. "It will be delightful."

Lucy said that they would go mountain climbing and insisted they leave right now, because the snows on Mt. Kilimanjaro were melting. She wheeled over to him in her chair, ending the game. I guess she won!

The other three also chose new professions. Tim's ER administrator was now a martial arts expert. Colleen's Willy was now a singing telegram delivery person. Jennifer's Daphne was now a movie star. For this round, Dave switched characters to a very laid back, plainspoken guy with a Southern drawl, often making entertaining comments after people's answers.

Many of Tim's answers now involved demonstrating his punching and kicking skills. Actually, he had pretty good form, considering I don't think he really has any martial arts training. Then again, maybe he has; I don't know.

Of course, a lot of Willy's answers were now sung, and Colleen did a good job of rhyming on the fly, too, for which Dave gave her props. Daphne was still bubbly, though preening a little more than she did as a simple bartender. Jennifer later confessed she suffered "accent dyslexia", though, because Dave's strong accent threw her off. He said that's common and that accents are one of the hardest things to maintain on-stage. Still, she did a great job of holding onto the essence of her character. From the way she stood to the way she responded, it definitely seemed like the same person in a different profession.

For the standard question "What would we do on a date," Daphne suggested going to an Eagles game and raised her hands above her head. "Woo!" Dave was disappointed, because he wanted to go to "one of them red carpet affairs." She conceded they go also go to one of those.

Those two games took up a large portion of the class. Then we did something new, changing point of view. The first time, Dave had four people get up. After they'd established who their characters were, they were supposed to switch whenever he told them to switch, and they would rotate between the different characters.

Bravely volunteering for this complicated game, Jennifer, Tim, J.T. and Carol took the stage. The scene was set in a store, where a wife and husband were shopping for a gift for the wife's mother, whom the husband didn't really like. A child came on-stage complaining, and finally the mother-in-law joined them. They did a good job, but switching between four people was difficult for the first try.

So then Dave had us stick to just two people, trading back and forth. Colleen and I were up next. He reminded us that at least one of us should have a strong personality. The suggestion was garage, and I started out doing these yoga/T'ai Chi moves, being very relaxed and calm. After a minute, Colleen stuck her hands on her hips, akimbo, and was clearly admiring me. "I don't get any work when you do that in here, dear."

As the scene developed, it turned out the characters were husband and wife. She was into all sorts of hobbies and activities and wanted to have more kids, although the husband complained that six was enough. Then it turned out that what she really wanted was to spend more time with him. I guess she was trying to fill up the space left by not getting enough from her marriage.

Finally, she confronted him about staying out late for his poker games, and he confessed he was taking ballet lessons. He was taking them to get up to speed so he wouldn't embarrass himself when he suggested they take dance lessons together. She was touched and moved closer to him, showing him how to do fifth position properly. End scene.

An interesting aspect about trading back and forth was that we were filling in things for each other's characters. I think it helped because you got to get out of your head, outside of the character you'd created and think more about the scene as a whole.

Then Jennifer and Tim did a funny scene where they were preparing to go bike riding. Jennifer was raring to go, and Tim was lazy and mellow, enjoying sipping on his water and people watching. The interplay between the two of them was funny, especially when they switched positions.

At the end of class, a bunch of us gathered in a group, chatting. We agreed that we'd had a great time, just like being little kids again, spending the afternoon playing. Tim, Jennifer and I also discovered a mutual love of Monty Python, and a shared interest in seeing Spamalot when the touring company comes to Philadelphia this spring.

Dave invited us to ask a guest next week, since he wants us to get used to performing in front of an audience before our open class, which will be held at the end of our eight-week session. I told The Gryphon about it when he met me outside the theater for dinner. We'll have to talk about whether he wants to attend or not. I think it could be fun.

More Musings from improv class:

Improv Class Musings Index

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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