Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

We got up early enough on Sunday to be on the road by 11 a.m., and we made it back in plenty of time for my improv class. This time I was rested and wasn't suffering from a sake hangover, so things went a lot better than they had the week before.

A few people were absent: Carol was out sick, and Ciara and Ricardo were also absent.

Most everyone showed up a few minutes late, including Steve, but I managed to slip him the index card on which I'd written the information about the comedy club I promised to get him, the one that has open mic nights.

We did some warm-up exercises, including another round of the Name Game. I was amazed again that someone who had been there since week one had trouble remembering everyone's names. I guess they don't ever think about those names outside of class, like I do when I write these up.

Then we did Psycho Circle, the game which started out as Zip Zap Zop, but Dave has been adding new things to the mix, such as saying "beep" to the person next to us or making bunny ears and saying "bunny, bunny, bunny." That was fun. I think it really got people relaxed and loosened up.

We also played some games where we acted out different emotions, which was fun.

He paired us up and had us do What Are You Doing? Instead of going up on stage, we all did it simultaneously, which is a lot less pressure. First, I was paired with Gerry. When we first started, we could do whatever activities we wanted, not based on any theme and not starting with any particular letter.

I had an easier time of it this week, because I'd actually spent the previous week practicing, believe it or not. What I mean by that is, as I walked my dog, Una, I would choose a letter of the alphabet and just generate, without thinking too hard about it, as many activities as I could come up with that started with that letter. Then I would think about how I might act that out. It was a way of getting myself out of the habit that had so destroyed me the week before: over thinking what I was saying. I found that as I did it more often, it became easier.

Then we switched to a new partner, which put me with Geoff. This time all our activities had to relate to a phone booth. I could tell he was over thinking it a bit. At first he came up with "cleaning the glass" and then the next time it was his turn, he started with "cleaning -- the phone" and paused, knowing he shouldn't be repeating an activity. But we weren't eliminating people, just getting more comfortable with the game, so it really didn't matter. After awhile, he seemed to loosen up.

We traded again, and I was with Lori. First we just did one letter, which was pretty easy. Then we had to do two letters, "S" and "T." Our activities had to start with an "S" and the second word had to be a "T." We started easily enough, with me saying, "Stamping Towels." We went back and forth for awhile.

Then my brain froze, coincidentally right as Dave stood next to us. I came up with "Stanking Threesomes!"

Lori looked confused, and Dave said to just do what she thinks it is.

Later, when he called us all together as a group, he said we shouldn't worry about messing up doing What Are You Doing? He said the best thing you can do is throw it all out there and mess up big. As he pointed out, there's nothing funnier than someone losing all control of the English language.

I actually expected that after we'd been doing it simultaneously for awhile, Dave would have us do it two at a time, but he didn't. Instead, he had us sit in a circle and work on Storytelling. This game is a lot like the oral version of the composite story, which I've played with friends in the past. Somebody starts a story and then people pick it up. The difference was that he wanted us to achieve certain goals. We had to establish a Who, a Where and a What, and come to a resolution, all by the time we got around the circle.

To make it more structured, he assigned the first three people to concentrate on establishing the Who and the Where. The next four were to set up the What, as in what's happening, creating a problem. The last three people had to resolve the story.

Lindsay was good at starting stories. The first one was that "Superman and Biff were friends." We went from there to the two of them trying to solve a crime at a building that was on fire, but it turned out it was just a discotheque. That one sort of fell apart.

After each round, Dave would give us tips on how to improve. He said, for example, to avoid dialogue, because it kills the forward action, as the characters stand around talking. If there's a thought you'd say in dialogue, just have them do it. So instead of having someone say, "He asked why he couldn't have more money," say "He demanded more money."

Some of the other tips were to avoid the construction of "decided to," which is just a delaying tactic. Instead of deciding to walk downtown, just walk downtown. He also told us to avoid negating what people are offering. So if someone says the building was on fire and the next person says, "It turned out it was just a disco," you're negating what they're setting up.

In another round, Barbie was looking for a puppy and she ended up in Amsterdam. This seedy guy came up to her and wanted to find drugs, but she wanted to find a puppy instead. They were fighting, and a dog came up and bit her, so she adopted it.

Starting from the other end with Colleen, she set up a story about Bob, who worked in a donut shop and hated his job. A guy with a water pistol came in, and Bob hit him on the head with a coffee pot. But then he gave him a dozen donuts, so that was another case of negation.

Another story was about a union worker who demanded more wages. That one really fell apart, with people starting a riot and kicking over chairs.

Probably the best one was about a guy named Paul who lived in a cockroach infested apartment in the Bronx. His name was Paul, and he had these terrible neighbors. He went downstairs to the pest supply store, and the guy behind the counter looked at him funny and gave him a box of "Pest Kill." He swallowed it and was declared dead on Sunday. Kind of a morbid ending, but at least the progression of the story was a bit stronger.

I've played the composite story with people before, but never with any sort of direction. The goal of this game was clearly to work more collaboratively, rather than to just say whatever came out of your mouth. I got the feeling we were learning this game to learn how to work together on the stage, instead of just being out for ourselves.

After we'd done this several times, he had us do it in groups of four. The difference was that he would conduct the stories, pointing at people or pulling his hand away to tell them when to start and end their contributions. As we went, he gave us more tips, with just as many positive ones as negative.

I actually had some moments of serendipity. I was up with a group of people and our topic was Spring Break. Since I thought Dave might start with me, I thought I'd come up with something. Sure enough, he pointed to me, and I said, "The little old ladies who lived in Fort Lauderdale hated Spring Break. It was the worst time of year." Unexpectedly, he kept pointing to me, so I said, "And they couldn't get any beer." That last part wasn't planned, and it was a lot funnier.

Steve was next, and he'd apparently been writing ahead, as well. He had been planning something about these college guys with their key of beer, so he just went with that and negated what I'd said. The funny thing is, though, the frat guys got into a fight. One of the frat guys said, "I want..."

And Dave pointed to me. "... more killing and less talk." And he threw the keg of beer. Steve was next, and he had the keg land near the old ladies, so we had them coming back into the story. They drank the keg, got really blitzed, took off their clothes and starred in Grannies Gone Wild. We all had a lot of fun with that one.

I participated in another one where the subject was "first date." This time, we were incorporating emotion. Dave would give us an emotion and we were supposed to tell the story that way. They started off going to a drive-in to watch March of the Penguins. The girl got bored and wanted to get some concessions from the concession stand. But the guy's wallet had been stolen so he couldn't buy her anything. She stormed off.

He got desperate, banging on the car windows next to him. A guy let him in, and it turned out he was a wallet maker! Fred could have any wallet he wanted. Then Dave said, "Sad," and pointed to me.

"Unfortunately, the wallets were made of cheese, and Fred was allergic to cheese." He pointed to someone else, who described his lip blowing up and drool coming out of his mouth. Fortunately, there was a doctor in the back seat, with a stethoscope, with only one ear piece. Dave pointed to me, "Which he stuck in his nose. It was really sad."

I usually kept my mouth shut with suggestions, but this one time he was looking for a subject for a story, and nobody else said anything, so I said, "Fishing for cats." That led to a truly bizarre story with this guy fishing cats out of a pond full of cats. But the cats couldn't breathe underwater. He caught one, which had already died several times. He confronted his mother about it, and it turned out she had put the cats in the pond because she had too many of them. So they had an auction.

Surprisingly, this took up of the class. It went fast. I felt really good about how things went; I found it easier when I knew that not everything relied on my shoulders. Again, I think that's one of the things he's trying to teach us, to rely on each other.

Afterwards, a chatted with a few people and then headed out to get Chinese food for The Gryphon and I, since I was supposed to meet him at his PAGE meeting to eat before driving home. I was heading the same way as Dave, about a half block behind him, so I called out loudly, "I'm not following you."

I told him how I was trying to find this Chinese restaurant that was supposed to be on Walnut and 19th. He said he didn't know of a restaurant on Walnut and 19th, so I consulted the piece of paper where I'd written it down. "Oh, it's on Chestnut and 19th," I said sheepishly, which was back the other direction. I waved good-bye to him and turned around.

I babbled excitedly about the class when I saw The Gryphon, but he was already busy thinking about the game he was running that night. People kept interrupting us to ask questions as we ate. But I didn't care; I was flying high. Just goes to show, if you screw up one week, try again.

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Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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