201: General Jackson

I've been getting reports from people further along in 201 about how soul crushing and complicated it can be. The first two weeks of 201 went along without a hitch; sure I messed up a bit but nothing colossal and the concepts weren't so hard. I was not a fan of this. I wanted to experience pain, humiliation, I wanted to be completely destroyed as an improviser so I could then start building myself back up. This happened yesterday. And it happened in front of Eric Scott of Reuben Williams.

Backstory: ReuWi has easily become my favorite improv group in all of improv history (and my history goes back six months today when I first saw Mother) and I've seen them 10 times since returning to NYC on January 8th. Right now, they have no peer with me. They're The Strokes of improv (and yeah, that's a good thing).

Backstory: I'm waaaaaay intimidated and have low requirements for the term "celebrity." If I first see you perform anything anywhere, you are automatically above me on the social ladder. You're not a person, but a performing god who is infinitely more talented than I and, unless I am contacted, I will most likely always be too nervous to talk to you. I'm starting to get over this; I mean, I initiated talks with Robert Schneider.

So couple my love for Reuben Williams with my crazy intimidation and divide it by having the first trying 201 class, yeah, that equals "uh oh." The first half of class was disastrous for me. I got into scenes, didn't find game, didn't really do anything except talk in accents. I felt totally defeated. I think my main problem is that I'm a showboat. Seriously, get on the General Jackson, because I'm the star tonight. Like, I'm trying to do supportive work but I can't do a scene without being in character, thus making it seem like I'm hogging attention. I was a trashy high school girl, a mentally unstable 6 year old, a health obsessed former fat guy, a skeezy guy who liked to get oiled up by Mexican women, an effeminate bra salesman, etc. I want to do a scene where I'm just Brett or I'm just the straight man setting up for the other person's crazy character, but it seems like my initiations are always insane characters (thus stealing thunder from my partner before their cloud...ever...forms...?) or my partner naturally plays the straight man.

So after showboating in front of Eric (who was auditing my teacher), I felt pretty low. The second half of class went a little better, I felt. We learned swinging door, sweep edits, time dashes, supporting from the back row, lots of stuff. I feel a lot more comfortable with support work; I like getting into a scene, helping, and getting out. I feel like in those instances I'm the utility player that I so want to be and not The Star which is what I fear I come across like. I got another big laugh from Shannon tonight; the game was that Ula fixed Mitch's trumpet just by fiddling with it. I tagged Mitch out and started freaking out (showboat). I said "My car's been burning for five days!" Big laugh that I wasn't expecting. She fixed the car, by the way. I've also been trying to prove (?) that I'm fearless when it comes to improvising. Ari's big thing was "f*** your fear" and I do agree that it has no place in improv. This led me to do a greased up human slip and slide over a class mate who I have now known for 9 hours. Twice. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

The last half hour of class was superb. Shannon had us all do two-person scenes that were completely realistic with no intention of being funny. The point of this being that we don't have to think about being funny to be funny. Every scene got cut off as soon as someone laughed, and every scene did. I held the record for quickest cut. Our suggestion was Africa, Melanie and I stepped out, I said "This is a lovely continent" in a deadpan tone, and I lost it along with everyone else. Oops. This was a refreshing exercise that I'm going to put into practice next time. I feel that too often I go for the joke or funny character when I really just need to be honest.

Afterwards, the three of us in 201 that had 101 together went out with our other 101 classmate and his 201 peeps. We talked about starting a practice group and I think it's going to happen. A dream come true indeed.