The Improv Scene Will Be Fine

Sometimes you have to be gentle. Holding a baby? Be gentle. Handling fruit? Be gentle. Talking about feelings with a significant other? Be gentle. 

Improvising? I don't think we need to be gentle. Let's attack the scene, and discover. 

We can jump off the horse. Slink into the home. Drive out of the drive-in. Pull up the the bank. Crash the bachelor party.. Drag yourself to the family reunion. Fall asleep at school. Flee a swarm of bees. Charge a swarm of bees. Trip over a Barbie. Prance through the city square. Roam the mountains. Teeter on the edge of litter box. Waddle through the water. Stroll into the laboratory. Lurch towards the fire. Tip toe around the dragon. March down the hall.

We can pray for more. Demand Less. Snatch the money. Remove the robes. Grip the gun. . Examine the rug. Declare your love. Smoke the weed. Toss the football. Sharpen the knife  Rip a page out of the magazine. Shout the password. Mug for the camera. Choke the threat. Hug the neighbor. Smash the memory. Glue the shards together. Defend our client. Swim across the lake. Parachute off the building. Haunt the attic. Bridge the gap. Scout the rivals. 

We can light off fireworks. Build a porch. Discover the locked cabinet. Collect enough coins. Spook the Amazon delivery person. Protect your client.  Train elephants. Train dolphins. Train conducting. Graduate college. Survive the Apocalypse. Board a submarine. Sneak behind a waterfall. Grill steaks. Abandon a Ferris Wheel. Attend the symphony. Forge a Constitution. Track the last Chinese Maple. Adopt an kitten. Tremble in front of a chocolate chip cookie.

We can exclaim how we feel. Mutter your preference. Sigh about the lack of food. Stutter in the face of evil. Chatter as the wind blows. Gossip about the principal. Squeak to your mouse friends. Collude with your prisoners. Stammer your hope. Bellow your fear. Croak your final words. Argue to the judge. Rant on a podcast.  Admit you TP'ed the house. Report on the experimental findings. 

We can cling to the train. Hop in a taxi. Swerve on a unicycle. Shred on a skateboard. Triple Axel in skates. Time travel in a cardboard box. Mach one on a jet. 

Let's do any of that. If we commit to our choices, and you commit to your partners choices, we can never break the scene. It's pretty darn durable. 

Game Night Machine

Game Night at Blacktop is becoming one of my favorite community events. Do you love Cards Against Humanity? We have a table! Can't get enough of Settlers of Caatan? We have a table! Did you just buy Street Fighter V and want to play in on a 12 foot screen? We have the screen, and your choice of an xbox one or PS4. You bring the game! In fact, bring any game, we we'd love to play it during Game Night.

Before Game Night, I never heard of Utter Nonsense. Jay brought it one night though, and I haven't stopped talking about it. I gurantee you'll find me playing Utter Nonsense this Friday night. Join me!

You'll discover new games and new friends at Game Night. Last month a bachlorette party came to Game Night. They drove from downtown Sacramento to our Game Night. I'll be honest, I held my breath when they reached for Exploding Kittens. I hope they have a "unique" sense of humor. They did! They loved the game, and spend the night clustered around teh table bursting out in laughter every few minutes.

Remember those math equations in elementry school that would show a variety of inputs entering a "math machine," and that big, hulking industrial math machine would combine all the elements to create a new number or equation? I'm sure I can find an example of it on the internet somewhere. Give me a moment. I'll find it.

Aha! Here we go:
 

Are all those elementary school memories flooding back? Well, the Game Night feels a lot like that math machine. In comes a variety of people. In come a bunch of different elements that have never met, groups that wouldn't bump into each other anywhere else, but here. Here they are coming through the doors of Blacktop Comedy, games in hand, looking for something new. Three hours later, after sharing games, and strategies, and laughs, everyone leaves Blacktop changed. We don't leave alone. We leave as friends. The Game Night "machine" kicks out friendships. 

It happens every month. And, it's pretty awesome to witness and be a part of. Sometimes I sit back and think about all the people I never new before Game Night, or Playgrounds, or improv classes or shows. The only thing that gave us an opportunity to meet was Blacktop Comedy. It's a strange feeling. We could still be drifting by each other in restaurants or streets, never realizing the friendships we could have. 

What's my point? Walk to Game Night this Friday. You might just discover a new game and a new lifelong friend.

One Guy a Dog and Pizza Place

I usually walk Coqui in the morning. Coqui is a dog. He loves stopping to sniff and pee on everything. He's the classic dog. Bushes were made for marking, and he has big plans. I'm not in a hurry, it's a leisurely walk. I'm not power walking the block. (Is there a band name called Walking the Block? That sounds like a good band name). I usually walk Coqui around the same time every morning, 9am, so the surroundings are pretty standard. Nothing out of the ordinary. Pigeons, Ford Focus, and garbage cans. Got it. Seen it.

However, last week I walked Coqui in the evening, after a show at Blacktop. It was late, but not so late that everyone was asleep. The world was still alive, but this was a different world. Music was drifting down from bedrooms, TVs blaring sport clips on ESPN (I'm pretty familiar with that dah-du-dah dah-du-dah,) and smells wafting from late night porch dinners. It was a drifting, blaring, and wafting world.

It was fantastic! Same Roseville street, but suddenly so much more vibrant, and alive. A change of time changed the space. I wasn't bored. I was intrigued. What were they eating? What is that band? Are they talking about football? I wonder how the San Francisco 49ers will do this off season.

My mind was suddenly filled with thoughts, and ideas, and I didn't plan that. I had no plans to think about Kapernick and the failing niners. I wasn't thinking, "I should really invest in a cookbook." I just experienced these thoughts, because I switched up Coqui walking time.

It's amazing how much our brain generates when we change things, when we move from the familiar to the new. One of the best teachers I ever had was Mark Sutton and Joe Bill who told us, a room full of improv nerds furiously scribbling down everything they shared, "a pizza place is a big location. Try being in the break room."

Brilliant! How many times have you began a suggestion of "Pizza Hut" tossing dough in the air. Go ahead, raise that hand! You know you've done it! We all have! But, how stale does that scene start feel (fine! You got me! pun intended). Tossing pizzas in the air is like walking Coqui at 9am. Look around, you've been here before! It's hard to see something new when we're beginning with such familiar territory. Our mind can feel in a rut, and it's not generating any new thoughts.

But, start in the break room, and suddenly, you notice the security system, a bottle of Jameson Whiskey, and a dart board. That's new! Time to play.