Not Fit for Normal Humans

Last night I realized that the iO Summer Intensive has rendered me unfit for normal human social interactions. Not realizing I had stepped outside the improv vortex, I hung out with five friends from high school. Despite a lovely dinner of laughter and margaritas, I felt distinctly out of step with them, like an Other faking my way through their ways but taking unintended missteps by over-sharing about blow jobs and vaginas. When they asked about my last three weeks and I would begin to wax ecstatically about my improv life, their eyes would seek out the nearest fire exits in a way one does when someone is talking about religion or Amway.

With the greatest relief, I soon plugged back into my Visibly Tight team outside the sculpted entrance of Second City where we were meeting before our set. I felt like a refuge who had finally found her way back home.

Visibly Tight at Second City after our set

"They don't understand me," I clumsily tried to explain the outside world to my team. "It's scary out there. They hardly talk about improv at all!"


My teammates seemed confused for I believe they have forgotten the existence of the non-improv world. But we shrugged it off good naturedly, slipsliding back into the vortex together. Before long, we were warming up with improvised songs about Piero's room and organic opens and the constant stream of improv analysis upon which we feed. After a fun set at Second City, we hung out until the 1am "third set" show to watch some great improv while nursing a very strong vodka and soda. By 3am, we were singing and whooping it up, making funny-mostly-to-us in our private, little world. Home safe at last.