Smell It Touch It Taste It Feel It Fuck It: My Improv Life

Peter and Me (David too)

Peter: See you at Second City for our set tonight? (He's referring to Visibly Tight's 10 minute set at the "Midnight Melt.) 

Me: I don't think I can make it. 

Peter: Oh? What show are you seeing? 

Me: The Inside of My Eyelids. 

Peter: I don't know that show. Who's in it? 

Me: It's  a one-woman show, starring me. 

This conversation, held in the few moments after my musical improv workshop got out and his began, perfectly sums up the state of our lives. If we're not learning about improv or talking about improv, we're performing it or watching it. There simply are no other options in this delicious Chicago life.  The title of this post is a famous Susan Messing quote that has to do with staying in the moment. But really, I need to put the moment on pause.

I done run out of steam tonight. It's 7pm on Friday and all I can think about is getting my laundry done and going to bed. You know it's bad because I'm blowing off Visibly Tight's set at Second-fucking-City. This is a luxury I can allow because: 1.) It's only a ten minute set and there will about 9-10 players there already, 2.) We have a 20 minute set at 10:30pm at Second City tomorrow night, and wild horses couldn't keep me away from that bad boy! We're opening up for a student show at the de Maat Theatre at Second City.

Senja and Scott
finding a fun way to endure
Dave's long feedback on their scene

Dave, giving feedback

I have a very full weekend, on top of a very full week, and I know I can't do it all if I don't get at least one night of sleep. Dave Asher, our little Napoleon,  put us through a mild form of hell this week. His harsh criticism style came to be appreciate by the crew; however, it was his ridunkulously long-winded deliveries had us crying with boredom. Our team was feeling a bit beaten down a couple days ago. But just like a beautiful opening of a Harold, in unison we limped out of class on Wednesday at 5pm, vomited forth outside iO to get our bearings. Someone suggested we go out for drinks, and we all yes-anded that baby. A clutch of us meandered down Clark Street towards Peter's house in Boystown (the gay district). A couple cases of beer was picked up on the way. Eventually, we found ourselves in Peter's living room with the suggestion that we tell our most secret stories to each other. Like I said, our interactions unfolded organically like a perfect opening with one thing leading to another and all suggestions accepted and added on to. The story-swap suggestion was quite brilliant and, in retrospect, was exactly what our team needed, a recommitment ceremony of sorts after a trying week. Cathartic and comic, we bonded together until hunger drove us towards a Mexican restaurant with killer margaritas.

Ben, James, Cheslea, Christian

David

David, TJ & Tracy Letts

And we banded together, spiritually arm-in-arm, back once again to the theater for the 11pm TJ & Dave show...with the surprise special guest, the Tony-award winning playwright Tracy Letts.


That was Wednesday.

I include these two because they are porn
shots of TJ and Dave making out

More improv porn

Tracy Letts feeling up TJ

We returned to the theater on Thursday morning, our final day of Level Three with Dave Asher, with a renewed sense of unity, humor and vigor which spread the whole group, even those who were not able to make it to Peter's house the previous evening. We were able to laugh off the moments of tedium and take his feedback with a grain of salt, gratitude and compassion. We ended by very successfully performing two musical Harolds in which we surprised ourselves with our new-found skills and abilities. 

Musical Harold

I'm telling you, we do some weird shit
(I love every second of it!)

Stuart & me

The "Dirty Girl/Boy" song
Brilliant!

Riding high, we broke off from each other with various plans to meet up at various shows that evening. After a lickety split dinner and shower at home, I hightailed it up to Annoyance Theatre to meet up with Scott and Peter to see our first week teacher, Lyndsay Hailey, do 20 minutes of her solo show as an opener for an all-African American improv troupe called Three Peat. Lyndsay was quirky and hilarious and brilliant. If SNL fails yet again to snap her up, it's their loss entirely.

Lyndsay playing a really weird, fucked up character
Hilariously.

"European"

Her honest yoga teacher was our favorite

Peter, Scott and I took the lull between the end of that show and the 10:30 show at iO to grab some drinks (I had another Flirtini! Yum! I'm officially in love.) and more heart-to-hearts. I love those guys. I really do. While we were there, we got an SOS call on our Facebook page from one of our members whose boyfriend dumped her unceremoniously via Skype that evening. (What a dick.) So we skittered down to iO to sit with her at the shows. We saw Michael Pizza and a great show called The Scene (with TJ!) who had a great structure that I need to see again so I can bring it back home because I think it will work well for our group. After the show, we commiserated at the theater's bar with our jilted friend.

I couldn't help but to notice TJ at his usual space at the bar. I have been trying to get up the courage to approach him, and even wrote him a message via FB that I wanted to introduce myself and ask him again if he'd be willing to let me interview him while he's in town. (He had begged off of the usual Geeking Out with... instant message procedure because he says he is a very slow typist. For him, I told him, I would make an exception.) If I haven't made it clear already, I love TJ Jagodowski's work, and I've only fallen even more in love with his work the more shows I see. He's so brilliant and such a flawless team player, and I have the world of admiration for him.  He's quite literally the most skilled and generous improviser I've ever seen. It's like watching Monet paint. I finally got the nerve up to introduce myself - he's from western Mass., I've met some of his family, etc., so I had an intro. line.

As promised by people who know him, he was completely friendly, open and congenial. He invited me to hang with him out behind the theater so he could smoke a cigarette (ew), so I enjoyed a private audience with my most revered improviser on the planet. As I passed my friends, it was too much fun to exchange silent looks of, "OMG!" and "Shutthefrontdoor! Look at this shit!" as I trailed TJ out of the back of the theater. We sat side-by-side on the fire escape steps, shooting the shit for about 15 minutes. Of course, I was BEYOND thrilled to get to chat with him - despite the fact that I was blathering on like a big fucking IDIOT(omg, please teach me to shut up one of these days!) AND he agreed to let me interview him in person on Sunday. So now I am BEYOND beyond thrilled.

But that moment on the back steps of iO Theater sitting next to TJ Jagodowski. That was a moment to remember.

I'm loving the fact that we all feel so comfortable at the theater. I'll easily spend more time there than anywhere else in Chicago, including my own bedroom. For these five weeks, iO has become my home, and this familiarity fills my heart.