So it’s Thursday night after 11pm, and I’m writing my daily blog post. I had notes for another topic I wrote this afternoon, but looking it over, it just didn’t fit my mood, so I’m starting over.
I just came back from a comedy improv jam at the Comedy Spot down the street here in Sacramento. This place is rocking, filled with fun comedy improv shows and opportunities for improv students like myself to get up and practice. Tonight’s improv jam was such an opportunity: you put your name in a hat, and then you get called up for a spontaneous “improv team,” where then you make up scenes for about 15 minutes or so. This is actually an art form, and I have been learning about it in an improv class that I have been taking.
This is probably my 5th time being in the Improv Jam. I learn something new every time. Tonight I was focused on staying in the moment and listening to my scene partner. Improv is all about the art of listening. You will get ideas and suggestions from your partner, even when you come in with an idea for a scene, and you need to be able to respond to what they say. I was focused on the “receiving” bit of improv, not simply the “putting out” bit. As in, putting out ideas, starting something. I have done a lot of that. I am working on really taking in what my scene partner is giving me, even in the somewhat pressured situation of having a live audience.
Improv comedy is something I just discovered last year, when I first started attending comedy classes at the Comedy Spot. It is something I actually thought about for many years. But it took me actually getting off my butt last spring and going to a class. Thus started a new chapter of fun, creativity, and community that is really enriching my life.
It’s a nice break from the music world, to be honest. I have sometimes been so serious about my music career, so heavy and attached or hopeful or outcome-oriented, that it is nice to go into the comedy world and just be a student again, just have fun, and not be so hung up on myself. Of course, in addition to me doing comedy improv, I’ve also gotten a really cool music gig out of it, since I play piano for a live musical improv show (Yes, we improvise a musical!).
Doing improv comedy allows me to get experience performing more on the acting side. The great thing about improv is how immediate it is: you don’t have to audition and get a part, you don’t have to learn a script, you just work out ideas in the moment with your scene partner. It is really like using your imagination but in a context of conversation, movement, and a live audience. In other words, it is great fun!
I have always been an improvisor. It shows up in my piano playing, obviously, but also in my teaching style, in my liking of freestyle rap, and my sense of humor. For example, I have always preferred trying to make up clever observations rather than telling pre-canned jokes. I’m not one to “tell jokes” all that much, but I like to think I am capable of saying something extremely funny that comes from the moment. That is improvisation.
So being able to channel that sense of humor, that sense of spontaneity through words, is a lot of fun. For a long time, I was that sort of closet actor, the thespian who never was, the guy who ended up behind a keyboard or a desk rather than acting in the play. Those were originally ambitions of mine, but life just didn’t work out that way. It’s nice to be able to act out some of those desires in this fun way, now that I’m probably mature enough to know how to handle it all.
So try out new things that you have always wanted to do. Your life will be richer for it!