If You Aren't Afraid of Failure

You can be successful at anything. That is the way the class started. Good advise in life or in comedy classes. The first question the instructor asked was “how many of you are apprehensive about being here." Half of the class raised their hands. He said we accomplished one goal already by just showing up because they always have several people that register and then don’t show up for the class. Some even pay for the class in advance and still don’t show up.

The first statement and the first question really put me at ease. There were about thirty in the class evenly divided among men and women and across all ages. This class was really for me. A standup class wouldn’t have fit my style near as much as an improv class does. Standup is a scripted routine where you are basically on your own. Much harder and more frigthening. Improv is quick thinking, involving teamwork, responsive humor, unscripted and often laughs result when you aren’t trying to be funny. That is me in a nutshell, quick thinking, responsive humor, and funnier when I am being serious. This class was made for me. As nervous as I was before hand I am now thinking after this eight week class I will take the advance class. After one class I am already confident enough to think about a standup class at some point just to learn something new.

During most of the class we did exercises to help with your memory, concentration, quick thinking, timing etc. To say I had so much fun would be an understatement. Here are three of the ten exercises that we did:

Divide into groups of three. Sit three chairs next to each other. The person in the middle pulls down a photograph from an imaginary album to describe to the person on the left, the person on the left asks you questions about the photograph, while the person on the right every ten to fifteen seconds will give you a math problem to solve. Positions are switched so everyone gets their chance in the middle. I started in the middle and pulled a picture of my mom from the album:

Me: This is my 92 year-old mom she has a mind as sharp as a tack, reads three books a week.

Herb on the left: Does she live with you?

Stuart on the right: what is 9 plus 11

Me: 20. No she still has her own home but currently is in assisted living. She will be going home.
October .

Herb: I imagine being 92 she has some physical ailments.

Stuart: 5 x 9

Me: 45, Yes she does.

This exercise is to improve your concentration while being interrupted. In Improv when on stage you are interrupted and have to continue.


The next exercise was to improve listening skills because in really good improv you have to really listen to what is going on around you. You are paired up sitting directly across from your partner. One of you starts with a sentence. The second person responds with a sentence starting with the last letter of the sentence that he just said.

Carter: Why did you take this class?

Me. Shyness, to get over shyness.

Carter: Seems like a really good reason, I took the class because my roommate took the class and had so much fun doing it.

Me: That is great, have you lived in Oregon a long time?

Carter: Ever since last November, I moved here from Indiana.

Me: Amazing. Welcome to Oregon.

Another exercise was to improve your memory and to help you with remembering names. The group stands in a circle. You are to describe yourself in one word and the word has to begin with the first letter in your name and you must use some type of a body motion to go along with the word. As soon as you are done the next person repeats what the person just said, then describes him/herself then passes to the third person who has to repeat every name and body motion up to the point. Example.

Pat: Personable Pat (holding his hand out in a handshaking motion)

Julie: Pointing at Pat, Personable Pat (holding her hand out in a handshaking motion), Jaguar
Julie (making cat motions with her hand).

Bill: Pointing to Pat, Personable Pat (Holding out hand in handshaking motion), pointing to Julie “Jaguar Julie (making cat motions with his hand), Bashful Bill (covering his face with both hands)
And so on. If you are twentieth person, which I was, nineteen damn motions and names are really hard. I did better with the names then the motions. The cool thing is since teamwork is important in improv so if you forget then the whole class helps you. Also with all exercises during the night if you goof up it was group hug time.

I CAN HARDLY WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK!




The day is on the left, the night is on the right. Which one did I use? I couldn't decide so the day on my left side, the night on my right side.



Kaye requested a picture of my outfit for the night so even though I wanted to wait until I met my goal and I am still twelve pounds away but here is the picture of me in the outfit that my sister bought.















THANKS EVERYONE AND MAY THIS BE A GREAT DAY FOR YOU ALL!