Week 6 - High School Revisited

Last night the interview-interviewee game took so long that we didn't get to the hitchhiker exercise. The hitchhiker game will kickoff next week's class.

A couple of things before describing the exercise. Gifts in improv are what you give to your partner on stage to help him or her be funny and to make it easier for him/her to come up with some ideas.

Remember in P.E. in high school when teams were chosen for a game and there were even times when you were the captain doing the choosing? There was that poor little goof/geek on the end that was always chosen last for the team. I was never chosen last in P.E., always in the first five or ten taken, and when I was captain I never gave any consideration to the feelings of that poor geek because I wanted to win. Well, last night I got a really good dose what it feels like to be chosen last and it was excruciating. Makes we wish I could return to high school to be captain of a team and pick the geeks first! I don't know what the problem was since many in the class have told me I am the funniest one in class and the instructors are always complimenting me on my quick wit (more so than the others in class). However, none of the class members apparently wanted to be on stage with me last night! It has me questioning myself this morning.

Here is the interview game, also called "endowing characters":

There are two chairs on stage, one for the interviewer, one for the interviewee. The instructor starts the game as an interviewer. He makes an introduction (you can't use gender in the introduction) "Tonight we are lucky to have with us the most noted author on childrens' books, long suffering from diabetes and currently donates all the profits from her books to diabetes research. Welcome to our show, Cathy". The instructor, Pat, will then "interview" Cathy. Asking questions that she can enlarge the character she was just given or just answer the questions. After a couple of minutes the instructor than says "We have enjoyed having you with us today, we will be right back after the commercial break." The instructor moves off of the stage and Cathy moves to the interviewer chair. She then will introduce a "guest", it is up to her which class member to choose, she will say something like this "We are lucky to have with us the oldest living sniper from World War II, currently walking with a cane and is hard of hearing becuase of all the gun shots that went off near their ears, we would like to welcome Sophia." This continues until every class member has a chance to be on stage. The second to last class member chosen was Rachel. She introduced a character "We are lucky to have with us the world's most well know marital arts expert, Bill." That was a really hard character for me. Also she asked questions that didn't help me expand the character. It was very difficult. When she was done inteviewing me I moved to the interviewer chair. Since I was the last one chosen I had to choose one of the instructors as the interviewee.

A couple of things. The instructor said I gave him the best "gifts of the night". Which meant it was easy for him to be funny. We both agreed that I was a great interviewer but a terrible interviewee. We also agreed that Stuart was the class member that did the best on stage last night. He was introduced as a sports star with a very dominant personality. He pretty much, in a very funny way, took over the interview when he was the interviewee. It was hilarious. Before mentioning my introduction and my interview I just wanted to let you know that I had very little stage fright. Nothing like I had the week I did the stand up routine.

"We are very lucky to have with us tonight the world's most foremost relationship expert. They are having a little trouble walking tonight because they just recently got out of the hospital after being shot by an ex. Let us all welcome, Pat."

"Hi, Pat. Thank your for being with us tonight."

"Bill, you are welcome. It is always is nice to see you."

"So, Pat which one of your seven marriages did you learn the most from?"

Pat gave a very funny long answer that had the class rolling. I really don't remember all of it but he learned to play a musical instrument from one of his ex wifes.

"Pat, I hear you are about to be married for the eighth time. Will all your ex wifes be at the wedding?"

Again Pat turned it into a very funny answer that had the class laughing. Then my last question.

"Do you like lawyers?, I mean you must have made several divorce lawyers rich."

He answered the question and the interview and the class ended.

I learned a lot form the class last night. I learned I don't like to be chosen last. I learned I am very good at defining a character for someone else and very good on the fly at coming up with questions. And I learned I don't like having a character defined for me. Not a bad night.

Hope this is a great day for you and that you always get chosen first!