Basic at The Groundlings – Part 11 (The “Ramping Up to the Final Evaluation” Chapter)

August 31, 2012

close up on a tiger's face on the front of Survivor's album cover for "Eye of the Tiger"Last time, we left off with my sleepover with Phil and Amber.

We stayed up until 6am. I was ready to never sleep again, but eventually, they patiently coaxed me into drifting off.

The next day, we had Chipotle together, followed by Phil and Amber dropping me off at Amanda’s house for the usual Thursday afternoon rehearsal my class had.

I was not about to let everything go down the way it did last time. One class does not one bad semester make. I practiced, then I went to yet another drop-in (which went swimmingly, thank you very much). Okay, 10 hours of improv between fateful Wednesday and hopefully better Friday. I can do this.

On Friday, I went in to class with the best attitude I could’ve possibly had. I was ready to face the day, ready for anything, determined to jump in no matter what. I literally danced down the street to school.

(That isn’t all that surprising. I dance down the street all the time – but I was truly full on dancing. People definitely thought I was crazy. Didn’t care. I was ready to take on the world! Sure enough, I somehow brought my improv world back around to not completely awful.)

Holy goodness, it might not be too late for me after all!

I had my two final classes, working as hard as I could. I faltered sometimes, but had some really strong exercises as well. Overall, I felt that things were on the upswing, even if just by a tiny margin. I convinced myself everything would probably be okay.

On the eve of our final class, a few of us went to Chipotle. Remember phenomenally talented Sean? I had been gushing about him behind his back all semester. Now that the end of class was so near, I came around from behind his back and let him know to his face that he was unbelievably helpful to me during the class.

I said that sometimes I’d been scared of certain exercises; but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, if I ended up onstage with Sean, he was going to take care of us. It’s hard to have a bad scene with him, ’cause he can save almost anything. I may have said this on here before, but he’s an amazing improv partner. He’s super funny, really smart, and he’s always trying to do anything he can to help out his partner.

Remora attached to leopard shark
Photo credit: kids.britannica.com

I thought I’d sort of been one of those little remoras, luckily glomming onto Sean and somehow swimming through the shark infested waters uneaten, just because I was attached to a strong shark (Sean). But Sean had equally complimentary things to say about me! I kid you not.

He said he always felt like I’d take care of him in a scene and give him good information he could use. What? ‘Cause I feel like a babbling idiot up there sometimes.

Now, I know I live in L.A. So, your first reaction to anything sweet or complimentary is supposed to be skepticism and cynicism. But, you know what? It seemed really genuine. And I choose to believe it was, (’cause that makes me feel good).

And aw heck. If hilarious Sean likes acting with me and thinks I’m talented, I must be golden. I think I’ve successfully turned this semester around, right? Right? Maybe?

It was time to find out. The big, huge, gigantic day came. It was Friday, June 23rd – evaluation day. Do or die.

And this is where I’ll pick up next time

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