Ah, yeah!
I know it’s silly to have a lucky number, but wouldn’t you know it? Lucky number 3 was the best week yet!
This week was introduction to Harold. If you’re not familiar with improv, that’s a type of longform where you start with three separate beats, then you weave them together throughout the night with time-dashes, character-dashes, and such.
My favorite show at the Groundlings is the Crazy Uncle Joe show on Wednesday nights, which is basically a Harold. Every time I watched it, I thought, “how in the world are they going so fast, remembering every detail, and getting ideas to add things from said details so quickly?!”
But once I started doing it, I realized that for me, this long-form Harold thing is way easier than any short form game. Of course you can have ideas to build off of beats. Once you have a foundation to draw from throughout the show, it becomes a little easier than constantly making up new things (like in short form games).
I also love the challenge of weaving all the separate stories together at the end of the Harold, and I’m proud that we successfully did it in every Harold I was in during the week. (Woot!)
Can I also just tell you that I have totally found my kindred spirit in class. Nothing is ever good enough for him. He pays intense attention to everything going on. And we had a lovely scene together where he initiated this brilliant idea with my character who’d already been established in the show.
I was super pleased about the gift of the great initiation, and he built the scene well on top of that.
(In case you’re wondering, I was working for NASA and we learned an asteroid was going to destroy the earth, but I couldn’t tell anybody… So he played my husband, having made a really romantic dinner for us and sending the kids to be with their aunt. And he just played super duper loving and kind and asked me how work was, and I had to keep changing the subject – at which point he’d remind me how lovely our family and kids were. It was awesome and people laughed at the tension in the scene…)
And even after this brilliant idea of his that he executed well, when it was time for questions, he was all, “What could I have done better?” And then he had even more ideas. And I’m like, “Yes. This guy. Always wanting to be the super best. (He’s wildly impressive outside of class.) So, that’s really fun!
(For the record though, I love everyone in class in their own special ways.)
I had an exceptional moment on the last day of class. I was the last one out of the room for lunch and I asked my teacher a question (I forget what), and as we talked, she told me, “You have a ton of potential in improv. I really hope you stick with this. I could see you doing a lot at this theater.”
I told her that meant the world to me to hear ’cause I never really know if I’m delusional or getting better lol. And it just made me feel super good and like maybe this isn’t all for naught.
(Oh, but just wait until we talk about week 4. [dum dum duuuum (*scary chords*)]