(This is one of my 52 performances in 52 weeks)
iO West hosts a yearly improv festival. And this year, a Guinness World Record was being broken for longest consecutive improv show. It ran for 7 days straight!
I am in awe of Keith Saltojanes and Rob O’Connell who produced that monster of a show (and performed in it as well).
They booked groups in (usually) hour long slots. When it was time for the next group to come onstage, they’d feel out a transition and jump in, continuing where the story left off. It was a sight to see!
When I heard about this show, I knew I wanted to be a part of it in some way. So, I wrote asking if I could volunteer to help in the middle of the night. (After all, I work until about 2am every morning. So, why not swing by the theater from 3-6am or so?) And that’s what I got to do!
(And I’ll make that it’s own post.)
During my time around iO, I learned there were open jams (meaning anyone can come improvise) from 3-4pm everyday.
So on Friday (the one day I didn’t have class), I went to jump in!I had a grand ol’ time!We found some running bits that kept coming back. They group of strangers seem to gel together quite well!
The only thing that seemed slightly odd to me was that someone started using some real props. There was a scene where I was flirting with a waiter. And he was like “all we have is this water,” and handed me an actual water bottle.It wasn’t all that super weird. I mean, come on. I can deal with having a water bottle in my hand. It’s just a little odd when you’re eating fake eggs but holding real water.
I also even got to do a few time steps! There was a part where someone talked about how loud their neighbors were. So, people started coming in as the loud neighbors. I was thinking about starting to tap dance when I saw someone else break out a time step! So you know I jumped in immediately! I love any excuse to do some tap dancing.
After the show, I went out with a group of people from the show, which was fun. Aww, improv, bringing people together and making people laugh. Yay!