breakin' 2: electric boogaloo

csz shows, y'all.

my apologies for anyone who attended the 10:30pm show on saturday... boy, to be in that show was one of the most fun things out there, but nearly one of the most unprofessional moments of my life. i know that nearly everyone onstage broke at least once. "breaking", non-improvising friends, is when you laugh at something within the scene that isn't scenically sound as your character. really, it just means you get the giggles. it's cute if it's done sparingly, like, when you can tell that someone really didn't mean to laugh, and couldn't help it. it's not cute, in my opinion, when someone laughs at themselves masturbatorily. ours was the first, but still - since it kept happening, the show as a result was something i'd nearly ask my money back for. people seemed to like it, though. funny. highlights: wolfson accidentally telling everyone that richard pryor was dead, the band not being ready and doing a bunch of "5-6-7-8"s that were laughable, norris and i breaking so hard at each other that we had tears streaming down our faces (i actually walked offstage), and bland holding an improv gun to his head after the bucket round that only the players could see. most of the laughs came from us being incredulous at the show quality. ladewig, within the first half, drew a chart of how the show was going... it was a sloped hill going down and a tiny x that was at the bottom; the x was like a mall map - you are here. we knew it, but couldn't stop it. i suppose those have got to happen once in a blue moon.

on the flip side, no apologies for the 8pm, which was one of the best home shows i've seen/been in lately. it was everything it was supposed to be. improv won in those hours. i reffed that one, and when i asked "who's your favorite celebrity?" for a suggestion, a guy in the front row yelled out my name. it was sweet and though he had probably just heard my name at the beginning of the show or read the program, i was flattered. these are the things that get us through.

improv is a funny animal - obviously, when you have friends as talented as those i have, it's often hit rather than miss, but you truly never even know sometimes when you're even hitting. this is the busy season for us - we get hired for quite a few holiday parties, so the past weeks have been remote after remote for ol' freelance here. on friday, we did a show downtown - 3 person cast, a ref and keys - and this show was... oookay. you know, just ok; not because of our efforts, but because of the scene. nothing seemed perfect. the crowd laughed but was generally unresponsive - the kind of show where maybe a comedy show in general wasn't the right fit for a dining financial firm. this morning, upon wake-up, i received an e-mail of praise from the office. "Rave review from the Client!!! Liana said that she was beaming today because some people told her, 'this was the best holiday party ever!'."

really?
what were your other ones like?

sometimes you just never know.