First Show

I had my first improv show this past Friday night. I was coming from Beverly Hills because I had a job interview for Fogo de Chao at 5:30. The interview went well, but I don’t think they are going to hire me right away. The woman that interviewed me told me that when they open a restaurant they only hire the bare minimum number of people that they need and then as the restaurant grows they hire additional people. She knew that I had a full time job right now, but I told her that I could start immediately because I did not like my job very much. She also told me that she lived in Dallas, TX. I told her that I lived in Richardson, TX for a couple of years when I was a kid. Weirdly enough, that is where she lives. So we talked about it for a few minutes and I think it may have helped me in the interview so maybe they will call me in a couple of months to be an add on person.

I left the interview at 6pm and had to be at the theater by 7pm to get ready for the show.

When I was coming to L.A. the only thing I was really worried about was the traffic. Everyone always tells you that the traffic in L.A. is horrendous. It is bad, don’t get me wrong, but it is just as bad in Chicago. Only in L.A. you usually have a longer distance to go because this city is so spread out, so the traffic seems worse.

Well, I guess the worst place to be on a Friday in L.A. is in Beverly Hills. Everywhere I went I hit traffic. I tried to take side streets, main streets, highways, but everywhere I went there was a wall of cars. So by 7pm, I was still pretty far away from the theater. I called the director and he told me that I could still be in the show as long as I made it there by show time. The show started at 7:30 and I got there at 7:25. I was placed in a few games that I had done in rehearsal and one that I didn’t know at all. But I was not nervous because it’s improv, you just make stuff up.

One thing I did notice was that a lot of the people in the show were obsessed by costumes. The greenroom has a bunch of clothes and wigs and props that people can use as part of the characters that they are going to play on stage. I didn’t use any props or costumes because this is improv and you are just supposed to go with your gut reactions on stage and I think that if you have your character all figured out and dialogue all thought out that it really isn’t improvised.

Also, I don’t know if this is just this group of people or indicative of L.A. there were people that could not be quiet backstage while other people were on stage performing. I don’t get it. There is only a thin curtain separating the stage from the greenroom and people in the greenroom where talking, laughing and one guy was playing a guitar. One dude even tried to get me into a conversation and I was whispering to him, and he kept asking me to speak louder because he couldn’t hear me. I wanted to choke and say,

“Motherfucker, there is a show going on. If I am whispering, there must be a reason, think about it”.

But I didn’t, I just told him that I would talk to him after the show.

All in all, I was very happy with the show. We had a small crowd of about 8-9 people but they were pretty active in their participation and laughing. Our director was very happy and told us so during notes. I have always been told that while a director is giving notes, you just listen and acknowledge them. But the same guy had to talk during the notes and then if the director gave him a note that could be understood as criticism he would launch into a story about the reason that he did what he did, usually because someone else had done something wrong. I wanted to kill him then also. But the director was patient and we all went our separate ways after the show.

I was pissed when I got back to my car and saw that I got a parking ticket for being in some residential zone without a sticker, but I was pretty happy about the show and so I didn’t worry about it.

I went home and picked up my friends the Reverend and Rock star. We went over to my friend Clark’s house to play Halo. Clark just moved here from Chicago with his girlfriend a couple of weeks ago, so I wanted him to get to know the Halo gang because he will have fun with them. We played Halo until about 2 am and then I took the boys home.

Saturday was spent watching movies and writing and making some killer spaghetti sauce.

I have decided that this coming Friday is going to be my last day at this present job. I really just can’t stand it.