Oscar Musical ON!
It was graduation night at Whole World Theater’s improv class of 2010. The stage setting was a funeral service for a young man who had died because of a shark attack. And not just any shark-an alien shark! As one of the mourners on stage, I had just delivered my eulogy and had started talking about how, while growing up as a Rastafarian, I had met this amazing kid Tom (the dead guy), while I was bumming for bananas in the beaches of Jamaica. I started talking about how I missed him today after all these years, when Lauren called out “Sounds like a song. Oscar Musical ON! ”
I was nervous. I could see my buddies (Sanjay, Mani, Prabhakar, Amrutha, Srinidhi and Shyam) sitting in audience rooting for me (Thanks guys!) and even the entire audience (some 150 folks, mostly Americans) seemed so encouraging, smiling and waiting for me to deliver something wonderful. I paused for a moment, and then started singing about how I had worked so hard to teach Pilates to Tom, only to find that years later, while performing crazy stunts, he had leapt in the mouth of an alien shark! After about 3 minutes of me crooning crazy stuff to the music of the amused keyboard artist, Lauren finally declared “Musical OFF!”
By this time, my heart was beating at a million beats per second! I know as improvisational comedians, we are allowed to come up with crazy ideas..but was not sure yet if the audience was with me on this one. But I didn’t have to worry so much- the crowd loved the story, and almost immediately, I heard a thunderous round of applause! My friends in the audience were chanting my name, and for a minute there, I felt like a rock star!!
Well, everyone performed great that day – Wes and Charles were hilarious as superheroes with some sort of a family crisis, Bernardette was spot on as the bitching mother-in-law, Les, Jaya, Ken, David and Mike were just awesome during the funeral scene. And we had so much fun that night! Anyway, graduation is over now, and I will be missing those folks for now. Advanced classes begins in 3 months time, Lauren would be sending out emails about who have been selected (keeping my fingers crossed! ), but I am really looking forward to jamming with my team again.. And doing some more fun improv :)
I was nervous. I could see my buddies (Sanjay, Mani, Prabhakar, Amrutha, Srinidhi and Shyam) sitting in audience rooting for me (Thanks guys!) and even the entire audience (some 150 folks, mostly Americans) seemed so encouraging, smiling and waiting for me to deliver something wonderful. I paused for a moment, and then started singing about how I had worked so hard to teach Pilates to Tom, only to find that years later, while performing crazy stunts, he had leapt in the mouth of an alien shark! After about 3 minutes of me crooning crazy stuff to the music of the amused keyboard artist, Lauren finally declared “Musical OFF!”
By this time, my heart was beating at a million beats per second! I know as improvisational comedians, we are allowed to come up with crazy ideas..but was not sure yet if the audience was with me on this one. But I didn’t have to worry so much- the crowd loved the story, and almost immediately, I heard a thunderous round of applause! My friends in the audience were chanting my name, and for a minute there, I felt like a rock star!!
Well, everyone performed great that day – Wes and Charles were hilarious as superheroes with some sort of a family crisis, Bernardette was spot on as the bitching mother-in-law, Les, Jaya, Ken, David and Mike were just awesome during the funeral scene. And we had so much fun that night! Anyway, graduation is over now, and I will be missing those folks for now. Advanced classes begins in 3 months time, Lauren would be sending out emails about who have been selected (keeping my fingers crossed! ), but I am really looking forward to jamming with my team again.. And doing some more fun improv :)
posted by Sri at 3:16 AM
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