On Saturday morning, Mom had surprise plans I didn't know about: she was going to drop off the van to get the seat fixed while I drove her to the eye doctor, then we'd swap cars and I'd get the oil changed in mine. Mom wanted to ask the dude there about the sunroof (yes,again—now we're debating having that guy look at it next weekend), so...that subject was fun. We had lunch and did a few errands and also managed to get Mauricio and his wife (and some random friend of his who I guess was really bored that night!) to come to my improv show! We all drove up to Sacramento and back that night, eventually finishing off the evening by finding a place in Danville that does liquid nitrogen ice cream, Crafts Creamery. This thrilled me no end.

As for the show: I don't have too great of notes on this since I was uh, occupied. We had seven people—one person who said she wasn't going to be able to make it did and one who we assumed was coming didn't show, so go figure. Mom got most of it recorded but I haven't gotten to watching it yet. I spent most of the first and second beats thinking how I was going to handle going on stage, so I admit I didn't pay super close attention. Not being able to write them down at the time didn't help either. Ah well.

Monologues: there was one about gaming....I did one about the time I drove into a ditch, someone else did one about learning to drive, I forget the fourth one (Brian said we could do four).

1a. Husband took photos on vacation and is gleefully showing them off to his wife, who was sick throughout them and hates them. But the rest of them were good...
1b. Wedding speech, saying inappropriate things.
1c. Something about a man getting pregnant.

2a. Driving lessons in which the driver is incredibly nervous. Gave me flashbacks.
2b. Egg breaking lessons in which she's incredibly nervous. I seem to recall this one finished with a selfie.
2c. Something about a security guard?

3a. I initiated this one—playing board games and I'm a super obnoxious, fairly blatant cheater at it. This time: Candy Land, drawing cards out of the middle of the deck. (I actually used to fix games like this with my baby cousins so the oldest/”perfect” one didn't win all the time.)
3b: Monopoly, I'm the banker and I made up my own cards to draw and knock dice off the table.
3c: “You got your husband pregnant in the game of Life?” (We did a blend at the end. My scene partner was excellent.)

(Note: I'm really glad I initiated because with an odd number, one girl was only in group scenes. Afterwards, everyone in my group kept asking me and her why she didn't do anything on stage. She was all, "I did group scenes, and I'm fine with that, thanks.")

Game 1: Twister! 'Nuff said.
Game 2: rearranging chairs on stage, grabbing chairs out of the audience and monkeying around with them in various ways before putting them all back. Very fun to do and watch.

Brian's commentary afterward:
(a) sometimes people set up hits and didn't pay them off later, like mentioning what sounds like an interesting story and not getting back to ti.
(b) One person had great commitment to character. It's extremely hard to teach that.
(c) He liked how I laid out the idea at the start, but he didn't think I played balls to the walls so much—he wished me and the character girl could mash our heads together, hah. “Have to heighten balls” was the note he wrote down. I need to commit to character more.
(d) He loved that we did fast games after the slower scenes, it's the kind of thing we need to do more in shows. Be aware of the ebb and flow. It could have been more extreme, like making threats or something. This gave him the idea to do a 3 hour workshop on physicality in shows.
(e) “The best thing to do as a grounded character is to get out of her way.”
(f) He thought the chair dance “was just for us” (him and another guy coaching in the back through the whole thing). It was an inside joke to them. He thought it needed a capper but was otherwise good. He especially liked the girl who just dragged a chair across the entire stage—usually a no-no. “I didn't know what that chair thing was, but it was fun.”
(g) We went for 29 minutes. I was all, “If that's the worst you got, I'm happy with it.”
(h) “Here's why your show was successful: you took the note and had fun.”
(i) “You should be proud.” I am.

At the very end, he said if we were interested in getting on a Gordon team we should (a) e-mail him, and (b) keep doing Jam and we'll be watched there. So that answers that question...

Now I'm wondering if I should reconsider doing musical improv in fall since I won't be able to do that and Jam at the same. I need to go ask.

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