The Final Showcase (Improv Reflection #7)
Come meander with me through all the feels of my final improv showcase performance...
I left you all on quite the cliffhanger in my my last post:
“As I come in for a landing with this reflection, my improv showcase performance is 6 hours away.
I was originally thinking about un-inviting everybody 🙃 because I didn’t want people to come and watch me utterly f(l)ail at long-form improv…”
Despite my nerves, I rose above the temptation to uninvite all of my friends to the show, and on Sunday, May 3rd, from 4PM-5PM CT, the Annoyance Theatre’s Improv Level One showcase performance happened, and guess what? I survived! :)
Not only did I survive, but I had fun!
What stood out the most from the performance was how well my classmates and I played together as a team; there was literally never a dull moment as we constantly took turns tagging in and out of scenes, swiping and creating new worlds together.
One of my favorite moments from the showcase was when one of my classmates walked forward on stage to start a new scene and yelled out, “Honey!!!”
Another person and I stepped up at the same time and simultaneously responded with, “Yes?”
As the crowd chuckled at this clearly unexpected turn of events, without missing a beat, our remaining eight classmates all began stepping up and entering into the scene with their own chorus of “Yes, honey??” “Yes??” Yes?” It felt like that scene from Finding Nemo where all the seagulls are yelling “Mine!” “Mine!” “Mine!”
With the audience laughing so hard, my classmates and I collectively felt the magic of the moment, and I couldn’t help but think of the phrase our teacher, Lily, repeated to us throughout the semester:
“There’s no such thing as a mistake in improv, only fodder for bits.”
Sunday’s performance was a joy-filled reminder that what matters most is presence over perfection. My classmates and I were so locked in and present with one another on stage that we knew we could trust we had each other’s backs. We weren’t performing out of a vow of perfection, but from an honest commitment to do all we could to remain playfully present, attentive, and open to wherever life—I mean the scenes ;) would lead us.
Improv has been such a special place to practice risking and creating, “failing” and playing in community, and the Sunday performance affirmed that. As a group of adults who were strangers a mere seven weeks ago, we were up there, stepping onto the stage with no roadmaps, leaning into the uncertainty, and for better or for worse, figuring it out together. And that’s something pretty special.
I’m so proud of us.
Before closing, I’d like to share my deepest gratitude to everyone who came out and supported me in my first-ever improv show 🥹.
I started this substack account last fall as a way to document my return to the U.S. after three years abroad, as I had no idea how I could possibly re-enter this country in the current political/economical/everythingelse-ical climate. Yet Chicago has continued to surprise me, and the photo below is such a beautiful testimony of the abundance of love, support, and community I have found here.
Sunday, May 3rd’s improv showcase was most assuredly a gift, for as I wrote in the final paragraph of last week’s reflection:
[N]o matter how badly (or great) I do, I can trust that the people showing up for me love me deeply. The people I’ve invited know and care for me, and today’s showcase is an embodied reminder that I am loved not because of what I do or achieve, not for my ability to endlessly entertain or make others laugh, but simply because I exist, I am loved; I am enough.
To all who came out on Sunday and to my dearest classmates, thank you for helping this recovering perfectionist/overachiever remember that she is unequivocally enough.
I’m so glad we got to meet!! I hope we cross again! -Ty
I'm so happy we crossed paths!