I love improv comedy, and Ann and the boys would swear that I am pretty quick witted, but that is something that I don’t let out in the open very often – probably because I am not comfortable. So I figured that a great place to get myself a good, long way out of my comfort zone would be to take an improv class. I saw online that Spectacles Improv Engine offered drop-in classes on Fridays for $10, so I decided to give it a try.

I think for this challenge, I was equally anticipating and dreading it. I thought that I would have fun, but I was also terrified. I had no idea what to expect. Right up until I walked through the door I was looking for a way out. An excuse that I could use to not have to go through with it.  Let’s look at this from a what makes Kurt uncomfortable standpoint… Not knowing anyone there? Check. Talking to complete strangers? Check. Not knowing at all what to expect? Check. Having to perform improv in front of complete strangers that actually know what they’re doing? Check. Having no one I know to explain what’s happening and help me through the process? Check. Yep, this is about as far out of my comfort zone as I can get.

A guy named Sam was leading the class. He called us up onto the stage and had us start off with some ice-breaker kinds of things. I had some pretty serious butterflies going on in my stomach at this point. Almost everyone else there seemed to know each other and they seemed to know what they were doing. I knew no one and I felt completely lost. Thankfully, the first things that we did were pretty simple – just name games. I made my way through it. Then it was word association games. Someone would say a word and you had to say the first thing that popped into your mind. I did OK with this one, but there were times when my mind went totally blank and I ended up saying something that had nothing to do with the word that was said to me. Still not feeling very confident or comfortable.

Then Sam explained that it was time to start with what we were working on for the day – using the eyes and eye contact. He explained the next thing we were doing. We would be paired up and just have to stare into our partner’s eyes. Then everyone else would see if they could make some assumptions based on what they saw in those 10-15 seconds. I’ll have to admit that I was actually praying that I didn’t have to go first because I still had no idea what this was supposed to look like. Thankfully I was not in the first group. But my turn did come fast enough and it was totally uncomfortable to stand on a stage staring into some guy’s eyes while 13 other strangers stared at us staring at each other. But I made it through it. And then had to do it a second time and it wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable this time. And it was totally interesting how much could be seen just by looking at the eye contact that people made and how so often we could assume a lot about a scene just based on that.

After we all went twice, Sam had us all sit down and I am thinking, “sweet, hard part’s over!” Wrong!!!!! Now people were going up onto stage two at a time to do a scene. A scene with no direction. A scene that started with the two actors staring into each other’s eyes, one person saying a line based on that eye contact, and then the scene went from there. My brain was on overload. Can I go to the bathroom for the rest of the time? Can I think of a reason to leave? Can I just blend into the background and not go? Of course, I watched 6 other scenes before I volunteered (if you do the math, there were 14 of us – I waited until everyone else had gone). But I did it. I stood up and walked on stage voluntarily and did a scene and actually did pretty well. I got quite a few laughs and actually enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.

Then I sat down thinking that I was done. Wrong!!!! We all “got” to go again.  But I wasn’t dreading it nearly as much this time, and I didn’t even wait until last to volunteer. And it went even better the second time. I actually would say that I felt decently comfortable walking onto and off of the stage that time, which was a huge surprise for me. Then the class was over and we circled up, each talked about something that we learned or liked that day, and that was it. Sam even told me that I did a good job as I was leaving. That is definitely one fear conquered.

Takeaway:

Eye contact is powerful. It was amazing to see how much could be inferred about a relationship simply based on the eye contact that they made. That is something that I know that I need to work on in real life, being confident and making sure that I am projecting that in the way that I make eye contact with others. It was pretty cool to have to practice this with strangers with other strangers critiquing. I can’t think of a more uncomfortable way to have practiced it, but I think it will make a big difference in how comfortable I am in normal, everyday life.