Monday, September 14, 2009

What's the matter...chicken?

Last Friday, September 11, 2009 I hosted another installment of Improvisational Open Mic Night. We had probably close to 40 people there with about half the audience interested in participating. I decided to get us in the mood with a group activity to help create a safe and comfortable environment. I had three volunteers on stage and asked everyone to get on their feet. Once the music hit, everyone knew what to do...THE CHICKEN DANCE! Oh yeah! Jealous? It's funny how 2 minutes and 34 seconds can feel like a lifetime. But we all had a good laugh and a good dance and after some screams we were ready to start the show. We started off with good ol' Pan Left/Pan Right which I think was a really good way to get in gear aside from the sad rendition of Rosh Hashannah (you had to be there). I tried a few new games too. Some I thought were great and will definitely make a repeat visit while others bombed. One game that was a huge success was Mystery Date. I took 8 people on stage and split them into 2 lines. One line was the guesser. The other line would be a famous person suggested from the audience. The 2 players had to go on a blind date and the guesser had to figure out who they were on the date with. Special props to Sharon Stone and Miley Cirus and the audience member who yelled out "you liar" during Obama's date...well played. I also tried a game called Horoscopes which is not even worth me describing because it failed. I had 2 troupes enter; The Migraines and The Unemployed plus Gio did his one man performance. The show ran until about 10:15pm. Of course we ended on the lightning round of Lines From a Hat. I was able to get everyone on stage for short form games twice which made me happy since I continue to struggle with ways to maximize every one's stage time. I'll be back in October on Friday, October 9 so mark your calendars. Doors open at 6:30pm with sign-up until 7:30pm. The show will begin promptly at 8:05 pm. See you in October!