Acting While Buzzed

I had a great release for this nightmare week of working today: I went to improv and just channelled all my aggression into cutting loose and acting.

It was to be The Monsters of Rock Tour (Me and the Wombats) vs. The Three Musketeers (D!, Marauder, Elimination). But yesterday I heard that Randy wasn't able to make it, and Paul was working a late shift.

Which would make the odds a lot worse, since the lineup would be me vs. three good improvisers.

I decided on a plan of attack: I'd get a sixpack of beer, come onstage dishevelled and talk about how the Monsters of Rock Tour had celebrated after our last victory.

Someone would reply back, "But that was three weeks ago!"

Me: "Yeah. They're fucked up. I'm the only one able to come out for improv."

As it turned out, Paul switched his shift so he could make it. But I decided to act drunk regardless...

I got what turns out to be one of Paul's and my favourite beers (Sleeman's Honey Brown) and we decided to drink it during the show.

And we decide that since we're going up against some very good improvisers, we'd let our minds run wild. Absolutely no fear onstage.

Sometimes it worked. We had a good brother/sister scene, where he was filled with jealousy and I with rage. It ended up where Paul took an aging potion to gain my birthright.

And the Scene Done Three Ways, set in a dance club, with me as a patron and he as a bartender, with me getting slapped by women across the room, and him trying to test new drinks on me.

And then the same scene done with "more sexuality." And then as a Western.

We ended up winning the competition, and had a lot of fun doing it.

Since we had very few people in the audience, we decided to forgo the usual elimination round in favour of a long-form love story: "When the Mad Scientist Met the Mermaid."

The first scene involved the mad scientist and his assistant. One guy named Adam jumped on as a hunchback, and I joined him. When the lights went on, I decided to reverse roles, and became the sarcastic grad student to his tenured professor.

When he asked me what sort of project I wanted to do, I replied, "I want to do some reanimating of Elle Macpherson."

Adam replied, "Elle Macpherson's dead?"

Me: "Well, not yet! But she WILL be!"

So my grad student turned out to be the most evil character around. And I had a lot of fun doing it: Basting Elimination in lemon to get eaten by a fish, cutting a fish in half three times, pretending to play the piano, selling out the professor, selling out the captain of the submarine, cutting Elle Macpherson in half...

And I died laughing when Edmonton Playwright turned his Elle Macpherson into Larry (L) Macpherson during a monologue. It made it seem like I was insane, mistaking a supermodel for some guy.

Some VERY fun times...

* * *

Got that freaking toy store computer working FINALLY on Wednesday. It only took me about twenty hours of labour. At which point OTHER machines started breaking down.

But today? MUCH less stressful.

Listening to: Speakerboxxx by Outkast's Big Boi. That disc has ALSO grown on me...

Must go to bed. Recording tomorrow...