Beginning Improv Level D and the Irresponsibility of my Peers
Tonight was my first Level D class. I arrived early to practice my scenes for May 30th with Dave, Keith, and Sal... and after we practiced for a while, we went to sign in for classes. I noticed that our Improv class had grown since last term, and I was kind of excited to have new people to work with, and play along with. But then I got into the room. Um... I don't really know how to explain how I felt, so I'm going to just tell you what happened, and maybe I'll somehow wrap it up in a coherent fashion (or I'll totally destroy my feelings in typical "John" fashion).
When I got into the room, there was my old class of about 7, and what used to be an entire other class of 12 or 13 people. What happened, apparently, was that this entire other class didn't sign up for Level D on time... so the Second City cancelled their other session. The result is that the entire class was put into a class with us. So it was the irresponsibility of the other class NOT signing up for their class on time that made my class into a class of 19 or 20. What does this mean? It means that the three hours we spend per week is going to be three hours of me only getting to play one or two games or be in one or two scenes... instead of the four or five we should be getting. It also means that, come performance time, I'll probably only be able to play one game on stage... instead of the time in the spotlight I so obviously deserve (a slight boost of ego... and I move on).
Their "leader" was a dude who looked exactly like Jeremy Piven, except goatee sporting Jeremy Piven, not the clean shaven version in the picture. A guy from the admissions office came into our class and said that "this is what happens when you don't register on time" and the Pivens lookin' dude was all "But I don't see how it's a problem, it wasn't a problem before" and I was thinking "Jesus... why would you wait this long to register?" and the admissions guy was all "we don't have the teachers or room space to have a separate class... so this is the way it is".
And then, honest to God, it was like the Jets and the Sharks in one room together, trying to dance. For the first half an hour or so, it was all about "our class" and "their class"... And I have to be honest, I hated their class. I hated them for being so irresponsible that they made us have to have such a large class... I hated them for knowing each other so well... I hated them for being as elitist about their class as we were... and so on.
Needless to say, I was upset. But then we started playing along. I remembered what I was doing there, and how to go about doing it. I actually did this characterization scene with the Jeremy Piven guy, and he got me to laugh and I got him to laugh. And then we did a scene called "City Bus" with NINE people at a time (yeah... fucking ridiculous), but it turned out pretty well anyway.
The moral of the story... don't be stupid or I'll hate you. Wait... that's true, but I don't think that's the moral. The moral of this story actually is that it doesn't matter who you are, I just want to do improv well... so I'm going to play along with your stupid ass anyway. Ta da!