Improv Makes Me Feel Good

     Uh oh, another feel good post!
     Improv makes me feel good. I was lucky enough to be invited down to Improvapalooza in DC yesterday to reunite with Neighbors, a team I had helped form a year ago before the move to NYC. It was a blast. The 11-minute set was totally worth the 8-hour bus ride to and from the city.
     Tonight I get to practice more improv with people I truly like. And then I get to watch improv performed by people who are truly awesome. And then on Saturday, practice more improv. And then on Sunday, improv class! Amazing. It fills my heart with happiness.
     Sometimes I wish I would have figured this out years ago; I've gotten a late start in life with improv. On the other hand, without everything that I did before, this might not seem as sweet. My previous life experience helps to color and inform my scenes and characters, so in that respect, I see this as the exact right path. And I've said it before, but I'd rather die face down in a gutter in NYC than live a boring life anywhere else.
     In the show I performed yesterday, I had a really honest organic moment that probably got the biggest laugh of the whole set, and it made me fly. It was super simple: someone offered me a cookie, I started to take it and then they told me it was a vegan cookie so I gave it back saying "Oh, then you can keep it." I was just having an honest reaction to someone offering me a vegan cookie. The audience loved it. I felt good.
     In real life, I have been offered vegan cookies and I have accepted them and they were fine. But I was being kind by accepting it in the first place; I am not a jerk. But that nuance doesn't play well on stage, and I didn't have time to think about it. I just made a choice and it was great. It was so simple, and small, but still, good. Thanks improv!