Speed

One of the Scotts and I were talking tonight before U Who. He was saying he was feeling a little wonky from his weekend of improv shows. Not that the shows weren't funny, that the audience didn't enjoy them, or they weren't decent shows in and of themselves but that he felt like they didn't have a message, a theme, or a statement. There was no challenge in them, they weren't difficult to do.

We both agreed that the U Who shows are challenging and fulfilling, sometimes significantly more so than some of the other stuff we're doing, because of the speed at which we play. The four of us all have a very aggressive style as far as pacing and variance/energy in character. It lends it self to shows, I think, that you get caught up in and swept along with. At a certain point the momentum of the show carries us along and there's little thought to what scene will come next or what scene went before it. It's a challenge every week, not only to play with such a high energy talented group of guys but to always try to push the boundary: how fast can we go, how many characters can we play, how many people can we fit on stage. More, more, more, faster, faster, faster. It's like continuously adding balls while juggling, how many can we keep going in the air until they become too many to handle? We never know.

We don't go after theme or try to have a message. We try to go as fast as we can with as much reckless-abandon as we can.

I once was skiing down a mountain and realized I had forgotten how to stop or turn. I picked up speed quickly and rocketed down the slope. There were people in my way and many people at the bottom of the run. Part of me was afraid. Afraid how I would stop, afraid of the possible collision. But the other part of me, the other part of me just embraced the thrill.

And let gravity do its work.