Murphy's Law

I'm not one for improv warm ups anymore. Don't feel like I need them to get focused and in the right head space to perform. I do need some time to check in and chit chat with my teammates before a show, to get on the same frequency. The Night Shift had a bad show tonight. If I had to pin point it I'd say the reason was we weren't on the same page, we all came into it with some frenetic disparate energies.

We haven't had a bad show in a long time, a year or more, so I feel like the karmic balance played a role. It was one of the shows that, on paper, was fine, even decent. In actuality we not only got no traction with the audience(some of them left) but took no joy from it ourselves.

The whole thing was off, corrupt, from the beginning. We made valiant attempts but couldn't get the show on track. Our ideas weren't catching, the audience wallowed in their apathy. From the start we were disconnected, then when getting the suggestion the man who gave it was a real tool, some transphobic douche, he spouted off some relatively disturbing information. Information we were then suppose to use to "inspire" us.

We set up some interesting scenes, remained truthful to ourselves and our engineered situations, tried to create some movement and surprise within the piece. Nothing worked. The energy in the room just got darker, more antagonistic, judgmental, cannibalistic. Four drunk middle-aged women left, the guy who had given the suggestion was in the front row with his date and both of them just had these lop-sided drooping grins on their faces. It was disturbing.

No one on the team was at fault. We all supported each other and contributed, made moves and choices. It was a bunch of external things not going our way all at the same time. It was not fun and I was glad I had another show to jet to after to shake of the grime of it. Such badness is rare for us now, making it that much more unsettling. Talking afterwards we couldn't pinpoint what exactly went wrong and that's ok. Bad shows happen, they make the good shows that much sweeter. An message from those mercurial gods of improv.