The Numbers For 2017

Year #5 without a drink. Thanks to all the friends, family, and strangers who helped along the way.

I went on 4 vacations(Harrisburg, NYC, Denver, New Orleans).

I did 48 shows with Deep Schwa.

I did 45 shows with Sight Unseen.

The Night Shift did 1 show.

I co-wrote and performed 1 sketch show 5 times.

I conceived and shot 20 interviews for a documentary tentatively titled Chiaroscuro.

I wrote 62 poems, 1 essay, and did 6 readings.

I watched 78 movies in the theater.

I read 68 books my favorite of which was The Antagonist by Lynn Coady.

I went to 1 concert(Willie Nelson).

I saw 1 of my heroes in the flesh(Chris Rock).

I went to 2 plays(Linda Vista, Doll's House Part 2).

I went to 2 weddings.

I went to 0 funerals.

I went to 2 Michelin starred restaurants.

I moved once.

I babysat my niece for the first time.

I learned and cooked 6 crock pot recipes.

I rode my motorcycle for 7 months. I changed the battery once.

Nicole and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary.

I'm grateful for it all.

Old Chemistry

The Night Shift was my Playground team made back in 2010. We performed steadily for a little over four years then decided to retire because of some changes made at that theater and because the shows were sparsely attended. We were friends and I think good collaborators. One of those rare teams that the quality of the shows mirrored the enjoyment we had hanging out outside of them. We've mostly stayed in touch over the past three years but we don't see each other that often. Just that nature I think of defunct improv teams.

On somewhat of a whim we did a show last night. Because of geography and waning improv interest there are only really four of use left. Damian, Craig, Molly, and myself and the show was really good. Not that that was a surprise, nor was it like some earth shattering piece of art, but even so it was kind of amazing how effortlessly we were able to find our groove and chemistry again. The familiarity and fluidity we had developed came right back and we were reading each other, making intuitive jumps, messing with each other, getting laughs, and having fun.

In improv there's a lot of talk about "group mind" this idea of functioning as a team, a unit, rather than individuals. It's something that new groups seem to talk about a lot but more seasoned performers and teams don't really discuss. And I think the reason is you can't talk about it directly. It's one of those things that disappears if you look at it straight-on. It's one of those kinds of things you just have to slip into not some skill you can develop or muscle you can exercise. It grows independently of your attention. Last night to me felt like a good example of that. I've known Damian, Craig, and Molly for a long time and there was a period where we performed a lot together but that was almost three years ago. I haven't really seen them perform much recently and we mostly stay in touch through gchat and text, neither the most intimate of mediums. Even so we have this thing we share. This language and ability to sync up that I don't think will go away.

People compare improv a lot to sports and music which have validity but for me I think it has more resonance with concepts of Zen. By not thinking but being in a state of readiness do things really happen, by not doing are real discoveries made and real inspiration found. By not trying do things and opportunities and ideas reveal themselves. Now I'm not talking about apathy or lethargy I'm talking about being in a state of openness and preparedness to seize and actualize characters and story when they present themselves.

I realize this may sound all very fru-fru and silly and perhaps self aggrandizing and I'm sure none of this is unique to me but the bottom line is that I had a good time last night with my friends and we had fun and the audience who paid money to be entertained was. And that feels good and comfortable and familiar. Say what you want about the ethereal and neverending nature of improv but it felt like success.

Two Theories

My Playground team The Night Shift had a pretty good run 11/10 to 1/15 of doing shows and we continue to be friends. Some folks have moved away and Meaghan leaves town in two short weeks but we've remained relatively close. There's this weird expectation with improv groups that in order to be good you have to be best best friends, that some kind of deep friendship is a requirement. And certainly it helps the improv to a certain extent early on, knowing each other, but the reality is that for the most part friendship and performance aren't mutually exclusive. You can perform well with people you don't know, acquaintances, friends, even people you dislike. The quality of the work isn't contingent upon the depth of the friendship. It's certainly no failing of a team or group if everyone isn't bosom buddies. But it can feel that way.

We kind of lucked out in the sense our collective friendship grew gradually congruent with our ability and towards the end, what with chronically poorly attended shows, we decided best to stop performing and just hang out occasionally. Which we have done. Something teams frequently say but don't necessarily do. Not to say we're the best of friends but we make time for each other and stay connected. When we do see each other we're all very honest and upfront about what's going on in our lives which, in my opinion, is what friendship's all about.

Jeremy, easily the most enviably adult one of us, hosted us at his beautiful house in the suburbs. We ate, joked around, and caught up. We've known each other almost six years now, its a long time and a lot has happened. We've all grown up significantly. Evolved. It's wonderful to witness and be a part of. Seems to me the enjoyment and comfort you get from a friendship may start with a spike of excitement, that getting-to-know-you bump, then increases slowly as the years go by. All it takes is a little effort.

Divergent Paths

Time, relentless, marches on and people's paths entwined for a while diverge, maybe later to rejoin, maybe not.

The Night Shift, our former Playground team, has been retired for a year. We've met almost once a month since for a Sunday potluck. There's a lot of history between us- five years, a lot of shows, and some big life events. Craig is leaving to go back to school in Arkansas in a week so we got together for a low-key send off. As I've gotten older these type of farewells have become more common. Lives take different twists and turns, adulthood necessitates big changes, some geographical, some personal.

I'll miss Craig, he's been a great friend and a wonderful collaborator. But there is an odd affirmation when people cut their own path then take it. He may come back, he may not, whose to say what the future will hold, but it seems like the right choice for him and that's not something to regret.

Last PG Show

After four and a half years The Night Shift decided to retire from The Playground. The decision was due to some administrative changes at the PG, cancelled shows, and I think more globally all of us wanting to move a bit beyond straight long-form.

The show tonight, our last, was indicative of our time there, good despite some external detractors. We've regularly found the fun, made each other laugh, and created characters that had energy and onus typically within the frame work of some loose narrative. I'm proud of our longevity but more so our consistency, our bad shows were never that bad and we never had more than two or three a year.

The Night Shift is the only team of mine that's endured the test of time. We've grown together and we've stayed together. Through people moving or stepping down, through personal and interpersonal issues, through artistic and comedic differences, we've kept going and are closer because of it.

We plan to keep performing as a group, to put up more specific shows for limited runs. I'll be forever grateful for the PG for putting us together and giving us a stage to play on but it was time. It does feel good to move on, there's a sense of completeness, it feels like growth.

"Play For Each Other"

Damian and I were the only ones that could make it to The Night Shift show tonight. It was fun, fluid, we made each other break a lot, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. That wasn't necessarily the case for the other two teams. They weren't bad but they seemed to be struggling, working too hard. There were only a couple people in the audience and the energy was a bit wonky, typical at The Playground, which can be difficult to surmount. When houses are light or the energy is weird something I've heard a lot of coaches and teachers say is "play for each other".

After years(literal years) of attempting to implement this note and watching others do the same I don't think it is terribly effective or helpful. Similar to "just have fun" it isn't actionable. There is no guidance in the phrase, no goal to meet, no direction to take.

Tonight Damian and I were having fun, were playing for each other, and it was a good show. But that feeling, that level of comfort, the pleasure we derived from creating with each other isn't something you can force or learn. It's ethereal, similarly you can't will yourself into being happy. It's something you discover. In thinking about it, in comparing the response we got to the other two sets there was something simpler and more pervasive than enjoyment that made the difference. Clarity.

In general I don't like rules and in improv I think they are only useful within a limited learning curve. However lack clarity seems to be the commonality of all bad improv. When people don't know where they are, what they are doing, who they are, or why they are there scenes flounder and become stagnate.

With clarity of circumstance and purpose playing for each other becomes a possibility, fun can be had if you know what you are doing, and if you have fun most likely the audience will too.

The Numbers For 2014

For the second year in a row I went 365 days without a drink.

I went on two vacations, one to Richmond, VA the other to New York City.

I saw 72 movies in the theater.

Deep Schwa had 51 shows.

Prime had 49 shows.

The Night Shift had 20 shows.

The Hague had 3 shows and was cut.

We formed Sight Unseen and had 12 shows.

I read 37 books, my favorite of which was My Real Children by Jo Walton.

I wrote 46 poems and did 5 readings.

Tisher, Tim, and I released 10 episodes of Bubble Boys compromising season 2 completing the series.

Tim and I recorded the first season of a new podcast The Hindsight Hour yet to be released.

I conceived of and co-wrote a play, Contention, which will open in the new year.

I made 1 collage.

I made 1 mix tape.

I wrote 1 song.

I moved twice.

I went to 1 audition.

I rode my motorcycle for 7 glorious months.

I went to 0 concerts.

I went to 11 plays.

I went to 2 weddings.

I went to 0 funerals.

I had the love of a beautiful and supportive woman for the entire year.

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.

Potluck

The Night Shift came over tonight for my first attempt at hosting in the new apartment. We haven't got together outside of a show in a couple years. It was great to have people over, sit in a circle and chat, and snack on various meats, cheese, and fruits. Steph made an incredible sweet potato pie, the first one I've ever had.

We got formed in 2010 and after our first year we stopped rehearsing and followed relatively divergent paths. Some people moved away or stepped down. All of us got involved with other projects which, at times, took justifiable precedent. What's remained constant is our improv and our friendship. The past two years I'd say we've been incredibly consistent in our performance, we've found a loose form and a level of comfort with each other after playing together so long. Craig always takes the suggestion by starting a brief conversation with one of the audience members, we start in a group scene, sometimes we stay in it the whole time sometimes we cut out, around, and back to it using it as a fulcrum. It's fluid and easy, after years and working through all the hang ups each of us has developed and gotten over we've come to a place of true acceptance and delight with each other.

We're not best friends but over the past four years our casual friendship and commitment has cemented into something strong. For our two shows a month, over email chains, and seeing each other out and about, there's a short hand, a connection. All of use have hurdled some big problems, some of us gone through radical personal transformation, but the team, small in scope requiring little commitment, has remained steady. Its bond has come to mean a great deal.

Refresh, Reset

Tonight Meaghan and I were the only ones able to make The Night Shift show at The Playground. Last weekend I felt pretty funky with the shows I did. Off, uninspired, lost. So I was eager to get back onstage tonight and either shake it off or really commit myself to a prolonged rut. I love The Night Shift and playing with them at The Playground because I truly feel unencumbered. I truly do not care who is there or if they laugh. A common thing coaches or teachers say is "just play for each other" which is a good adage but its extremely difficult. You can curb your inner sensor and your desire to please an audience but its almost impossible to remove completely.

Meaghan and I had a great show. Or at least we both thought it was great which is the important thing. We had never done a two person show with each other and I think there was a bit of nerves going in on both our parts. It was grounded and playful, we played close to ourselves and really gave ourselves over to the inspiration of the moment. We were surprising each other and, I think, creating something authentic. It almost felt like we were the only ones there, just living these lives we had slipped on for a bit. It was incredibly refreshing and affirming for me coming off a week where I felt stale.

The content of the show was not uncommon. Meaghan and I were an unhappy couple, we did a scene in our apartment hashing out grievances for about half the show and then cut to the couples first date for the second half. But it was the specifics and the chemistry that really gave it life. Subtleties in speech and action that felt like this couple we created was a real couple. After it I felt inspired to try to sit down and sketch it out, script it, turn it into a one act or full play.

The show rejuvenated me and I have Meaghan to thank for it. She's a great collaborator. Energetic, joyful, and just straight up game to go wherever. It was a good reminder of the mindset I need to and want to be in to get maximum satisfaction from a show. Not only for myself but for whoever may be watching. When I feel engaged, surprised, and affected most likely the audience will as well.

Breaking 3

Mike was in town for a couple of days so he was able to make The Night Shift show tonight. The dynamic of the group is probably the easiest and most successful I've ever been apart of, impov and otherwise. Everything is very easy, everyone is very open, there is no judgement on people or their time or their level of participation. I would say we're close friends but its not as if we see each other a ton or stay in particularly close contact. I think it creates a very rare atmosphere of absolutely no pressure/all joy that make our shows incredibly fun to be in and, for the most part, exciting to watch.

During our show I broke twice. The first time we had set up a group scene at a restaurant. There was only four chairs so I grabbed a piano bench and one of those wooden TV dinner stands from back stage. Molly was perched precariously on the TV tray and about a minute and a half into the scene, which was developing into an intervention for my character, the TV tray broke and Molly almost fell. All six of us burst of laughing and almost immediately after started screaming and running around. I couldn't stop laughing. I was caught up in the chaotic absurdity of it all.

Already in a laughing mood towards the end of the show apropos of nothing in the scene Meaghan said "There's Sheryl Crow" Damian turned around and affirmed "Hey that is Sheryl Crow". We all paused, I think, to see if anyone would peel off to play her and no one did. For whatever reason that hit my funnybone hard. I lost it, I lost it so completely everyone else started losing it. I pushed out a line and the lights were pulled. I can judge the quality of the show but I think we all felt a palpable jubilation.

The Numbers For 2013

For the first time since 1999 I went 365 days without a drink.

I made 1 major purchase, a Honda VTX motorcycle.

I went on 1 vacation to Richmond, VA.

I saw 88 movies in the theater.

I went through 1 breakup.

Deep Schwa had 51 shows.

Prime had 46 shows.

The Night Shift had 23 shows.

Rick had 9 shows and was cut.

The Hague was formed and had 18 shows.

I created 1 character: Pastor Dirk Deadman.

I did 2 auditions.

I got 1 callback.

I read around 40 books, my favorite of which was The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

We rebooted Groh Show and released 4 episodes.

Tisher, Tim and I released 10 episodes of Bubble Boys comprising Season 1.

We recorded 6 episodes of Bubble Boys Season 2, yet to be released.

I made two collages.

Beanpole and I collaborated on 1 project.

I played 2 games of chess, both I lost.

I went to 1 concert.

I went to 0 plays.

I went to 0 weddings.

I went to 0 funerals

I fell in love, once.

Chess

Jeremy and I met at Caribou for a game of chess before The Night Shift Show tonight. I've been on a team with Jeremy for three years and only about a month ago we discovered our mutual passion. He's better than me, not by much, but better. I was on the defensive most of the game but I made him play it out and his victory wasn't decisive. I'm a bit rusty, I haven't played consistently in years, but the strategies, the way of thinking- move anticipation and prediction- stirred and came back quickly. I love the game and I love the mindset you have to be in to play it well.

My dad taught me to play chess when I was around 6 years old, I liked the game but wasn't any good at it. For a couple summers after that I took a chess class at "Whiz Kids College" a summer activities program based out of the local community college. That's where I really fell in love with the game, in a room full of prepubescent nerds just like me, but I was still pretty bad. I stopped playing for a while and picked it up again as a teenager, a lot of lessons and ideas about chess fell into place and I became pretty good, I beat my dad for the first time.

In college I had three great opponents- Drew, Samson, and Jeff. It was tough to find people that knew the game, wanted to play the game, and most importantly were good at it. Playing with someone with substantially less skill doesn't evoke the same kind of involvement or mental exercise that playing with someone with equal abilities does. Samson was my favorite person to play because we were the most evenly matched(Jeff slightly better than me, Drew slightly worse). He had an extremely grating personality and I didn't really like him. He quieted down and focused up when we sat down to play. We never talked, we just played, it was incredibly fun.

Since then I haven't been able to find a good chess partner. Recently I've discovered both Jeremy and Jimmy are great players and love chess. Hopefully there are many more games to come.

Timing & Bits

Tonight The Night Shift hosted the 4th incubator night at The Playground. Nine teams played short sets- some of them themed, some essentially a protracted sketch, some straight up classic prov. It was a fun night as it always is, a little rowdy but not overly so.

Each group had a limited amount of time and revealed some instances of varied comedic timing. There are two types of comedic timing- 1. the rhythm of a joke, when you pause/when you speak, the cadence of the punch line 2. the awareness of when a joke or bit has run its course. They are both equally important however it seems like a disproportionate amount of improvisers have the first ability not the second. I'll borrow from one of my favorite authors Jonathan Lethem and call the violation of this second kind of timing tugboating.

Desperado had a really fun set, what was essentially a protracted high-energy Taco Bell commercial. The team danced around to Simply The Best and threw out tacos to the audience. They ended their set by getting a suggestion and then taking a bow. They had ten minutes they only used five. They presented the bit, they executed the bit, they ended the bit. Simple, concise, fun.

Ghost Car did a pseudo-planned murder mystery where people died one by one and the killer delivered an outline to the audience(I'm wish I could remember it). They asked me to play the SNL outro music after and they all got up and hugged and congratulated each other like they do on the show. I let it go a minute or so then gave them a slow fade. Total probably about six and a half minutes.

The other improv sets had varying degrees of success. Mostly because of this ability to look at the set as a whole while inside it. How long are the scenes, what purpose do they serve, and how quickly or slowly are we approaching a conclusion given what has gone before.

The set before ours was a mash up of a couple teams and random performers some of whom are perpetual tugboaters. (It's not an insult, Joey Romaine the funniest guy I know is a tugboat.) The set started off fun and went quickly meta which with mostly performers in the audience audience can get a lot of traction. The set ended with the lovely Tim Joyce dancing with finger lights and singing. I pulled the lights and got down to do our set. Molly came on stage to introduce our team but someone from the mash up decided the set wasn't over and tried to delay ending by initiating the normal iO ending to a show, Freeze. Whether the intention was comedic or deliberately antagonistic toward my team it was ineffective on both counts. It was awkward and there was a brief sense of hostility, deliberate or otherwise, that has no place in a celebratory night of comedy and community.

It passed and we did our set, brief and to the point, the highlight of which was Damian coming onstage halfway through and getting a standing ovation.

The lesson: see the ending, feel it, and close. Don't wear out your welcome. Don't tug the boat.

A Belated Entrance And An Exit

Yesterday The Night Shift had our last show with Mike before he moved back to Cleveland. I showed up late because I was coming from a show at iO and didn't get there until about two minutes into our set. I watched for a minute or two to get a sense of what was going on and then entered.

Normally being late to a show let alone going into a set late would horrify me. With The Night Shift we are genuinely only interested in having fun with each other. That's something I think a lot of improv groups say but this is one of the rare groups that it's actually true. There is absolutely zero expectations and infinite acceptance. We show up and do our shows and have fun. We love being together with whoever can make it whenever they can make it. There is never any resentment or guilt or judgement because there's no pressure. It's a challenge to walk into a show once it's started and it can be weird. It's a unique feeling to show up late and be willing to watch and have your teammates encourage you to walk on and figure it out. No one is put out, everyone is simply excited to be together.

We've been doing a mono-scene for a couple months now, one continuous scene for the duration of our set, and tonight we were at an archaeological dig. We had a send off show for Mike two weeks ago where we all wore Ohio sports shirts so this was just icing on the cake. We've been a tight group since we formed three years ago and it will be tough to have Mike gone. But luckily he won't be far away and we've already talked about him mega-busing back for shows.

Good night but not good bye.

Ghost Hotel

photo credit to LW

I've always loved the occult: spirits, divination, fortune telling, the other world. The Night Shift did a show tonight where the suggestion was "ghost hotel" because the three giggling girls in the front row were evidently staying in the most haunted hotel in Chicago. The show was really fun and we talked a lot about ghosts. So much so there were moments when Meaghan was legitimately getting spooked.

Probably one of my favorite improv moments. Talking about ghosts so much someone gets afraid we will some how draw them in. Provoke them. I wish we would have.

They say every theater has a ghost. I'm sure The Playground has it's share. And what interesting ghosts they must be. Next time we'll bring a Ouija board.

Going Blue 2

When I first started doing improv and sketch I never went blue. I never used sexually explicit language or situations and I tried to keep my swearing down to a bare minimum. Initially I did it because I knew it could be a crutch, something new performers use because they don't know what else to do. After a while it was a badge of pride that I never went blue. I looked down on people that did, I thought it was cheap.

Over the past year playing with Timmy and Stoltenberg on Schwa and seeing Holy Fuck consistently my thoughts on the subject have changed. And from time to time I find myself gleefully engaging in the grossest/sexually offensive content I can. Sometimes it feels like the five years I spent holding myself back from that kind of subject matter built up a lot of sophomoric creative steam which bursts out every once in a while. Coincidentally most of those outbursts occur during Night Shift shows and tonight we were in rare form.

We've been doing a mono-scene for the past couple months, meaning our 20-30 minute set is just one continuous scene. Tonight our show was six girlfriends on spring break in Cabo in their hotel room. It started off relatively innocent each of us establishing who we were- the religious one, the prude etc. We started off talking about hooking up with boys at the "Blue Men At The Beach" performance and making innuendos which became progressively less innuendo and more straight forward. The show took a hard right turn when Damian told us about the local "pussy ghost" which carries a lantern and hunts down other pussies. From there we shot into the inappropriate stratosphere. Afterwards I really wished we counted how many times "pussy" was said. I estimated around 200.

It was a real fun show and we were all possessed with this manic giddiness which can come with playing fast and loose with things taboo.

Going blue can be fun for the people doing it and can be really funny for the audience. The trick is not to do it too often, be original with it, and to throw yourself into it so hard you surpass surprise, hurdle past shock, and land on something totally new and titillating.

Meltdowns

Last night The Night Shift hosted our third incubator night at The Playground. Ten teams made over the past three years did short sets, the point of which was to celebrate each other and the theater. The show is always fun, packed, and some groups experiment with different ideas or forms. One group however had a palpable meltdown on stage which was kind of horrifying to watch and I'm guessing horrifying to be a part of.

The set opened with one of the guys dressed as Jay Leno doing a relatively fun bit to take the suggestion. Another guy, lets call him Ralph, took offense by this, cut him off, and took the suggestion instead getting a female teammates name. Ralph started a scene with that woman, who had apparently just come from a date, and tried to get her to talk about her date which she clearly didn't want to do. The next scene Ralph was on the side throwing balloons at the ceiling pulling all the focus. After that scene another guy came out to get another suggestion and he very sarcastically said "Ralph is so funny! Can we get something about how great and funny Ralph is!?" They tried to do more scenes, during a couple of which Ralph asked the woman about her date seemingly hiding or projecting some kind of jealousy. After four minutes I pulled the lights because everyone was looking defeated. It was wild.

I understand having interpersonal issues with your teammates, I certainly have had them, and I get feeling the urge to take it to the stage as if it'll be easier to resolve there, but it never is. Bringing real life aggression or anger at someone else on your team to the stage is unpleasant to watch and toxic for your teammates. Bringing a wholly selfish, superior, chip-on-the-shoulder attitude to the stage is boring to watch and just makes you look like a real life asshole.

If you don't want to do improv, if you're not having fun doing it, if you don't care for members of a team you're on, it's simple.

Stop doing it.

Going Blue

Tonight The Night Shift had a show at The Playground. We all felt decent about it. It was high energy and fun. Kind of all over the place but still good, still funny.

The first scene out of the gate was me and Molly. We were a couple celebrating our 14 month anniversary with a picnic. She had gotten me a gift which she said she spent a month's rent on. I asked her how she had paid rent. Damian tagged in as the landlord. Molly ended up on her knees in front of him and I tagged back in. There was a pause. And then I made it declared it a blowjob. That was Molly's intention when Damian tagged in and I clarified it when I tagged back in. She had given her landlord a blowjob for a months rent. In the scene I was very upset with her cheating on me and she was in love with me she would do anything for me, she just wanted to get me a very special gift.

It worked both in the scene and with the audience, it got laughs. But afterwards both of us felt kind of bad about it, kind of cheap. Blowjob jokes are funny but they are obvious, its something that's within close reach.  It also doesn't really reflect Molly and I's philosophy on sexual equality or sexual perspective. We are not the ones to really make those kind of moves because we don't like the implications.

Going blue is fine, it can be fun and effective. But be careful about relying on it too much. Be aware of how easy and obvious it can be. Be aware of the implications: putting women in a subjective role or simply miming sex acts or straight guys kissing, all for a joke. What does that say about you? Your team?

Molly and I weren't uncomfortable with the scene. We both played it and we both had fun. We may have slightly regretted it afterward but we are close enough friends and good enough improvisers to pull it off.

That's not always the case.