Such a ham!

This past week I hit the stage for my first Improv performance…  

As you know I’ve been attending Improv classes since May and currently completing level C, in fact next week is my final class at this level.  I’ll miss it, no I think I'll miss my classmates most of all as we've really bonded.

Improv rocks!

There is always a little angst amongst the group as to whose moving on to the next level and who is going to take a break.  I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been with four of my classmates since we began way back in May, which isn’t bad for a class of 13.  With the final week looming there are a number of my classmates that are still undecided as to whether they’re going to come back for level D.

For me it hasn’t been a hard decision to continue as I’ve been hooked on Improv since my first class, well that isn’t entirely true…perhaps I should have been more specific.  Even though my first two instructors were good the classes during the first two levels felt more like party games, albeit getting more advanced as we went, but party games none-the-less. 

Level C has been more serious in that there has been a greater level of focus and expectation in developing our Improv and performance skills and our willingness to create and develop characters for use on stage.  In addition to this the skits we’ve been developing are moving to a longer format, and now lasting up to five minutes or more.  Clearly, this level has changed it up both in terms of our thinking and approach to class but also in our commitment to learn the fundamental skills required to be an onstage.

The characters I'm developing, well still learning about and tinkering with are:  

Miranda is a 40's something Yoga teacher with two kids - Apple and Lotus and who is constantly flirting with all and sundry around her. Her most endearing quality is her outrageous british accent and, who finishes every sentence with a long drawn out "daaaarling".  I used Miranda's character in the wedding skit we performed this week.  

My second character is "Tyrone Pussyweather" a 70's pimp with a significant strut and an outrageous southern accent...including the imaginary fedora with requisite feather. One of my classmates observed that I looked "way too comfortable in the role...enough said!   

My third character is known as "the Big J" (Jaguar), a palaeontologist with an exaggerated stride, actually more of a slither than a walk but he always dreamed of making it to the big leagues (baseball) and favours every conversation with baseball references - can you say annoying? Unfortunately for the big J he has a rather unfortunate trait of peeing his pants when excited...   

As you can see I have a rich palette to work from as I continue to develop them over time J. 

At the start of our term the Instructor mentioned that to pass this level we would have to perform in front of a live audience onstage.  Over the ensuing weeks we determined that in fact our class had to be onstage for 30 full minutes doing a number of skits.  Not that anyone overtly panicked but there were a few who were less than thrilled at the prospect.

Our show was this past Wednesday and we were encouraged to bring family and friends to watch the performance.  I guess I was less than concerned given that I actually like being on stage and the center of attention (I can hear you…inside voice please!) J

Perhaps it may have been because both Zach and Sami declined my offer to attend, likely because they’re embarrassed that their father enjoys Improv and goes to class each week.  Maybe they didn’t want to see my bomb in front of an audience, or perhaps they’re scared that I will in some way embarrass them, which were both distinct possibilities.

I guess if they only knew how much I’ve been onstage in my past, for slightly different reasons but onstage just the same they may have been less afraid.  You see during my days at Accenture I taught at their three internal universities (Chicago, Kuala Lumpur and London).  During my last year and a half with them I was asked to be the school lead for a number of courses both in Chicago and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia which entailed being onstage and delivering the Plenary sessions for up to and sometimes over 400 participants at any one time.  Generally over the course of a week as a school lead I would have been onstage anywhere from 10 – 15 hours depending on the mix of schools and attendees.

So as you can see me getting comfortable with being onstage in front of a large audience has been a skill developed over many years.  To be honest I love the rush of being onstage, a feeling which I would characterize as "intoxicating"…

Our 30 minute set was perfect in terms of our content

Hence my lack of fear or concern about being onstage for our performance on Wednesday and in fact felt very much at ease, although on reflection I must admit I was a bit of a ham onstage, but an enjoyable one...I think J   That being said the audience was extremely charitable about our group’s performance and clapped heartily at the end of the show.  Nice touch – thanks everyone!   

Thank goodness no video evidence exists...posterity is soooo overrated!

Our performance started a big night at the John Candy box Theatre as we were followed by the level D group (who personally they blew me away as they were so much more than where we were in terms of performance skills) they were then followed by the Toronto Improv Festival and the “real” Improv players…so many more levels and layers.

I guess that’s what I have to look forward to right?

Prologue:

I also want to give a big shout out to my classmates - Omar, Jessie, Jason, Angus, Andrea, Stanya, Will, Adam, Roman, Tony who joined me onstage - you guys rock!

Potpourri

Life is finally settling down for me after a few tumultuous years, with Dad dying and my fourteen year marriage ending in 2011, then layer on me changing jobs in mid 2012 to spend more time with the kids it seems to have been one thing after another for a while there. Clearly there were times when I doubted I could survive it all emotionally, but here I am a couple of years on and finally getting it together. 

Los Angeles taken from Griffiths Observatory last weekend

Have you ever felt like the world is at your feet?  Surprisingly the last few weeks I’ve really had that feeling again.  I must admit over recent years it’s been a very sporadic and fleeting feeling, that being said for some inexplicable reason it’s resurfaced. ☺

Don't get me wrong I like it!  That feeling of endless choices in your life and the confidence that no matter what route you take things are going to be great and turn out for the best is truly exhilarating and somewhat addictive.  

Why now? Hhhmmm, nothing concrete of course and having felt this wonderfully rich feeling before, know that it can also be fleeting, so I've also been trying to temper and reign in the associated euphoria which is also tricky in unto itself.

The most likely catalyst for my positive feelings is centered mostly on Zach and Sami. Going through a separation can be difficult for everyone concerned, especially children. However, after almost two years they both seem to be really thriving which is evident in both their academic results as well as where they are personally.  They see and feel the strength of our co-parenting, which Jodie and I have made a priority and have given them a continued sense of love and stability, which I’m finding out, is rather rare.

Sami's new book
published in 1922

Add to this the things I’ve checked off my endless bucket list over the past little while. Traveling with Zach and Sami is at the top of my list – no question.  Followed quickly by finishing my manuscript, finding a publisher and getting it to the point of being published which I guess in the grand scheme of things is a pretty big deal.  In addition, I have lots of ideas for future writing ventures.

This past week I also enrolled in the next level for Improv, yes you can call me crazy but its gotten under my skin and am really enjoying the work that we've been doing on character development particularly over this past session.  In fact this week we have both a musical workshop (yes you can stop laughing now - inside voice please!) followed by a performance. Granted it’s only a 30-minute set on Wednesday night with my class but it is in front of a live audience. ☺  Strangely the live performance doesn't bother me at all only the musical workshop scares the bejesus out of me.  I enjoy being on stage, because when I am I don't see the audience...isn't that odd?

To get you caught up - for those of you following along at home last weekend I took Zach and Sami to Los Angeles for Canadian Thanksgiving. After an adventurous weekend where we packed a months worth of sightseeing into a weekend we found ourselves strolling along Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica on Sunday morning looking for a place to have brunch.  During our walk we discovered Angel City Books and Record store on Pier Avenue.  

Zach's new, old Janis Joplin album
Kozmic Blues (1969) - part of which she
performed at Woodstock

After much searching Zach unearthed a fantastic Janis Joplin record from the owner’s rare record collection, which he played for us while we were in the store – it was simply amazing! There's something about listening to a vinyl album...so old school!   Zach loves music from the 1960’s and 1970’s and already has a Jimi Hendrix record in his collection, and with this find now added Janis Joplin. 

Sami was on the look out for a rare and collectable book she could read for school and found a hardcover book of “Tarzan of the Apes” published in 1922, which she quickly scooped up and has been reading ever since.  Her nose has literally been buried in it every waking moment and I can tell she's savouring every word of it!

With lots of time on our hands I found myself leafing through a book that I had absent-mindedly picked up entitled “Screenplay – writing the picture” written by Robin Russin and William Downs.  Now until that time I hadn't really thought about writing a screenplay, but somehow the book just jumped off the shelf at me.  

Serendipitous perhaps?   As I said, the "world at my feet" baby! ☺

All Booked

As many of you will remember last Christmas Zach, Sami and I undertook a road trip to Florida for our week together.  We had a great time driving to Florida, granted it took us the better part of 32 hours because of our circuitous route and constant stops, but we had a great time!  Who knew that a road trip with teenagers could be so enjoyable…actually I did and I think deep down so did they.  

The reality of it is that they're excellent travellers who I've trained well especially when it comes to packing light for a flight, yes carryon only thank you very much!  Two curious souls who enjoy exploring as much as I do...thank goodness. ☺  

En-route to Los Angeles earlier today and
following along on the seat map

As I write this week’s blog we’re somewhere over Iowa jetting toward Los Angeles for a long weekend of fun and exploration.  Incidentally this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving hence the long weekend. This time last year Sami and I were in New York City for our annual father – daughter weekend.

It seems that our lives are defined and punctuated by a constant travel schedule, but in a good way right?

For the past couple of weeks I had been canvassing the kids as to what we should do for our week at Christmas. Both Europe and a ski trip to Western Canada had been in the running early on, but after further consideration and research both seemed too expensive.  So earlier this week we began discussing other options…  

Zach mentioned in passing that he’d love to take the train from Toronto across Canada to Vancouver; when I then bounced the idea off Sami she  enthusiastically agreed saying that was a great idea.  The more I thought about it the better I felt about exploring that option.  So on Wednesday night I logged onto the VIA rail website with the intent of booking our trip.

It took only a couple of minutes to realize that this is quite a popular trip and so dates were an issue if we wanted a sleeper car.  Okay, so plan B was to fly to Vancouver and catch the train back to Toronto…scathingly brilliant TW!  ☺

This time I was able to get us a sleeper and for dates that could possibly work, but the cost was astronomical!   It was going to be over $5000 for the three of us to take the train across Canada from Vancouver to Toronto with a sleeper, again a non-starter.  

Okay, how about we take the train from Vancouver to Calgary?  At least that way we’d be able to see the Rockies during winter with some beautiful scenery.  The “Rocky Mountaineer” as its know is one of the most popular activities for visitors coming to Canada – who knew? I couldn’t believe its enormous popularity, the earliest availability was May 2014 and that was very limited.

Amtrak routes throughout the United States with
the Coast Starlight route highlighted

I was quickly running out of ideas, but not to be beaten, as I also really like a good train journey, if you remember my year backpacking was spent primarily on a Eurail pass traveling around Europe, so I have very fond memories.

After further pondering, I began to doubt whether I could find something that would work for us…  I thought about what other places Zach & Sami had mentioned to me that they would like to explore including Seattle, and San Diego.

Then it hit me!   Do they have a train that goes from Seattle to San Diego?   A quick visit to the Amtrak website confirmed our saving grace, and there it was starring right back at me from the screen.  We could easily fly to Seattle and then catch the train down the west coast of the US all the way to San Diego, with short stops in Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Everything just seemed to fall into place – sleeper car available…check, reasonably priced = $1200…check, available flights to Seattle and home from San Diego…check!   Hhhmmm is that Karma knocking on the door?  Sweet!

It's all booked, we’re taking the “Coast Starlight” from Seattle to Los Angeles, before changing to the “Pacific Surfliner” in Los Angeles for our last leg to San Diego.  All things being equal the train trip should take us about 34 hours. As well we have a day of exploring in Seattle at the start of our trip and then four days in San Diego at the end, which should provide us with plenty of time to unwind, play cards, tell stories and generally hang out.  Can you tell I’m excited about it? 

Just the idea of spending Christmas day in Southern California is so alluring, almost an Australian Christmas if you will, with the prospect of both beach and sunshine on the cards - bring it on baby! ☺   Last year we were at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for Christmas, although it was bit wet anything is better than being stuck in cold and grey Toronto at that time of year...enough said.

Old style poster for the Pacific Surfliner
that we're picking up in LA and
taking to San Diego

When I called Zach and Sami last night to tell them about this years Christmas trip they were both genuinely excited at the prospect of our train adventure over the break!

I was telling a friend of mine how I had always dreamed of these sorts of adventures and feel extremely fortunate that I can do it now with my kids.  They smiled and said that Zach and Sami’s lives are being shaped and defined by these types of experiences and that their childhood memories will be a constant source of joy in later life.  I also realized through that conversation that exposing them to the world in a way that continues to feed and build their innate curiosities, was the true gift in all this.

I’m so looking forward to our next adventure, but wait not so fast mister!   We have this weekend in Los Angeles to enjoy first.  ☺    

As I’ve said in the past I've needed to slow down and appreciate the here and now, savouring our time together moment by moment, so that’s my plan this weekend.  What better way to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving than to spend it with the loves of my life?

All the very best for a great weekend!

Level C

As many of my regular readers know I’ve been taking Improv classes each week for the past six months, and recently started level C which is the mid point in the workshop series as it goes up to level E.  Once you progress past level E you have to audition to get into the conservatory program, which is another full years worth of study.  

Over the ensuing months I’ve been asked by lots of people, not just Zach and Sami why I’m taking Improv. Initially the kids were more than a little concerned as they both thought that I was going to quit my day job and become a comedian, nothing could be further from the truth, actually I'm taking Improv for fun!  As an aside, they are thoroughly embarrassed that their friends might find out that I’m taking Improv.  Who knew that there’d be such a “stigma” attached to me doing Improv within my own household, never the less I’m soldiering on! J

Level C has presented a number of big challenges since the class began about four weeks ago.  Interestingly we’ve been focusing on a couple of key things in class this session that to be honest I’ve been struggling with.  This level focuses on building characters, traits and using emotions within scenes to demonstrate range.

The first major conundrum for me was trying to figure out how to portray “status”, either high or low status within a role. Do you know how hard it is to make yourself “low” status while being the boss in a traditionally hierarchical scene? To be honest this still has me vexed. 

Improv goes a little like this, Lisa our instructor says “I need two people on stage” as she reviews her notes stage left.  Generally this is greeted with silence and no movement from anyone in the group, mostly because we don’t want to seem too keen or hog the limelight, lets face it no one likes a showboat. 

Refining those Improv skills...

Anyway, inevitably a couple of people quickly head to the stage.  And with a few cursory questions lays out the foundations of a rudimentary scene, sometimes with as little as “where are they?” followed by “go”.   As they play out the imaginary scene onstage both in actions and words, its important that the participants quickly build the who, what, where to frame out the story as they go - the faster the better.

The next big challenge since this session started is that we have to begin to develop characters that we can re-use week over week, all the while developing a depth of range within the character, both in the narrative (who they are and their life story) but also expand the range of emotions that accompany the character from week to week. 

We started with a simple exercise of taking on the characteristics of an animal at a cocktail party such as a lion, swan, raccoon, cat, puppy, etc…  We had to mingle as if we were at a party but using our interpretation of that animal and how they would talk, move and act.  This was a fun and liberating exercise in that you could be as outrageous as you wanted and really could ham it up using accents, postures and movement to accentuate your character.  Over the course of the night we continued focusing in on these characters culminating in a panel discussion with each of the participants taking on their new persona during an interview.

I transformed into Miranda the 40’s something yoga teacher with two young children (Apple and Lotus) who “swanned around” and spoke with an outrageous English accent, pirouetting about and finishing every sentence with a long drawn out  “darling…”   Who knew it would be so much fun!

This past week we continued exploring various characters with the most fun being incorporated into the “wedding” scene. It started with two people on stage, with the group collectively choosing whom each person was and their special skill or talent for the first two people, after that the two onstage players chose the character traits for who was next in line.  

The scene flowed from there, creating the characters as the act unfolded, after a few minutes of dialogue a third person was introduced by the two onstage who would then join them onstage “in character”, shortly thereafter the first person would find an excuse to exit stage left thus the two characters onstage continuing the scene.  I laughed till my stomach hurt, as we were encouraged to take the character to new places and broaden it as much as possible. 

My classmate in front of me in line was identified as a rather “debonair, handsome Doctor and Rhodes scholar…  I could see him getting his character ready, but they added a twist right at the end before he came onstage “its such a shame that he has no legs.”  Bugger foiled again!   Change gears and get out there…

As luck would have it I was given the most enviable role of all as a 1970’s pimp who also had a snow mobile fetish…  Now, clearly I can play the 70’s pimp with my fedora and feather (make believe of course), and the strut I had to come up with on the spot, strangely I pulled it off…perhaps a little too convincingly if you know what I mean. J  Then without being too overbearing in the scene (yes, my Achilles heal) I had to tie my deep love of snowmobiles into the conversation all the while pretending I was at a wedding.   Can you say make your brain hurt!   We all had such a great time with this one.

In addition, to graduate from this level we all have to take a musical workshop and also perform onstage in front of a live audience.   Stop laughing so hard!   Yes, for those that know me it's rather obvious that I can’t carry a tune to save myself, not to mention I’m completely tone deaf.   Yikes!   That's coming up in a week or so...perhaps I'll be "sick" that night...

Surprisingly performing in front of a live audience doesn’t bother me a bit - hhhmmm, isn’t that strange?  J