{"id":840,"date":"2009-08-03T15:04:37","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T22:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/?p=840"},"modified":"2025-05-23T17:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T22:33:50","slug":"improv-part-ii-monday-august-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/improv-part-ii-monday-august-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Improv Part II &#8211; Monday August 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/djmccrady\/2446037897\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-844\" title=\"2446037897_dfb725a651\" src=\"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/2446037897_dfb725a651.jpg\" alt=\"2446037897_dfb725a651\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/2446037897_dfb725a651.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/2446037897_dfb725a651-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 85vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI went on stage again yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t die, I didn&#8217;t throw up, and despite my best efforts to get hysterical I remained relatively unruffled. In fact, my calmness kept making me feel uncomfortable. I thought about going into the bathroom and slapping myself in the mirror like people do in the movies but I didn&#8217;t want to freak anyone out in the public restroom at Piper&#8217;s Alley.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The last time I went on stage, I felt like I was mountain climbing without safety ropes.\u00a0 It seemed like at any minute I could grab something unstable and plummet to my death.\u00a0 But this time was different.\u00a0 It was more like going to Yellowstone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>When I was little my parents took my brothers and I on a driving trip to Yellowstone National Park.\u00a0 It was a great adventure to drive from Chicago to Wyoming and we were awestruck on arrival.\u00a0 Wildlife roamed the park: Bison, moose, and eagles were common sights.\u00a0 But the most exciting and terrifying part of the trip were the grizzly bears.\u00a0 Everywhere we went were signs warning happy families that they could be mauled to death by bears unless they packed up their picnics and learned how to play dead.\u00a0 Visitors were assured that it was impossible to out run the grizzlies.  Climbing tress would also be useless because the predators are so fast and tall.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Even though my backpack was full of Bear Warning pamphlets and my head was swimming with ideas how I would realistically look dead and unappetizing, I still wanted to go hiking.\u00a0 The idea that I could encounter a giant grizzly around any corner was more thrilling than threatening.\u00a0 I knew a few survival techniques and I could count on my companions to act right and avoid bloody maulings.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Yesterday&#8217;s experience on stage made me feel very capable and sure of myself, because I knew I could rely on my teammates and on the skills I had learned.\u00a0 In the end it was like we did round a corner and see a bear, but we all played dead like pros. I don&#8217;t remember very much of what I said, but I do remember the sweet sound of an audience laughing.\u00a0 And I&#8217;m hooked.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>**My mom wants me to include how funny I was and how cute I looked.\u00a0 She thought it was weird that I didn&#8217;t cover those essential details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I went on stage again yesterday. &nbsp; I didn&#8217;t die, I didn&#8217;t throw up, and despite my best efforts to get hysterical I remained relatively unruffled. In fact, my calmness kept making me feel uncomfortable. I thought about going into the bathroom and slapping myself in the mirror like people do in the movies but &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/improv-part-ii-monday-august-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Improv Part II &#8211; Monday August 2&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3737,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/3737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.poorluckyme.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}