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This is very normal. Going into the last two weeks before a show opens I become mentally inundated and I usually stop all other outside activity. The show opened two days ago – so now I have time to breathe - and write.

Reading Scott’s entry on his last days at iO – ImprovOlympic – got me thinking about mine. I too went through the training program at iO, then was fortunate enough to be put on a team right after I finished my student shows. Most shows were entertaining, every show would feature one or two people who were absolutely on fire. It would be different people every week. The shows were sometimes hysterical, often just fine, rarely did they totally suck. After almost a year on the schedule, we were disbanded. We were all heartbroken, because like Scott, all 10 of us were going to be on Saturday Night Live someday. I have to say, those people were amazing friends and though I’m in contact with only a few, they all still provide me with great memories. 

Two months after this happened, right when I began getting comfortable not being at iO every week, a friend called to congratulate me for making a team at iO. I think I literally said “What the h--- are you talking about dude. My team got cut two months ago.” [Ed note: I think it’s hilarious that I have to bleep out h---, but this is a civic organization. Truthfully I probably didn’t use that word, but I don’t even feel good referencing the other word even if it is bleeped]

In typical iO fashion, I was put back on the schedule and no one called me. Anyone familiar with how iO works, knows that every two months a schedule comes out and about 4,000 improvisors all over Chicago desperately begin pulling up the website to see if their name is on the schedule and with what ensemble. I didn’t do that. But I had been put on a team, and in fact had missed the first rehearsal because no one called me.

Our shows weren’t that funny. Cut to the end.

The last scene in my last show at iO took place at the Grammy Awards ceremony, but involved giving no awards, just speeches. The scene was so bad, so awfully bad, that I think I remember some of my fellow cast mates started giving acceptance speeches for “awards” they didn’t win – like five of them at once. But they were speaking without making any noise, claiming the “microphones” weren’t working. One after another just jumped in on the bit. “And I’d like to say Tha…. Y…. f…. hu……. …. …. a….. ….. I…… …. … j…. .” Then came the end of the end. One of my castmates ran out, jumped on the back of another for no apparent reason, climbed up onto his shoulders while the guy holding him miraculously stayed upright. The guy on top then began yelling out “I’m teabagging him! I’m teabaggin’” while wildly bouncing up and down. I'm not sure what this had to do with anything.

This was when I made the worst move I’d ever made at iO. I couldn’t stand the thought of being on that stage any longer – or on the side as it were, since in improv shows the actors not in the scene stand on the side until they join that scene, or another.

So I entered the scene, proclaimed myself to be a sound engineer, said I was going to check out the “problems with the microphones,” I think in an English accent, and walked off the stage. If you ever improvise by the way, NEVER leave a scene. And if you do, don’t go to the bar to get yourself a drink. I did rejoin the cast on stage for our bow though.

The idea of five people giving acceptance speeches on mics that aren’t working could be funny. I think it was months of very tiring rehearsals and un-rewarding shows, then a line about teabagging on stage that finally broke me.

But all told, I had a great time at iO. I really did. I even made friends on this second team. And I learned a ton. Both in classes and in performing. I even had the good fortune to be invited back a couple of times to be in the Late Night Late Show. But now, I have so much fun directing and performing in other venues and it’s a very satisfying experience to work with a cast like I just had in Indecent Proposals. I feel like I made six really good friends. Smiling, gorgeous, talented, fun-loving, smart, good-spirited new friends. You have to go see this show. It opened last Saturday night, and it’s really fun - and I swear - at times you'll laugh 'till you cry. You’ll pick up on the actors' happy, energetic vibe right from the get-go. I'm proud of Scott for writing this really funny script and of the actors for their really funny performances. Really, go see it.