The Improv portion of LaughDraft is getting ready to put on a show in London, ON this weekend, which is exciting for me for two reasons.  First, because it’s the first time this particular troupe puts on an improv performance, as we seem to be more sketch-based and second because, as a comic, it’s my first out-of-town performance (stand-up excluded because I did that set at Absolute in Ottawa over the Winter break.)

Today, we had an entire evening’s worth of practice to get us warmed up and comfortable playing with each other. It was the first time I did any improv since the end of school, and it’s great to see how well those of us who’ve been working together over the past year, both at Humber and with the LaughDraft can come together in this particular way. Improv has so much to do with trust and knowing that your partners and fellow players have your back.  It’s great because I don’t think all work environments are like that, and in comedy, many people are certainly prone to competitiveness.  Luckily, improv isn’t really the right environment for that form of competition and it almost seems that the more open and vulnerable you are with your fellow performers, the more in-tune they are with you in a scene.  I could be wrong and just interpreting this in a really sappy way, but that’s just how I feel.

One thing I will say is that I’m super-missing my non-TO friends at about this point.  My Ottawa Rideau and school peeps as well as the pals I met during my summers in Arras.  That being said, it always hits me around this time of year that I should be boarding a plane back to France to interpret some amazing World War One stories, but alas, no lavish European trips for me for a while.

I suppose these feelings are expected when you choose to do a complete 180′ in your life.