Overexcitable

Looking back over my year of posting, I'm finding myself to be a bit earnest and ranty for my liking. Now I realize that in the field of gifted people, there is a lot to rant about, but I'm disappointed with my amusement quotient for the year. After all, I perform comedy improv, I should be able to at least make you chuckle once in a while. Henceforth, I resolve that Overexcitable will be a more amusing place in 2006.

Oh goodness, that's really tweaking all my perfectionism gremlins. Don't post unless you're funny! You've blogged it, it's out there, now you must live up to your promise! Ironically, this is the very thing that makes comedy improv go bad - a LPM, Laughs Per Minute, requirement. It's when somebody goes all corporate on an improv troupe and demands that they guarantee entertainment. In improv, you can't guarantee anything, which is what makes it so thrilling to watch. Can they make the scene work? Will they make us laugh? Will they crash and burn? Will they make us cry? Who knows?! Ah, Fortuna!

The improvisor is now in a difficult position. Do you take the restrictions and rules, in order to have the opportunity to perform and play, improving your craft and not incidentally getting paid? Or do you thrust out your chest and yell "Hey man, I'm not sacrificing my art to your fear of unpredictability!" and head off into the wilds, forming your own group, and thereby sacrificing yourself to administrative headaches and sales pitches and the temptation to institute an LPM rule yourself?

Tough choices are the only ones worth making.

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