Thank you for making this weekend such an extraordinary one for Blacktop! We're glad you had such a fun time at Squeaky Clean!
We had wonderful volunteers during Squeaky Clean, who helped make Sound Effects, Lassie, and Hey Waiter memorable improv games.
Brooklyn, your instinct to slam on the brakes during that chase scene was fantastic!
Sarah, during Lassie you guessed Timmy was hanging out with Elvis Presley. Good job!
And, Jacob, you were one of the funniest parts of Hey Waiter, because you were so frustrated they kept getting your order wrong. The audience loved it.
Audience volunteers always makes our shows better! We go with the flow, and adapt to whatever the audience offers. We will never pick on an audience member, but we do encourage you to realize you have the ability to be an improv genius. I think kids can be better at improv, because they're less inhibited. They have fewer negative memories, fewer people telling them, "that's a bad idea," "be serious," "don't think that." That stuff adds up. It accumulates, and by adulthood we're filtering out so many great instincts.
Adult volunteers can be great, but they play it much safer onstage then kids. You will see the adult check in with the improviser, and their eyes say, "is this ok? I don't want to ruin the show." Kids embrace their imagination, and as improvisers, we love the wild turns each scene can take. The mixed audience of children and adults love the twists and turns too. It's great seeing parents who enjoy the show as much as the kids.
It's also a great reminder, we can all take some risks. We should take some risks. Look how funny a scene can become when we embrace our instincts. I guess the danger is our measured thoughts keep us safe, and our instincts are new. Our instincts haven't been vetted. I always picture a new thought like a gangster who gets patted down before reaching the Don. Our filters are those guys patting down the new thought, checking for anything dangerous. When the thought is stripped of all danger, then it's permitted to hang out with the brain.
In fact, even that simile right there...my brain was saying, "don't write that. It's ridiculous. Just stick to something safer, like 'it's so nice to be able to offer family entertainment to Roseville and Rocklin.'" And, yes, while that is true, we're glad we can offer family entertainment, I've said it before. It's familiar territory. It's a safe thought, that won't be judged. But, it doesn't have the opportunity to be memorable either.
Watching the families laugh on Saturday night at the volunteer antics, was a great reminder. Be brave, and try something new.
It means a lot the community loves the family shows we're producing. It's fun to see parents and kids sitting together, laughing about the same ridiculous stuff happening onstage.
We always remind the players, "improv is for us, but a performance is for the audience."