I Went To An Improv Show In NYC
As I get older, I get more and more confused as to whether or not I’m an introvert or extrovert. Sometimes I feel like I rejuvenate most by myself while other times I feel like groups give me life, like coffee in the morning. I’m not quite sure what I am and because of that, I’ve been trying to put myself out there to discover what feels right. Like tonight, I volunteered to go on stage at an improv show in New York City.
My corporate team got together this week for an offsite. For three days, we’re all stuck in one room planning major tentpole events for the year. Yes, it’s exhausting but it’s also exciting to see everyone in person to put a face to a Zoom screen. Each day ends with a team bonding event and tonight’s was doing improv at a comedy club. Terrifying, right?
I was reeling all day. What if I have to go on stage? What types of exercises will we have to do? Ugh, my face is breaking out. I hate this. They lured us in with an open bar. “It’ll be fun,” they said, “and we can get drunk,” they added. They probably should have started with the fact that the open bar started after we had to participate in the improv. And, it gets worse. I had to sit in the front row!!!!
My best friend and I flew in from LA and every time we come to New York for work, we uber places because…LA. We decided to uber from the office to the comedy club because it was raining and again…LA. Classically, we’re the last to arrive and the only row with available seating was the front row. The fear sunk in and I started to freak out. Then, an opportunity presented itself.
“I need four volunteers!” the host yelled. I took a beat and looked around. No one was raising their hands. I turned to one of my teammates and said, “should we do it?” She looked at me confused (and probably a little surprised) but agreed. “We’ll do it!” I shouted. I do not know what came over me where I though the best way to confront my fear was to face it head on, in public, on stage.
To be clear, this is farrrrr out of my comfort zone. Upon walking on stage, I immediately regretted raising my hand. The lights were too bright and I saw my boss sitting in the corner and my anxiety was through the roof. Before I could dart off stage, the host introduced our skit. It was us driving to Disneyland and my character was an annoyed bitch-hiker.
I channeled Alexis from Schitt’s Creek and got into it. As silly as it sounds, I really enjoyed the 2 min skit. I don’t even know what I said or if the crowd reacted positively or not but that wasn’t really the point. I was just proud of myself for doing something new, for being bold, for confronting my fears.
Sometimes in adulthood we forget to try things for the first time. So much of life has already been experienced at least once. Since I’ve been feeling myself changing lately, both with my personal and professional interests, I capitalized on an opportunity to confront my fears. The on way to grow in this life is to challenge yourself, so I did. And I learned a lot! I learned that I can act on the fly, be creative in front of a crowd, and have fun sitting front row at a New York comedy club.
