For our monthly shows, the storytellers carefully and thoughtfully craft and rehearse their stories. They may look back at journals or photos to be reminded of details from long ago, write and re-write, pull out a thesaurus, edit, re-work a joke, add in a reference, and practice, practice, practice. But, for A Night at the Storytelling Improv, The Sequel, we threw all of that out the window in favor of improvised stories.
Hosted by Shawn Westfall, our October show featured two improvised scenes guided by suggestions from the audience and starring some of the storytellers and special guest Peter Gorman. After each of the scenes, our storytellers – including Richard Barr, Ann Cavazos, Sandra Hull, Liezel Munson, Jack Scheer, Cathy Smith, Kathy Baird Westfall, Michael Zhuang, and yours truly, Mary Supley Foxworth – had the opportunity to jump on stage and tell a story, off the cuff and on the spot, inspired by the improv scene.
What was that like?! Find out below from some of the performers in this edition of Video Extras.
[When watching the videos, you don’t need to watch them entirely in order, but we do recommend watching the improv set 1 first and then the storytelling videos labeled part 1, before watching the improv set 2 and all the stories inspired by that set. Please note that some of the videos contain language or themes that may be considered NSFW.]Mary: Did you do anything to prepare for this show? I thought about some memorable trips and incidents that I’d like to include in a story but haven’t yet. On the night of the show, I didn’t feel like any of those story ideas related well to the improv scenes, so I’m saving those to inspire stories for future shows.
Michael: No, I did not prepare specifically for the show.
Jack: I had a blog from 2001 to 2009. I’d been considering mining my old posts for story ideas, and the improv show seemed like a great excuse to start. Working from the beginning, I got through about five years’ worth of posts. While I didn’t end up talking about any of that for the show, I did find half a dozen posts that I’ll eventually work into stories to tell onstage.
Cathy: I looked at a couple videos of past stories.
Sandra: I’m still new at storytelling, so I focused on form over potential content. I’d take something random that happened during my day and make up a quick story about it, trying to pick out what aspects would be relatable to an audience. I ended up telling a story in the show that I had recently written about on Facebook although I added some detail onstage that I’d left out of the Facebook version.
Richard: I imagined what were likely topics and prepared a half dozen or so stories. Fortunately, the audience didn’t want any off-the-wall topics.
Mary: As it turned out, a number of us had stories to tell about toasters.
Liezel: When it comes to performing improvisational comedy, I can’t really prepare, but I did have some stories I thought might be useful if relevant to the words suggested by the audience. I did prepare, however, to have a solid arc and structure to my “in my pocket” stories just in case I were to share them. I definitely kept an open mind as you never know what the audience will suggest!
Mary: Are there any details that you wish you had included in one of your stories but didn’t?
Richard: My story about causing a blackout in a hotel should have ended with the note that a few years after I moved out, the hotel collapsed during renovations.
Cathy: When in the car with the girls, one of them said, “My mom left the newspaper out on the table, but I didn’t look at it.” I forgot that line.
Mary: What was your favorite moment from the show as a performer?
Cathy: When I said the article was about a school in Montgomery County and we lived in Prince George’s. It got a big laugh and I hadn’t known I would say it.
Jack: The second story I told, about buying my wife a vacuum cleaner for her birthday, was particularly fun because she was in the audience. She’d never heard all the details of that incident, so it gave me the chance to tell her in a safe environment!
Sandra: Getting back in touch with my inner improv performer during “Emotional Symphony” was a blast. It had been several years since I’d done improv onstage. When I arrived at The Auld Shebeen for the show, I had no idea the storytellers would also be doing the improv sketches, so that added an extra spur-of-the-moment layer to the evening. Continuing in an improv vein, one of the biggest laughs I got during the show was from doing an improv thing: during my second story, I threw in a callback to Jack’s vacuum cleaner story.
Michael: The best moments were that the audience laughed nearly non-stop as I told my stories.
Liezel: Personally, my favorite moment was participating in the Advice Panel. Since I love performing improvisational comedy, it is one of my favorite games to play. It’s a character-based game, so coming up with a character to perform on stage is fun. (And sometimes nerve-wracking when the creative juices aren’t flowing as fast as you want them to.) With character-based games, you have the freedom to take your character and really “roll with it.” I love that about improv.
Richard: I got to close out the show.
Mary: I was more anxious before the show but really enjoyed it in the moment. And, as someone who typically agonizes about word choices, I had a lot more free time in October leading up to the show! Now that it’s over, did you find this show easier or more difficult than a typical show?
Cathy: More difficult. The poop story was completely made up on the spot and I sure could have thought of a better closer if I’d had time to think of it. I’m not experienced in improv.
Sandra: This was only my second BSTD performance ever. For my first time last summer, I’d worked on crafting my story for a few months, both during the BSTD perfomance class and after. So much editing to get it just so! Since my previous stage experience was purely improv — where there’s no script to learn beforehand — this show was much easier for me as a performer. Just go with it! Definitely a more familiar stage experience for me, too. For now.
Michael: It’s not easier or more difficult. I found it more exciting because of the uncertainty, the suspense, and the spontaneity.
Jack: Doing stories on the fly like that was much easier for me. I spend a lot of time writing, editing, rewriting, and rehearsing when I’m preparing a story. Telling a couple by the seat of my pants was considerably easier.
Richard: It was much easier because Shawn guided the improv to give us time to prepare our stories.
Liezel: I don’t think the improvised show was easier or harder but definitely more interesting. Perhaps my background in improv comedy has prepped me for it when it comes to the improv storytelling portion. I wasn’t nervous about the improv but I was for the storytelling. I didn’t even realize I was going to do improv comedy until a few minutes before we started the show. Ah, gotta love improv. It was definitely a blast. The stories I wanted to tell were to similar to someone who already went up so the next time I do the improv show, I’ll be sure to pop right up on stage and share my story. 🙂
Mary: What was your favorite moment from the show as an audience member?
Richard: Several moments when I saw the improv participants really rise to the occasion.
Michael: The best moment as an audience member was when Cathy Smith admonished her daughter never to _____ first. It was totally unexpected.
Mary: Michael didn’t actually leave a blank in his response, but you’ll have to watch the video to find out what he’s talking about, although Jack’s reply might give you a clue.
Jack: I thought Cathy Smith absolutely knocked it out of the park with her story on talking to her daughters about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Sandra: When my favorite moment happened, I was onstage, so, I wasn’t technically an audience member at the time, but you can see it on the video, too. During the set-up for “Emotional Symphony,” Shawn remarked as an aside that it was hard to find a workable suggestion for Michael because English is his second language. Michael answered quietly, “It’s my fourth language.” Go, Michael! Polyglots rule.
