Improv Class #Six

This weeks' class was a lot more satisfactory than usual. Adam's getting much better at improvising scenes, and I don't know where she gets them, but Robin keeps coming up with new games for the group to do. The first couple games are always fun, because they're for physical warm-up. One game was called "The Sun Shines". One person stands in the middle of the circle and says, "The sun shines on...anyone who's wearing red," or "anyone born in September," or "anyone who's a vegetarian," you get it, right? And then everyone the sun shines on has to change his spot, and the person in the middle tries to steal someones spot, so the game is similar to "musical chairs" in that respect. People running all over the place, very funny.

There was another very funny 2-player game that involved one person reading from a script and the other person having to add his/her spin on it. The one who reads lines often has hilarious things to say, and the clueless one has no choice but to respond to whatever comes along. It was so funny, you just had to be there.

This time, Robin has gotten more authoritative. Sometime during the class, Charlie and Eric were goofing off, and Robin reminded everyone that for one to earn respect, one has to be respectful to everyone else. And that means watching and listening to your fellow performers and learning about what works and what doesn't work.

The last game we played had a few phases; first we did free association on whales, then we did different scenes with people on a topic however distantly related to whales, and finally a few people got to do monologues. I played a character of a vegetarian in a club, and when prompted as to what's so good about broccoli and spinach, I said, "There's plenty of other good stuff for vegetarians, like zucchini spaghetti that I make with my cool spiral slicer thing." I wasn't sure if she was acting, but a girl named Rebecca said "That sounds cool, I gotta try that sometime." Wouldn't it be cool if I turned someone on to a new and delicious way to eat zucchini?

When Adam, Bettina, and I got back home, we got mashed potatoes, and watched "High School Musical 3" on DVD. Whoo-hoo, yeah!

Gotta go now, byeee!

A Very Important Lesson

Today my dad, Benny, taught me something that I don't soon want to forget. Adam, Bettina and I were thinking up ideas for the next "Leslie & Kyle sock-puppet show", and one of the ideas required the use of Groucho-glasses. The trouble was, we didn't own a pair of Groucho-glasses, so we decided to be proactive, and we walked to the nearest dollar-store. Unfortunately the man who ran the small store didn't speak English very well (We're looking for a pair of Groucho-glasses), and after he showed us a box full of regular glasses (No, Groucho Marx, Marx Brothers?) and a snorkling mask (Marx, not mask.) we decided to cut our losses and leave (Oh well, thanks anyway). We came back home empty-handed and tried to think our way around this obstacle. Then Benny came in and we told him the story of the foriegn dollar-store manager, and then he said, "Well if your episode needs Groucho-glasses, why don't you make a pair yourselves?"

"Out of what?" I ask him.

"Anything around the house, cardboard, play-dough, use your imagination."

"That won't work." I say stubbornly.

"If you can imagine it, you can make it." He says.

"Well I can't imagine it." Red flag goes up for my dad. Can't and imagine in the same sentence?

What had happened to me? The can-do girl with a positive attitude and a healthy imagination. He tells me something along the lines of "Can't is a limiting word, imagination is limitless, don't go putting limits on the limitless. Can't holds you back from reaching your full potential." I felt a little embarassed, but I also knew my dad was right. 

Then Bettina and Adam came up with some ideas of their own, and we put together some cardboard, construction paper, and bits of fake sideburns to create our very own miniature Groucho-glasses built just for Kyle the sock puppet. After we were done, and after we admired our handiwork, I thought about what this experience has taught me. Keep thinking creatively and don't let the word "can't" hold me back from being all I can be. I hope that I have another chance to use this lesson soon, because the next time something doesn't work as planned, I'll come up with possible solutions instead of accepting that the problem won't be fixed. I will. Expect a new "Leslie and Kyle" show on YouTube, March 32nd. (^.^ April Fools!)

My Doodle Collection #7

7. A very fascinating number, in my opinion. For one thing I was born on the 7th (of Sept.), 7 is a prime number, and there are 7 dwarfs in Snow White. I don't consider 7 my "lucky" number, really, but I do consider it one of my favorite numbers. It's a challenging number that isn't tamed easily. But when you do, it gives such interesting results (You get 35, 42, and 133 multiplying by 7, and 1/7 as a decimal number is 14.28). But hey, you didn't come here for math now did you? You came here for art! Well excuse me for exercising both hemispheres of your brain.

<--- For starters, here is a doodle I did almost 3 YEARS ago of a playground at some park. I've forgotten how good I was way back when. It's fun to look into childhood archives and find treasures like this, isn't it?

---> And now, with a snap we come back to the present, and I do this. I first outlined this on the 7th of March (7 again!), using my fine new French Curve tools. Then I thought, "Well, that doesn't look so pretty all black and white. I'm gonna just color the whole thing!". I used coloring pencils. Coloring is a very meditative activity, I find, especially if you color in large spaces. In this experiment, I can see forms of dinosaurs, and waves. What do you see?

<--- I never did put a date on these 2 seashells. Gosh, why didn't I date them? Future or fellow artists, learn from my mistakes; date your artwork!

--->

<--- This one I drew on the beach. Just like last week. It was just before we had to go home, and I captured the moment as best as I could. The waves were very big, and I went swimming twice yesterday. If you can't see the buoy, the seagull, or the faraway boat, click the picture. (Sorry that it's so big, I'm not sure how to fix that exactly.)

Now that I'm done with this, it's on with my day. I need to figure out the meaning of life and hang upside-down for a while. See ya!