Improv Date
Ordinarily, I wouldn't enter a a guy's basement when I don't even know his last name. Sometimes I'm just a little reckless, and this Wednesday was one of those occasions. There were nine of us in all, present for a beginner's improv class we discovered on Meetup, the website I visit to find new things to do.
I laughed a lot, and learned that good improv is all about teamwork plus a "Yes...And" attitude toward everything. While I didn't expect Aisha Taylor and Ryan Stiles to arrive and discover our collective brilliance, I thought it could be a new performance outlet for me. I might keep going and even one day try it on stage instead of in a basement.
I met a guy, let's call him M, whose feet and hands were too small for his 6'4" frame. I went out for a beer with him after class, even though he was wearing flipflops and demonstrated a lack of understanding the "Yes...And" concept in class. I felt lucky to meet him, as he knew something about everything, and was generous in sharing it.
In less than the time it takes to drink a pint of IPA, I learned:
1. When your internet startups fail, it's because your partners don't know what they're doing.
2. "When the wife says 'no,' there's no wiggle room."
3. When your house is foreclosed on, it's a clerical error by "this girl who didn't know what she was doing."
4. When your wife disappears with your infant daughter, it's not your fault.
M hasn't had a job in 16 years (and proud of it). His current project is a documentary film about B29 bomber pilots lost over Japan in World War II. He is "a better documentary filmmaker than Ken Burns" - a fact he shared with me twice.
Since he demonstrated no interest in me, I interviewed M about online dating, something he knows everything about, having done it for the past 13 years. He whipped out his phone and let me scroll through the women on Tinder and Bumble. He even encouraged me to swipe left and right, accepting or rejecting them indiscriminately!
This might be the best date I've had yet. It was so... improvisational. Plus, it's not every day you hold the fate of a small-footed know-it-all in your own tiny hands.
