Improv: First Blood

Still far apart 20 years later, but this time I brought a weapon.

Surrounded and protected.

6 Degrees.....

Today I want to go back in time to an incident from my early years as an improviser. I was fairly reckless then, not always taking the time to think about the potential danger that flailing arms and leg kicks can be. I was unaware of individual player's different comfort zones - though I was very cognizant of mine - and I'm fortunate that nobody was damaged in the process.
Mostly.
In the second season of The Impromaniacs, we maintained an open door policy; we did not hold auditions in the traditional sense but let it be known that new members were always welcome. One of the newbies on this particular Saturday morning was Robert. Unlike many newcomers, Robert had a strong background in theatre and was not showing any signs of trepidation or hesitation at jumping right into the midst of it. At one point, he and I ended up together in a game called "Role With....", which entails four improvisers playing a scene in four styles, be it emotions, film genres, accents, or pretty much anything else. When each player enters the scene, those on stage adapt that player's style. Then it goes backwards, each player exiting until one is left. If this sounds complicated to read, try writing it, or introducing it.
Robert enters. His style was "Woody Allen." I was excited because this was also a style I could do well - I struggled with some back then - and I was ready to "Woody it up." What the scene was about I do not remember. Here's what I do remember: my elbow coming up and landing on Robert's mouth. I carried on. There was a collective gasp. I turned and saw blood streaming from Robert's lip.
I'd split his lip open. While doing improv.
I stopped, stunned at what I saw. I am not squeamish about blood, but I'd just met the guy an hour ago, and now he was never coming back. Because I'd split his lip open. While doing improv.
But I'd not anticipated what we would all soon come to know: Robert's quick reaction time and laser wit. Far from panicking or stopping, he used his injury, in true method acting style. Never breaking character, never hesitating, he declared:
"I just came out for an improv audition and I'm bleeding from the lip!"
It was perfect. It broke the tension and let everybody know that no serious damage was done. The scene went on, though I remember nothing of the rest of it. That hardly mattered. Robert had created an indelible and legendary moment in Impromaniacs lore. Today, twenty five years later, I still relive this moment with him and with others. Yes, Robert stuck around. That's a mild understatement, as he went on to produce some of the greatest improv moments, lines, characters, and scenes which still sound fresh and exciting when I relive them. He and I have become great friends, both on and off the stage. He returned to Victoria several years back and leaped right into scene. I was pleased that he'd never stopped, performing improv and "serious theatre" while he was living elsewhere.
For the past five seasons, the two of us have played together in "Sin City," Victoria's live improv serial. He still does killer accents. I still do not. We are among the last of our ilk: forty-something improvisers with a link to the past. We are sort of the "wise old men" of the improv community, but we have kept our youthful enthusiasm and maintained our love of and for the art.
Robert was always an idol of mine; I'd always wanted to be like him: to be able to think so quickly and effortlessly on my feet, to say and do things which delighted players and fans.
I've been told that I'm a good improviser. I like to think that's true. If it is, perhaps some seeds were planted that day at The Fernwood Community Association, when an errant elbow met a lively lip and formed a blood bond.

***Robert is in all three of the photos at the beginning of this post. He is at the far left staring at the ground in the first picture; dressed in green with a pseudo-bowl cut in the middle pic (that was for Sin Season: Kingdom Of Thrones) and looking suave at the far right in the last one. Note that in the first and last shots he and I are separated by a buffer of actors, which I don't think is a coincidence.