Gainesville Improv Festival

PennyBear went to the Gainesville Improv Festival. I'm sure a big reason we got in is because 4 out of 5 of us went to the University of Florida, which, for those that don't know, is located in Gainesville, Florida. The amazing thing about this trip? We got our air fare and hotel stay paid for! What's more, those of us who taught workshops were paid for them! Big time, here I come.

Most of the time down there was spent asking "what used to be here?" or stating "I can't believe this is still here!" It was neat seeing the changes around campus and having familiar spots trigger a memory or two. Overall much was at it was before, which was comforting. I do think there were more cyclists around, though. Which was interesting to note now that I've become quite a bicycle enthusiast. All the bikes made many of us go "ah man, I should have biked everywhere around campus. Why didn't I? So stupid."

It was also unseasonably cold for most of our trip. But the last two days the temperature got to the high 60s.

PennyBear's show was the first night were got there. It went really well and it appeared that everyone in the audience really, really liked our show. The rest of the festival was spent teaching the writing workshop and seeing other groups' shows. I hadn't been to an improv festival in ages and it was odd looking at it from more experienced eyes. It was also the first time I've seen short form performed by a group in a long time that wasn't a Comedy Sportz group.

We didn't go to many parties, mainly because we're already over improv parties in Chicago and going to festival parties where many of the people there are a decade or more younger than you is just odd. When you're talking to an attractive woman for awhile and then you realize just how young she is you start to feel gross. "Oh shit, am I that gross old man at an improv party?" Luckily I look young so that feeling is only on the inside of my brain and not in the brain of anyone else at the party. But the creepy feeling is there so instead of mingling with the youth of America, you stay close to the other people who are as old as you. So I stayed pretty much with other PennyBear people. Or World News Tonight people once they got to the festival. The only time I was talking significantly to non-Chicago people was at a party at this bar across the street from campus. I was with current Theatre Strike Force (TSF - the on-campus improv group) member talking about the old days of TSF and how we did things back then. They ate that shit up and I was happily playing the part of the drunken alum given the stage to speak about the glory days of TSF. That was a fun time.

Unfortunately I never dug out my camera for pictures. But there were people at the festival that took show pictures and they got some nice ones of PennyBear.