NitroJen's Friday Night Comedy Party

I was having a meeting with Travis, the insanely-talented founder of Roar Theatre, a few weeks back about my teaching plans for the group. (I am very fortunate that I am allowed to teach there!) Near the end of the conversation he asked me if I would be interested in being the MC for a show.

I had actually never considered being the MC. Ever since I joined the troupe, Travis has been our MC for about 95% of the shows. And it is something that he has done extremely well! I just assumed that I would maintain my role as an actor. As a creature of habit, I have gotten comfortable with acting on that stage because I know what to expect. Being the MC would bring an exciting challenge.

So once he asked me that question I immediately told him that I did want to try it out. So we set a date for me to MC my first show: Friday July 29. I had two weeks to prepare a show and get feedback. I started working on the show that night. I was too excited to delay my preparation. I made a master list of ALL the games we have ever played in a show so I could chose which games I would incorporate into my show. It wasn't that hard to do because I have a copy of every show I have been in so I could just take the games and list them in a master document. (Yes, I confess that I have kept our "games set list" from each show we have done.)

I worked on my show everyday until the night before. I would change the order of the games around, and then changed them again until I was satisfied. I would write out which games the actors would be in then change that a few times. I wrote so many suggestions that I think I had at least 2 shows full of them. I even wrote out an entire script for myself of what I would say as an introduction to the show, how I would explain each game, how I would transition between games, and how I would close the show out. I did that just in case I got nervous.

Being the MC was a different experience than acting in our shows but I had so much fun! My fellow actors were so supportive and they did an amazing job in the show! I even, accidentally, began using a catch phrase, "It's true!". No one in the audience threw food at me and they seemed to have a good time out there. And the best part was that the show ran smoothly. The only bad thing was that it went by way too fast!

I look forward to doing it again someday!