Last night was the big Fools reunion party. What a great time! Nine of the twelve graduated Fools made it, which is very good given they are all in college and have real lives not involved in hangin’ with a 36-year-old.

We had the usual Riordan party fare – pizza from Domino’s, chili and whoopie pies and peanut butter cake from the Hartville Kitchen. We all sat around and ate and gabbed for about 30 minutes, then spent an enjoyable hour and a half watching (and commenting on) The Princess Bride. We then got to spend about an hour doing improv. We just went around the room, and everyone got to pick a game that he or she wanted to do, and the people that should be in the game as well. I wish this had been a show – it was a REALLY funny evening. Here is how things went:

Josh picked Superheroes. The Psychosomatic Platypus had a crisis of mouth tumors, so he called on his friend, Liquid Plasma (Kevin). They needed more help, so they called on the help of Dr. Phil (Michelle). Things were finally solved by Mr Shifting Spaghetti Face Man (Steve), who ripped the tumors off of the Platypus’ mouth.

Kristen then picked Blind Line, where you pick up lines off of the floor (which were all the closing lines of famous movies). The scene was a funeral, so Kristen was kind enough to go to the funeral of Emily’s goldfish. It turns out there are many goldfish funerals in Emily’s life, and Kristen could relate because of the death of her moon-howling multiple-personality dog. There was some tension as Kristen belittled the goldfish and Emily pointed out that maybe Kristen took after the dog.

Steve picked Genre Rewind, where Clarice was trying to sell him bath bubble products to make him happy after Steve’s wife (Brandon) ran over the family dog as she stole the family car. Brandon returns and is shocked to find another woman in the house, but is intrigued by the prospect of romantic bubbles. The scene was played out twice more, once as a French romance (with really great bad accents) and once as a bloody horror film in which Brandon solved much with a chainsaw.

Brandon’s turn came up and he picked The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Advice with Kristen and Josh. Brandon played a hick (and quite well – I don’t know what this says), Kristen seemed quite into violence, and Josh channeled all his answers through the spirits. The panel helped solve problems ranging from how to get rid of mice to how to beat diabetes.

Emily picked New Choice with Steve and Josh (Josh as the “new choicer”). The scene was about Emily being a new, just-off-the-plane tour guide in Mozambique. Steve was a camera-happy tourist. The local groups of people (at the airport) included a man who waved a sharp stick around. Steve thought the man was going mad after his picture was taken, but Emily explained that it was just a show of affection from the man. After a second picture was taken, Emily explained the man was just waiting for Steve to explain his true feelings for the stick-waving man, which Steve did.

Michelle gave us Poetry Slam/Interpretive Dance with Clarice. It was a moving rendition of Michelle’s original poem, Shiny, with perfect choreography to match the emotional words.

Clarice then gave us another rendition of Superheroes with Kevin, Steve, and Michelle. Kevin started off as Da Initiator, who quickly realized he could not find his dress. So, he called in Michael Jackson, played disturbingly well by Steve. They then had to call in The Computer Inept (Clarice), who was not able to help. Finally, the whole thing was solved by The Machine Gun Nun (Michelle), who blasted a hole in the wall, revealing the dress.

I chose Political Debate, where I squared off against Emily and her “ideas man,” Kevin. My “ideas man” was Michelle. We had a round debate on the merits of Hungarian clocks (clocks in Hungarian) and on the issue of mandatory wearing of folk costumes.

Mer choose Paperback with me being the reader. She was trying to sell me a Rolex watch from in her trench coat, while I responded out of the Oresteia by Aeschylus. It never ceases to amaze me how well Paperback works, and this went really well.

We ended the improv with Kevin choosing Location-Vocation-Means of Death with Josh (who started), Clarice, and Emily. Josh had to act out being in a laundromat, as a barber, who was killed by the running of the bulls. I don’t remember all of the details of who everyone thought he or she was, but they did guess barber (as well as baseball pitcher).

I ended the evening by drawing names from a hat to give away the extra food and stuff. I had bought two pillows that had arms on them, which I am told are called “husbands.” Thus I have the great satisfaction of saying that Michelle and Josh both left with husbands.

It was a wonderfully fun evening. These guys are very talented, have great chemistry, and are just a lot of fun to be around. Some of the Fools had not done improv in almost two years, but they still were awesome at it. These guys mean much to me, and I am very happy most of them could come over for a reunion. I’ll have to have another Fools party once schools let out (but before it gets too hot in the house!).