Last Friday, we had the first Royal Fools improv show of this school year. I had no idea what to expect, even above the nature of improv shows, in that fourteen of my fifteen students were new this year, and so this was their first show.

The kids were excited in warm-ups, and it took some patience to get through all my notes, but it was worth it. They listened to me and did all my guidelines in the show. I was very pleased with that. I always tell the Fools to greet the audience as they come in, and my charges ran out to do so. I was setting up the stage and making sure everything was ready to go when I realized the students were all singing made-up songs as guests came in. That made me smile.

We were performing against the opening night of boys’ basketball, so I was not sure about how the crowd would be. People came and went between our show and the game, but I’m guessing we had about eighty people in attendance. That is fifteen or twenty people smaller than some of our shows, but the crowd was very responsive and fun to play to.

The show went very well. The students did a great job, and followed the “rules” of improv for each skit. The show ran about an hour and fifteen minutes, and we had a huge buffet of desserts to share with the audience. There had been a junior high girls’ “fun night” earlier in the evening, and they donated the food to our dessert table. We had a lot left over. Sadly, I had been fighting a mild migraine during the evening, and so I went home pretty quickly after the show. Mer went out with her friend Marie, who had come to see Mer and the show. They went out to Friday’s for some light food. I went to bed.

I was very happy with and for my new Fools. They should be proud. Some of the things that happened during the show:

– an expert explanation of three paintings from the “nervous era” of art
– a recitation of an original poem about playing with Barbie dolls, that was simultaneously danced out
– a very bumpy ride to China
– a cat washing service
– a mother playing favorites by giving her son’s teeth to her daughter
– a debate about unicorns and one about stuffed animal health insurance
– a singing competition with a song about air pumps