Real Life at IHOP

Rehearsal for The Senate last night tested my boundaries and pushed me way outside my comfort zone. That's why I felt so exhilarated after I walked away!

Six of us were available to rehearse last night. Instead of our normal coach, we had a guest coach who was fantastic. As soon as we walked up he said, "I cancelled your room. We're going to do improv in the real world." Immediately my stomach turned as I thought about how I was probably going to have to make an ass out of myself in front of "real people." The stage is much more comfortable than real life.

He issued us three challenges:

Challenge 1 - We had fifteen minutes to go off by ourselves and do anything to get a stranger to compliment us. We couldn't ask "hey, like my jacket?" or anything similar. I saw the Starbucks immediately and thought, "they love to give compliments!" Disclaimer: I had just started my period and contemplated just sitting on a bench in the fetal position. Instead I flashed my biggest smile and gave a very friendly performance. Nothing. "I went to the dentist today." BLING! (big fat smile) Nothing. Obviously my charm wasn't working. I walked a loop around the block smiling at everyone I saw. Nothing. If I hadn't been in Boys Town, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a date out of it.

Two out of the six were successful. Matt made up a story that he was going to see a girl he knew from college and hadn't seen in a year and was nervous. He got two compliments right away. Oh, we can make up stories? But I don't like to "play" with real people who don't know they're playing a game.

Challenge 2 - We paired up and had 15 minutes to get a stranger to console or comfort us three times. Tim, who was even more petrified by this exercise than me, was my partner. We walked a few blocks and finally zeroed in on a couple standing by their car waiting for someone. I said, "Hi, I locked my keys and my cell phone in my apartment. Can I please user your phone to call my roommate?" They were really friendly, but slightly distracted. I called my own cell phone - thank goodness it was on silent - and left a message for myself - "Hey Katy, it's me." It's funny. I still have it. We got a "poor thing" and a "good luck!" Good enough for us.

Challenge 3 - The final challenge! We split up into couples again. Paul and I were couple #1. We each were given a piece of paper with a motivation written on it. We couldn't share that piece of paper with anyone; especially our partner. We walked to IHOP and our coach went in first. He took a seat so he would be able to watch all of us. Our assignment was to assume this character choice as soon as we walked through the doors. We went in one couple at a time and took different seats around IHOP. We ordered some drinks and just improvised conversation using our motivations.

My motivation read: "You don't want to be with him. You can't stand this relationship anymore and want to end it. Decide how badly you want to hurt him and then leave forever." Ouch. Pretty quickly I figured out that his was that he loved me. We sat down in a booth and our conversation turned heated pretty quickly. We spoke in normal speaking voices but there were a couple tables around us that couldn't stop staring at us. It was hard to stay focused knowing people really thought we were in an argument. It was fun to come up with a back story as we began talking. There were things like, "you've been gone for nine months. You asked me to move with you to Chicago and then you leave for weeks at a time on these business trips." "I am seeing your old roommate." "I moved out two weeks ago." And in the end it crescendoed with an "I don't think I ever loved you. You're an asshole." And then I stormed out! It was fabulous! When would I ever do that in real life? I hope never.

Our coach said that there were tables who couldn't pay attention to their own conversations and were straining to listen to us. HILARIOUS! The servers got a nice tip before we left...and a few stories to keep them going through the night. At least I wasn't a couple that had to pretty much make out. I would have died.