goodSeptember of 1999 was when I started exploring the world of Improv. Summer of 2000 I won my first competition, which bolstered my confidence. February of 2001 I graduated from the Asylum Training Center and got cast in the Touring Company. This, too, bolstered my confidence. Summer of 2001 I hung on to my competition title-- more bolstering. February 2002 the Touring Company was dissolved, and I was out a job.
This is where funny things start happening.
My confidence was splattered. But only for a few weeks. By April, I was auditioning again, and feeling pretty good about what I was doing. Then I started performing with the Foundry, and it was all good. And yet, through ALL this, I never had a tremendous amount of confidence in my improv skills.
I left Boston and came west. I found the Jesters. I worked with the Jesters, and functioned at the same level I'd been functioning before. I believed in myself enough to get by.
And then I started TEACHING the Jesters. Helping them, and watching them improve. And somehow, in the last month and a half, even though I've not been improvising much due to all the directing type stuff, I've felt my own skills improving, and when I get into a scene, I'm more confident than I've ever been.
I think I have to attribute this to how amazingly well the Jesters respond to what I give them. The progress I've gotten to watch them make is overwhelming. At times I feel like a proud parent. At other times I feel like I could reshape the world. My confidence in my own abilities has matured tenfold, and I can feel it when I work.
"I predict that you will soon receive an invitation to begin building a skill you have always been destined to master."
I don't know that I've ever had a truer statement thrown at me through a horoscope written for the masses. It sort of makes me feel important. :)
me
My Elephant is Mighty!
