I love doing improv trainings.

I did another one today with a company, and this one I was nervous about in its own way.

I don’t think I get nervous about in-person improv trainings anymore, but this one, this one was over Zoom. Your Daily Lex An improv training over Zoom.

Boy, that’s just not as fun or as easy as an improv training in person.

In person, you can get people in a circle.

In person, you can talk quietly to some people and publicly to others.

You can move around and get the vibe of the room.

On Zoom, it’s different.

And then, just a minute before the actual session was going to start, well, a minute before I was going to join, because I like to join a few minutes early when I’m doing one of these, I noticed it was a Google Meet and not a Zoom.

Had I noticed ahead of time, which now I’ll always know to check for, I would have asked to switch it to a Zoom.

Because in Zoom, I can have everybody sort everybody so we’re all in the same order, meaning the first box is one person, the second box is another person.

This was a Google Meet, which does not allow you to reorder people, which meant that people had to kind of memorize an order, because I want to do things in a circle sometimes.

And you can only go in a circle if you know who’s before you, and then somebody else knows that they’re after you.

So I made them all do it in the order that they were on my screen.

It worked out fine.

But every time I do an improv training, the one thing that you get nervous about, even when it’s in person, I guess, is what if there’s a person or two or three who’s not into it?

Anybody can be the kind of poison in the room who gives you bad vibes.

And people who just don’t want to do it, who are awkward or uncomfortable or just too much of something, it can be unpleasant.

And there was one person on today’s presentation where I was like, oh boy, this person does not want to be here.

And even when it would get to him in some of the circle stuff, it seemed like he hated it.

And then as the two-hour session progressed, he was clearly into it and more and more into it, and then like a star of the thing.

It went really well.

One of my favorite things to do in an improv training, I mean, I’m not going to give you my whole improv training because we don’t have time.

It’s two hours, and this show is at most five minutes.

But I love rapping with a W, that is, not the improvised freestyle rapping.

I love to rap up the event by just having everybody give a highlight, a shout-out to somebody who did a thing they liked or a thing they’ll take away or something they enjoyed or surprised them, whatever.

And everybody had great things to say.

And that guy was like, I just loved being silly and seeing other people do these silly things.

He totally confounded or subverted all of my expectations.

It was quite a thing.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

I am exhausted.

In part, I’m exhausted because you’re putting yourself out there and you’re running the whole thing.

You have to be on the whole time.

But also because I just stood on my treadmill desk without walking, which is harder than walking on it, quite frankly, for two straight hours.

And that’s a lot.

It’s a lot of standing.

Also, my body temperature slowly rose while I was doing it, which was hilarious.

So I ended and it was 10 million degrees.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

I hope you’re having a wonderful Thursday, January 8th.

Remember, if you’re local, if you’re in the tri-state area, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, frankly, if you’re in Connecticut, you should come see my play.

Find me on any social media platform to get tickets or go to Algonquin Arts.

Google that and you’ll find it.

Anyway, you’re the best, except for me, because I’m even better.

Goodbye. Lex