Free Improv Show In Long Beach!

It's been a month already! That means it's time for another Held2gether improv comedy show in the LBC.

Now, you might be thinking to yourselves, "Jeez, that Sonnjea person doesn't do anything but pimp H2G stuff." And of course, you'd be right. But the thing about our monthly shows at Hot Java and First Fridays is they are FREE, which basically means one of two things: Either I am the worst pimp ever because I forget to charge, or we just really, really like you.

Turns out, it's the second one. The bottom line is, we love improv. We love watching it, we love learning it and we love performing it. And we especially love sharing it with our Long Beach friends and neighbors. Hot Java could make a bundle off their back-to-back comedy weekends (Laugh a Latte the 3rd Saturday of the month, H2G the 4th). But they don't, because they are also committed to providing free comedy for the community. Same with Elise's Tea Room, who hosts monthly improv as part of Bixby Knolls' First Fridays Art Walk.

See? I keep telling you we're givers! Sure, you could go to Vegas and have a great time. But you'd spend a fortune, get sunburned, do stuff that's illegal, immoral or just plain creepy and have to come up with creative lies to tell your boss about why you look like a homeless person on Monday morning. With H2G presents Last Laugh Saturday, you'll spend maybe three bucks on a coffee, do nothing to increase your risk of skin cancer, watch people make up hilarious scenes about doing stuff that's illegal, immoral or just plain creepy (with none of the shame and self-loathing that comes from doing it yourself) and no one will give you loose change and judgemental looks on your way to work Monday.

Look, there's nothing wrong with Vegas. But it's also nice to stay in town, check out the local talent and save a buck or two. This Saturday, July 23rd, 8 p.m., Hot Java. And Friday, August 5th, 7:30, Elise's Tea Room.

That still leaves you plenty of time to do the creepy stuff. You're welcome. And please don't feel the need to share.

By Sonnjea Blackwell

Drunk Improv

We (and by "we" I mean Held2gether) did drunk improv this weekend. I know some of you who see us perform regularly may think we do drunk improv all the time but that's not actually the case. Sometimes we really are just that strange.

Anyway, we had a troupe + significant others barbecue and Andy Co-Dependent was determined to do drunk improv, going so far as to have an agenda and bringing an MP-3 of hilarious sound effects so we could try a game called, um, Sound Effects. Not that Andy Co-Dependent was the only one who wanted to do drunk improv. He was just the only one who was organized about it.

By the way, if you're waiting for some moral of the story, or how drunk improv relates to real life, I apologize in advance. I got nothin'.

In addition to Sound Effects and a bunch of other stuff, we did Bad Improv. I'm not being self-deprecating here; it's an actual game where you do a scene and break all the rules. It's hilarious in its badness if you understand the rules that are being broken. It looks like a bunch of idiots doing random things in reasonable proximity to each other to everyone who's not an improv person. Which would be all the Sig O's at the party. And of course, in this case, it was drunk bad improv, so it was even stupider. So all the improvisors were laughing our asses off at people talking on imaginary telephones, having interactions with non-existent people, calling everything "this" and "that" without labeling them, appearing from outer space, changing their relationships mid-scene, leaving the scene, denying every bit of information and on and on. Meanwhile, the Sig O's were sitting there, staring at us and muttering because bad improv just isn't funny if you aren't in on the joke.

So I guess I do have a moral to this story: if you are going to do drunk improv, only invite the improvisors. If you're going to include the significant others, just do what regular people do at parties and be loud, talk about annoying people and get semi-naked in the kitchen.

And to all the H2G Sig O's: thanks for putting up with us and being such good sports. Now stop complaining. There was plenty of booze.

By Sonnjea Blackwell