6/22 Improv

The theme of this class was "Never let Jon anywhere near my food or mouth". We did a couple of different exercises regarding Physical Involvement with an Object, primarily focusing on taste and smell, by holding food on our tongues. The first prompt was a pickle and my mind immediately went to one of those pickle chips that people (gross people) put on burgers and whatnot. I could feel the shape and the ridges on my tongue and, while I didn't get a ton of taste or smell info, my body reacted to knowing that this pickle was in my mouth. I felt repulsed and started to get that pre-vomit salivation.

After wiping that away the second terrible prompt was holding a live fish in our mouths and not letting it complete its goal of going down our throat. I actually felt a fat goldfish-type fish rather than the type of fish Jon intended, but I made the decision to stay with it rather than overthink and edit my choice. I ended up experiencing the physical panic and disgust more than the taste/smell for this one too.

The third prompt was popcorn and this was very interesting to me, both because it wasn't disgusting and because I felt different things inside and outside of my mouth. On the outside I got the smell and finger feel of popcorn that's just been obliterated with butter and salt, and I felt the chapped salty lips of someone who is eating too much popcorn too fast and knows they shouldn't but does it anyway (which is veeeeeery true to my life). On the inside of my mouth I got the feel of room temperature popcorn that's dissolving in my saliva, but I didn't really experience the salt or butter on my tongue. I'm not totally sure what to make of the disconnect there.

Following this we did a group exercise where Person1 would offer a plate of some food that Person1 saw, Person2 would take the food that Person2 saw, then Person 1 would also take the food that they saw Person2 take. It sounds a little goofy writing it like that but it's basically adjusting your reality to your partner's reality (I think). I'm not sure if I did it correctly but most of the things I saw were influenced by how I interpreted the body language of the Giver. It was less "okay we're at a Halloween party and it's 10pm" context and more like "I see the blueberry muffin this person baked and was excited to show me, and I know they're excited because of how they lifted the plate up". I do know that I was going far too fast in some sections and I need to just relax and not reach for an answer, I have to trust that it'll come to me.

Really good work doesn't have to be shown. Slow it down to it's essence and leave the desire to "show", just experience it.