Midnight Star Wars and Impromptu Improv

I managed to get myself a ticket to one of the three sold-out midnight showings of the new Star Wars movie last night. All of the Cellar Dwellers, led by Ben (the biggest Star Wars fan), bought up about fifteen tickets. We all attended together, with some of our friends, for the 12:15am showing at the huge, new Cinemark movie theater. Many of the Dwellers had spent all day watching all five of the existing Star Wars movies, preparing for the grand finale that would be screened tonight.

But what none of us expected was that we would be called upon to do an improv show in front of over 350 people.

Here's how this amazing event came about.. Because the theater was so crowded the Dwellers were forced to split up. Me, Larry, Joe, James, and Christoph were sitting in the last row of the front section of the theater (you've seen these kind of theaters before... the large studio ones with the risers and the front section that is on the floor). Ben, Dave, and some of our friends sat up towards the top of the theater. Everyone was there an hour before the actual movie started! All three showings of Revenge of the Sith were sold out, and folks began showing up hours before the showtime just to get a good seat.

As we were sitting there, just conversing with one another, I heard something. A few people in the theater were yelling "Hey! Cellar Dwellers! WOOO!" You know, various things like that. We all turned around and waved to them, just happy to be recognized in public. But then people started chanting "Cellar Dwellers! Cellar Dwellers!" And other folks just started cheering and clapping. We didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. But then a fellow came by, I had recognized him from one of our shows, and asked if we were putting on a free show to pass the time. We all looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

Not long after that, a good bit of the crowd started chanting "We want a show! We want a show!" And since the majority of us were sitting in the front of the theater, we couldn't ignore their calls. We all stood up, turned to the audience and Joe called out, "Give us a minute!" He then ran up the side stairs of the theater to grab Ben and Dave. Larry quickly found a random piece of paper and a pen and we got ready to put on a show...

Joe stood in front of the enthusiastic Star Wars crowd and said "Thank you! We are the Cellar Dwellers, for those of you who aren't chanting our name. We are a sketch comedy and improv troupe here in Beaver County, and among other things... we do improv every Friday!" and those who knew us chanted back "Every Friday?!" (this was the chanting we do with our audiences during our Friday improv workshops). Then he said, "So is everyone excited to see this Star Trek movie?" Everyone booed and Joe corrected himself, "Oh, shit, I mean Star Wars!" And everyone cheered. "Everybody, to introduce the first game, here's Larry!" The crowd went nuts yet again.

Larry introduced a game we play quite often called Film Styles. James, Dave, and Joe were going to play this together. They were to do a scene, and throughout the game Larry would stop them and yell out a film or theater genre and they would have to continue the scene in that style. So they began the game, screaming as loud as they could to make sure they were heard throughout the theater. Things got crazy when Larry got to "Swashbuckling Film" and James began scaling the handrails and climbed the stairs to the theater. Joe and Dave followed suit, and the next thing you knew James was standing on a chair in the center of the theater, screaming about yellow snow! The crowd was loving it, and as soon as a big laugh came our way, we stopped the game and moved on.

Joe then introduced Fairy Tale in a Minute, a game involving me and Ben. The chosen fairy tale was none other than Sleeping Beauty (not one I'm particularly familiar with), and we had to perform the entire thing, all of the parts, in under 60 seconds. Ben quickly chose the role of the princess, and began spinning "this thing" and pricked her finger and fell asleep. I was the prince, and I busted down the door of her room, stabbed his mother (a dragon?) in the stomach and kissed him so he could wake up (a theater kiss of course). But that didn't satisfy the crowd, so we did it again in 30 seconds. And again in 15 seconds. And finally we had to do it in seven and a half seconds. It was in this case that Ben just grabbed me, leaned me back, and planted a big, goatee-filled kiss on my cheek. Not what I had in mind for the evening, but the crowd went totally nuts when that happened.

While everyone was cheering, we decided to wrap things up before the credits rolled (and we would all need to go get drinks after yelling so much). So Joe thanked everyone for cheering and told them about our new show (Desperate Housewares, or the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon) which opens next Friday at CCBC. And then of course he said, "And we do this every Friday!" and the entire theater responded "EVERY FRIDAY?!"

It was certainly a shining moment for us. Something like that has never happened to us before, and we all agreed that we were glad we didn't pass up the opportunity. We all settled back down for the showing of Star Wars: Episode III. After the movie, as everyone exited the theater, people were telling us "Hey, good job!" Someone who hadn't been there earlier might have thought we made the movie. It was an exciting evening, and even if the movie had sucked (which it most certainly didn't) it still would have been worth it.