All up in my Face [Literally]

I kicked off my acting career last night.

A buddy of mine called me up the other day and asked me to be apart of a video that he's making to help promote the dodgeball league at our church.

"Be there at 7:00... get ready to act your brains out."

Walking into the gym, I joined the other "actors" who sat patiently on the bleachers awaiting their turn in front of the camera. A bit confused at what was going on, I turned to the other confused faces asking whether they knew what their parts consisted of or not.

"I have no idea..."

Whew... at least I wasn't the only clueless person in the room.

One by one each of us were called to film our scenes, finding out our lines and characters seconds before the camera began rolling. Laughter overtook the gym... tears rolled down my face as I tried to compose myself. Improv is hysterical. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. I wasn't sure how I was going to hold myself together when it was my turn, especially if I was going to have to act like a complete idiot...

which is exactly what I had to do.

Nate stood with his camera a foot away from my face. "Be hysterical... hyperventilate... just freak out for a few minutes... ready... go."

Do what?! Oh gosh... okay, I'll give it a try.

And so I did. I widened my eyes, I made my face turn bright red, I talked twice as fast as I usually do, I fanned my face, I breathed heavily... I did exactly what they wanted; I acted like a nut. Once I finished and the camera was turned off, we all busted out into even more laughter. I'm not an actor, nor have I ever been, but I loved the rush that came during those few minutes of becoming someone completely different than myself.

Soon after I suddenly realized what I had just gotten myself into...

Next week my face was going to appear on an enormous screen (taking up THE WHOLE screen as a matter of fact) in front of a couple hundred people. Then add the fact that I wasn't going to just be starring into the camera, but everyone was going to witness my seconds of "freak out."

Oh geez...

So next week, I'd like to apologize to everyone for the possible saliva that might be visible, for any food that might be stuck in my teeth, if anything penetrates out from my nose, or if my huge eyes suddenly go cross-eyed for even a moment. This shall be interesting...

as well as embarrassing... Oh well!

So sit back and enjoy this... fabulous piece of video we all worked so hard on.