Prank Gone Too Far
Apr 02, 2005 02:50 am by b.j.swank in After the Show
I’ve never seen someone come close to dying in improv before. I’ve fallen off the stage twice, I’ve been in shows where someone had to go to the emergency ward afterwards (Sean after RVC), but tonight was the first time I thought a person’s life hung in the balance.
This was how one of our scenes ended:
BJ: Nod once if you’re dying.
Marc: [nods once]
Turns out there is a limit to how many marshmellows a person can put in one’s mouth without choking or vomitting. But Marc is very competitive.
He made a full recovery. My hair smells like whipped cream. Our April Fools show was out of control, and only partly in a good way.
12 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
contact [at] withoutannette.net
By thegirl, April 2, 2005 @ 11:45 am
I still smell the whipped cream. It’s everywhere! I’ve showered twice now and it’s all around me! Welcome to Pukecity. Maybe I’ll go hang out in the rain.
By alice, April 2, 2005 @ 7:30 pm
Why did Sean have to go to emergency? Man, I missed that one.
And have you ever played fuzzy bunnies? I once got almost an entire bag of marshmellows in my mouth. The trick is to use stale ones!
By Maryam, April 3, 2005 @ 3:20 am
I thought it was called chubby bunnies, at least that’s what Ellen says.
By b.j.swank, April 3, 2005 @ 3:17 am
Picture jumping up, and coming down on a trampoline in a sitting position with legs outstretched. Sean did this (purposefully, I think) during a show, but without a trampoline. It was quite a comical site. He finished the show, but later started feeling serious pain.
Also, Andrew (founding member of Without Annette) once had a piano fall on his hand during a show or workshop, and that also required a trip to the hospital. I wasn’t there for that one.
In retrospect, Marc’s near-death experience seems downright shrugable.
By vinnyfrancois, April 4, 2005 @ 1:37 am
During a workshop, the upright piano in the room started to fall over and Andrew, working reflexively, tried to catch it. I forget which finger was severed (I think it was the thumb) but he had to go to emergency to reattach it.
I admit that I wasn’t there either. This was before my time. Brian? Hidden Chin?
By alice, April 4, 2005 @ 5:40 pm
Severed?! Damn, skippy! That’s dedication.
By b.j.swank, April 4, 2005 @ 8:31 pm
Sshhhh! Marc might hear you!
By -a, April 5, 2005 @ 8:26 pm
You should really ask Andrew and/or Amy for firsthand details to cut out the middle-men and gossip. I will tell you this – you could see bone.
The next big improv injury I think of concerns George: He tried to exit too quickly as Geordie Laforge and split his head on a corner of wall. Copious quantites of blood. Not pretty.
By Andrew, April 15, 2005 @ 11:54 am
Thumb: it was before a McGill Improv show in The Alley (I don’t know whether the show eventually went on). The piano fell across my body but thankfully it was partly supported by the low stage, so the only serious injury was where the top of it almost took off the tip of my left thumb.
One of my silly thoughts at the time was that I was embarrassed to go the hospital having been there a few years before for the adjacent digit – I dislocated my finger in a McGill Improv workshop. It was a scene in gibberish. My ’skydiving’ had a rough landing and bent my finger upwards. I spoke gibberish for a while but eventually had to give up on the scene. I tried to snap it back but it ended up in a zig-zag. Months of physiotherapy later it was almost normal again. I sometimes wonder if they let me join the troupe out of pity.
By Andrew, April 15, 2005 @ 12:05 pm
George: I don’t know if it was the same incident but I do remember him running into a wall as part of the scene, then being told by Tamara to do it again, but harder. He knocked down the metal wall next to the door of the alley – I think it was with his head.
I also have a vivid memory of Jeff Oliver bleeding on a bathroom floor in the Shatner Building, moaning heroically that we should continue without him. I don’t remember how it happened, but I do remember the months of teasing that followed!
By -a, April 17, 2005 @ 3:16 pm
Different George moment.. it was unintentional in the instance that I’m thinking about. Ironically, his vision was impaired by a something he put over his eyes to simulate geordie’s visor.
By bubbalicious, June 20, 2005 @ 2:35 pm
George had placed one of those hair banana clips over his eyes while playing Geordie. To make it worse, he covered his eyes with his hands to protect himself from some smoke that was filling the Enterprise, and then he ran out of the room…I should say half of him ran out of the room, and the other half didn’t. He cut himself pretty badly. I can’t remember if we finished the show, nor can I remember if we finished the show when Andrew was crushed.
I do remember finishing a 24 hour improv (back when that meant that 5 people stayed on for the full 24 hours…none of this 25 people in the troupe doing shifts stuff) after wearing a cat wig on my head during one of the initial scenes. I’m incredibly allergic to cats…my eyes puff up, I can’t breath, I almost die…
The show must go on!!!!