We’ve been taking Laurie Murphy’s “Improv Performance Fundamentals” classes this fall, and the semester culminated on Monday night with a showcase for friends and family at The Haviland Club. My brother Mike recorded this short snippet of my part in Spoon River Anthology, which started off our performance.

My character was Gertie Masterson, a miner with a very low, gravely voice, a voice in which he vested his masculinity. At this part in the scene, however, he was under the influence of helium, provided at his wedding (in the mine) by another character (a true case of “you had to be there”). It was great fun.