Favorite moment of Character Pants show Saturday, from Eva D., midway through the set.

"So, they're going to need a situation... a setting."

Silence.

"Anything."

Silence.

"A setting, a place... who here knows what a 'setting' is? Raise your hand."

Nothing.

"So, maybe we could give you examples of a setting and then you could tell us another one."

Yes, Character Pants' first foray into the improvisation performance world was marred by a few things...

First, The band we were billed with (whom we'd never met, and didn't really meet then...) was funnier than we were, at least to us, though they weren't intentionally doing comedy. They actually had laser gun sounds in their songs. The kind that go "Pew pew," not the... more manly(?) laser sound ..... Every song they played that wasn't a cover I decided was in the same family as "She Blinded Me With Science," and it helps you to understand why that was a one hit wonder. We sat in the back interjecting (quietly) our own spoken lines to make the songs more interesting. Yes, I should point out that some of these "SBMWS" style songs were INSTRUMENTALS. Yes, we shared the bill with a band that aspired to the musical heights reached by the original synth versions of the Legend of Zelda and Metroid themes... but without actually being kitschy enough to cover those themes. No, when they covered, they covered "Radiohead," and ... yeah.

Second, we had a nearly last-minute substitution of a new game that seemed to work out okay in our warm-up sessions but then tanked in front of the audience.

Then one bit we thought would be at least reliably funny ... once in front of the audience it became apparent that we hadn't thought it through or been prepared for a less-than-helpful audience... most of us had to sit back and watch as this one painful bit, which had lasted 2 kinda funny minutes in rehearsal, and was TWELVE AWFUL MINUTES in performance.

We were none of us brilliant.

It never mattered - the audience was almost entirely the band and friends of the band. The band was two guys and they each had one and a half friends.

Lessons learned? Nothing specific, but... we know. It's all for fun, so it really doesn't matter. It was fun, though, and God forgive us we may do it again. Why? Because it'll go better next time.

It'd have to.