Ch@os

(Note: this particular page assumes you've got a basic understanding of my history with Like Disco...but not Really, an improvisational comedy troupe that I was a member of for virtually all of my college career.)

It was my sophomore year, and I was entering the second year of my stay in Like Disco. I had gotten past my first year in the troupe, where I had been over-confident and enthusastic; I was finally entering my stride at actually trying to do stuff for the troupe, instead of just for myself. I had taken an active part in the recruitment of the new members that year, mostly by personally befriending everybody that came along and virtually forcing them to come - and we had even survived the fallout of that, as the troupe was beginning to drop from 40 members to a more sane 25. I was beginning to honestly trust these people, because it made us all a better troupe and because I could do it with an honest heart...

One day, one of the dance classes wanted Disco to do a quick show with them - it's a standard drill, where half of the time is taken up by the dance class showing off and half by a comedy troupe doing a couple of games. I was excited when I heard about it - but during the rehearsal when it was brought up, Dave (who was in charge of the troupe) hardly said anything about it. I asked him about it near the end; he just replied "I've already gotten some members picked out and I've talked with them specifically - don't worry about it." Puzzled and feeling a bit left out, I nevertheless agreed, and didn't think too much of it...

Well, not until the next week.

Tuesday, Dec 3, 1996, 11:45pm - it was 1:45 into rehearsal, and we were almost done, when Dave and Mike said that they wanted to make an announcement. Most people didn't immediately recognize where this was going; even those of us that did didn't fully understand the repercussions. So, we all sat down, still high from our games, watched as nine troupe members went to one side of the room, and listened...

"Nine of us are going to make our own troupe."

The reaction...well, it started out innocously enough. Some of us asked some basic questions, like "why" and "will you still be with the troupe?"; others just sat there and thought about it, listening but not giving any visible response to what was going on around them. But soon, the questions began to grow more pointed - nine? So the membership is already decided? Did you think to discuss this with anybody else? Who's in it? How did they get chosen? And even then, you could hear the unasked questions coming from everybody - did you just use Disco as a tryout for your troupe? Are you honestly saying you're better than us? And if so, do you really think that we're ever going to be able to act with you again?

Things didn't get really bad until people did start asking those questions.

The next few days were...bad. Personally, I was in shock - the only way I got through it was to take off my lanyard, an act that cost me a bit of my soul. But that was nothing, compared to a few others. Some people resigned immediately, ostensibly for personal reasons but we all knew the truth. Others just became more withdrawn, the problem that had caused them to join Disco in the first place. And those that wanted to be in the new troupe... well, they knew that they had to stay in Disco at this point, or face the wrath of the whole troupe. But they withdrew too, to talk amongst themselves about what had happened and to convince themselves that this troupe was still a good idea...

The new troupe did eventually take shape - although its size had dropped to seven by then (Jason had dropped the first night, once he realized what he'd done; Caitte dropped after I sat her down and talked with her for a few hours). They eventually chose their name to be Ch@os - a name that I found oddly appropriate. The rehearsed on Wednesdays, between our Tuesday and Thursday rehearsals. And eventually, they started having shows...

I lost track of most of them over the next couple of years.

At the end of my senior year, though, I got a mail from Dave. He was about to have his last show as a college student - he was finally going to graduate, after all. He wanted me to come see him, because I'd been there back when he had started... I agreed, and I went to the show.

Ch@os wasn't bad. They weren't great, either. All in all, their show was about on par with Disco on a mid-quality night. And they all knew who I was, even after the troupe had changed memberships so many times during the years. And they all grumbled when I suggested "math store" to them as a setting, an old in-joke that I owed them... And none of them understood that I was laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all when I left that night.

Oh, and one more thing - to the best of my knowledge, Ch@os hasn't put on another show since.