You know me as 
I ran into him at the ComedySportz World Championship last weekend.
ComedySportz is a franchised show with venues in 28 cities internationally. We perform high-energy competitive improv comedy. There's probably one near you!
During our weeklong championship, hosted this year in Los Angeles (next year in Philadelphia, so maybe I'll see you in Philly in a year), teams from each city gather to learn, bond, and compete. We spend the first part of the week learning from each other in workshops, scrimmages, talks, and special shows. Then, as the weekend arrives, teams from different cities compete against each other (during the rest of the year, each city holds matches amongst its own players), culminating in a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. This year, Los Angeles won!
This was my first Championship. Here are my take-aways:
Yes to inviting people into your home! First of all, I love sharing my home with out-of-towners anyways and always, but in this particular instance it was especially important. We had folks from CSz New York, CSz Manchester, and CSz Chicago staying with us. We saw each other in the mornings and got to excitedly go over what was happening that day. In the evenings, we got to decompress during the train ride back to our apartment. A lot of the out-of-town folks were staying in a hotel together, and I think that gave them a lot of bonding time as well, but for those of us from our host city, who were sleeping at home during the Championship, there wasn't nearly as much time to bond. Just sheer quantity of hours is so important, and we were lucky enough to get to hang with a lot of cool people a lot of the time. And Lochlan got to make new friends! Plus, yeah, getting to know people's morning personalities really helps you KNOW them, you know?
Yes to new games! There are literally hundreds of ComedySportz games we challenge each other with in our matches. But not every team/city/individual knows them all, and new ones are invented every year. The enthusiasm with which my team (I'm very proud of us, Sunday Team) has embraced brand new opportunities for funny thrills me. We've already added Roll Play to our repertoire, and I'm excited to add a dozen more.
Yes to our values: Collaboration, Inspiration, Gratitude, and FUN! Making an acronym out of them is tough. The best I can offer is FIG...C. ;) Took a fantastic workshop meant to guide us in finding solutions to problems that connect back to our values. Having a sort of mantra that encompasses those 4 things has proven very useful, and reminds me a little of the premise of Boal's Theater of the Oppressed work. In fact, taking that workshop, though it was not about T.O., inspired me to reinvest myself in learning more, and maybe even trying to get a workshop going to learn more with others about T.O.
It was a fantastic weekend. If you get a chance to check out a ComedySportz near you, I recommend it. There's a brand new one in Maine, by the way, and if you want to come to the one in Los Angeles, let me know. I might be able to request to play the night you're coming.
Fingers crossed that I see you soon!