REPOST: The Marriage Proposal from Extrastrengthcomedy.com
Posted by Mouth | Filed under Big Ups - Other improv teams that rule, The Mouth
HI Guys! Mouth Here. SO i was on facebook and ran across this awesome blog post from iOwest’s very own, Brian O’Connell who performs on Extra Strength. Check out their blog site here! I thought it was amazing and awesome and wanted to share it with all of you! Enjoy! You can see Extra Strength perform Saturday, November 14th at 11pm at iOwest!
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Look at that face. Let me tell you how we got here.
As well as being the 5th handsomest man on Extra Strength, I’m also the iOWest Bar Manager. I’m sitting in the office on a Monday when the phone rings. Training Center Director Mike Canale answers the phone and begins speaking with someone he calls “Mike.”
As the conversation goes on, I start hearing phrases such as “event coordinating” and “well, do you know any of the peformers here?”
“Canale, who are you talking to right now?”
“This guy has been trying to figure out a way to propose to his long time girlfriend and he wants to know if we do any sort of event planning or something.”
“Give me the phone.”
I get on the phone with “Mike” and he proceeds to tell me his predicament: he’s been trying to find a way to propose to his long time girlfriend without her being suspicious. Every time he suggests something out of the ordinary, she looks at him sideways; doing the math in her head. She suggested that she wanted to go see a comedy show Friday night and mentioned iOWest as a possibility. Mike thinks since she suggested the event she will be caught totally unaware.
They know no one at the theater. They’ve never even stepped foot in the place. It’s perfect for an ambush.
I couldn’t agree more and knowing my teammates well enough to know that they would be down, I jump on it.
“You know, Mike, I’ve got a show this Friday night at 11pm called Extra Strength. We do three pieces back to back to back and ask for a suggestion before each one. I bet we can pull this off during the third suggestion. At that point you will have seen 40 minutes of a show and her guard will be completely down. Plus, I’m the bar manager so you already have the ‘OK’ from the powers that be.”
He agrees. We set up a time on Wednesday night for him to come down to the iO West, meet face to face and come up with a game plan.
Wednesday night, Mike, and his brother-in-law Clay, come to iO West. They are super nice guys and funny in their own right. I’m stoked. Helping pull this off for people I genuinely like makes me really excited about the prospect.
The three of us put our heads together and come up with the plan: Clay has already worked it out where he called and set up a 3 couple dinner date for Friday night (brilliant!). Mike’s fiancee-to-be tells Clay they had plans to see a comedy show. “Great!”, says Clay, “We’ll all go!”
I already like these guys’ style.
During the suggestion for the Slacker, I’m going to get a volunteer from the audience. I’ll pick Mike. Once Mike is on stage, I’ll say I actually need two people and force him/the group to get her up there. She hates being on stage.
Awesome.
Friday comes. The members of Extra Strength are jazzed. We’d been promoting the show strongly to the different classes, handing out gum, putting our stickers on beer bottles in the bar and telling those who know us, “I can’t tell you why, but trust us. You WANT to see this show.”
The buzz in the bar is palpable. It’s going to be a full house. Our friends are begging us to give them hints. No way. We don’t want anyone talking about it in the bar and having the guest of honor catching wind. The currently married members of Extra Strength haven’t even told their wives!
FLASH FORWARD to two-thirds of the way through the show.
I get Mike on stage with a sly piece of misdirection. Going through the audience, I’m laying it on thick: “Okay, I need a volunteer. No, not you. Not you. You, sir. You don’t look retarded.”
He fights me for a second and then relents, the other two couples pushing him out of his chair, really selling it. It’s possibly the best acting of the night and it came from the non-improvisers in the house. Sweet.
I get him on stage. Now, our regular audience is starting to stir. We’ve NEVER asked for a volunteer. What’s happening?
“Hi, what is your name, sir?”
“Mike.”
We shake hands.
“Hi, Mike. I’m Brian. Have you ever been to our show before?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, shit. Are you here with anyone tonight?”
“I’m here with a bunch of people.” The friends cheer. Beautiful set up, Mike. This makes my job really easy.
“Okay. Pick the person you like the best out of that group then.” Now she HAS to participate. If he doesn’t say her, she’d be offended, right?
“I guess, that would have to be Bri?” Brianna is his girlfriend.
The other two couples they are with are shoving her towards the stage. She’s not having it. Quick thinking XStrength member Brian Konowal retrieves her. It may be the only time in his life where he’s snagged a young lady for someone other than himself. Well done, KonMan.
She gets on stage. We do more polite introductions. I ask her for a location that might fit on the stage like a coffee shop (she says coffee shop, I tell her that’s what I said) and finally she says “McDonald’s”.
I ask Mike for a physicality. He says “weightlifting,” drawing an extra laugh from the crowd. We’ll take ‘em anyway we can get ‘em, folks.
“No, Mike, we know what weightlifting is, I just need you to….to….uh….some position, anything. Like this, maybe.”
I take him by the shoulders and put him down on one knee. Then my favorite part of the night happens. Brianna looks at me and says, sarcastically:
“What? Is he supposed to propose or something?”
She turns back around.
BAM!
Conroy probably had the best seat in the house as he saw the 10,000 different emotions run across her face that were not captured in this single photo.
And, oh yeah……
She said “yes.”
It is hands down one of the best nights of improv I have ever participated in.
For the rest of their lives, Mike and Brianna will remember the name Extra Strength. For the rest of our lives, the members of Extra Strength will remember how we brought joy, real, honest-to-goodness joy to someone else’s life.
That we took care of the other people on stage. That is what the art of long-form improvisation is all about.
Make the other person on stage look good.
That night we all came together to make Mike, a man none save me had ever met, look like a rock star.
Mike and Brianna didn’t know anyone at all at iOWest but, after the show, dozens of people came up to them and wished them well. Told them how proud they were of them; how awesome it was and how no one in the house would ever forget the night of their engagement.
For us in Extra Strength, we were overjoyed to make it happen. What we want more than anything is for people to leave our show being affected by our work. That night will live on in the memories of everyone who was there. That “you had to be there” feeling is what makes improv such a powerful force and is what makes us do it. Every time we take the stage, we should be striving for that feeling.
That is where you set the bar.
Improv teams come and go. It is the nature of the beast. New blood replaces old blood so that this art form that we love so dearly can continue on and enrich the lives of others the way it has blessed our own.
But for me, personally, I like to think that some day, many years from now, there is a distinct possiblity that Mike and Brianna will have a child. Some day that child will ask them how Mommy and Daddy got hitched.
“Well, there was this comedy group called Extra Strength……”
And there, right there, is where you want to be.
Where the show never ends.
Congratulations, Mike and Brianna. Thank you. We were honored by your presence.
Tags: Brian O'Connell, extra strength, ioWest
4 Responses to “REPOST: The Marriage Proposal from Extrastrengthcomedy.com”
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Leo1973 Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 5:19 amWow. I wish there was video of this.
Well played Mr. Mike. And well played for teh team that made it happen. -
Leo1973 Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 5:20 amWell played Mr. Mike. And well played to the team for making it happen.
I wish there was video of this night. -
monahan Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 6:10 amThat's really fucking cool.
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Conroy Says:
October 29th, 2009 at 6:18 amActually Leo… there IS video (Extra-Strength posted it to their blog).
PS Thanks for the shout-out Annie! You're a gem.
