Things I did on Winter Vacation

For the past 20+ years*, between Christmas and New Year's, I go on vacation to the Outbanks of North Carolina. My wife and I go with our college friends and those who have glommed onto that group as friends, partners, and minions. We're now regularly seeing 30-40 people descend on Kitty Hawk, which is having a significant economic impact on the area's Publix and Escape rooms.

The time I've spent at OBX has been a recharge for the rest of the year, but the activities have changed. The group has moved away from communal video games like Rock Band to role-playing games like Daggerheart and Alice is Missing.

1. I didn't perform for the public. Careful readers will note the careful phrasing of this. My friends, a healthy number of us who were theatre kids, always do something that probably counts as a performance. We have found things we read and perform as a dramatic presentation. We also did a bunch of Tiny TED Talks similar to Smartypants. The important thing is I got a performance fix without any of the burnout that can sometimes come from doing shows for people. I also didn't do a Harold/Patern game, which is what my improv theatre mandates I do as a conservatory member. I'll be interested to see what taking a break will do for me. And by taking a break, I mean, I still too two Will Hines Game Talk classes at WGIS because if I stop doing improv I might explode.
2. Read Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense by Elliott Kalan. Elliott makes me mad. He's so fast at jokes. Too fast. He must be destroyed. Elliott delenda est. This was my plan before he wrote a book. Now I plan to learn from one of the best. I've only just started reading the book, but it's already touched on something I realized early in my new career in comedy: I'm a joke forager that's transitioning to be a joke farmer. A lot of times, being the funny one in a group means that you're good at stumbling across funny things, kind of like a pig that can find truffles. The best moments I've had in improv this year have been when I am sure there's nothing funny, and I am scared my scene partner and I are about to die on stage, and we choose to rely on the tools that I have worked on in the process, and then it turns out we find something funny. I clearly have a lot to say about this, so I'll probably write more about it later.

3. Played Alice is Missing, Silent Falls Expansion Keepsake Edition - This game hits me right in the heart. The less said by me, the better, but this is a silent role-playing game that takes place via text. Relationships between the other player characters and Alice are handled with such deft economy of words.

1. Played News Tower. This is a fun game seemingly inspired by Sim Tower and a Euro Board game Tag matching mechanic. If you know what those things are and say "Ooo" then this is the game for you!

*Except the year I spent on and off in rehab which was sad but ultimately good for me.