My first gig back after the pandemic shut down turned out to be a Sound of Music themed short-form style improv show for a seven year old’s birthday party! So toe-dipping back into it.

In 2018, I had begun to play with a group called Gnu Tales who perform improvised fairytales for children once a month at Third Coast Comedy Club. As we solidified our performance structure, we started to build up a pretty loyal audience. Then the birthday requests came in. We had a couple buy out a section of tickets to our normal show, and then I actually rented out the whole theatre to throw my youngest her third birthday party in October of 2019.

This birthday party was for a little girl in my older daughter’s girl scout troop. She loves birds and the Sound of Music, so we created a custom show just for her party. I was able to round up two other players who were both vaccinated, and the whole party was outdoors with a total of 18 children, all of whom had vaccinated parents.

It was unreal how I had forgotten how much energy performing takes! I mean I knew I was out of shape after 2020, but I didn’t really take into account what that meant for on stage. I was realizing I was out of practice for basics like breath control. But it makes sense since the only speaking “performances” I’ve doing have been bedtime stories ha!

All in all, it was a successful performance – all the kids had fun and even some of the parents! Very much looking forward to getting Gnu Tales back in a theatre.