1. Wearing Drag.
I'm not nervous about this because I don't want to wear drag or because I'm afraid people will think I'm a cross-dresser or something. I'm nervous because drag is a cultural thing that I'm not 100% familiar with and I don't want to seem disrespectful of it. I am a stranger in a strange land and no one who's in this show has done drag outside of an improv context (as far as I know) and god what if everybody thinks we're making fun of drag. I want to get on stage and give these people a fuckin overwhelming drag show that features dumb improv jokes. I am going to be totally sincere and committed and that's all I have control over.
2. New place, new audience.
This is something I'm going to have to deal with on every stage that isn't Bongo Java. I feel like there is a little bit of leeway in the regular NIC shows because we have people attend every single show there and they've grown to know me and my sense of humor and they love my dumb jokes even when they are hardly even jokes. But when I really examine that I notice that the same people aren't coming to literally every show. I also notice that new audience members are often the ones who stop by to tell me how much they enjoyed the show. Maybe it's the regulars that are confused and puzzled by me? Either way, new eyes grant me the element of surprise!
3. Small Cast.
There's a lot more pressure on each individual to rock every single game that we have in the set list with a cast of three, but I am legitimately good at every one of the games on the set list. If I'm having an off night, I know that either of the other two people can step up and crush it just as hard as I would've. Plus, I did an improvised shakespeare show with four people and that was way harder than being beautiful an sassy in heels for 90 minutes.
Okay, I think that helped. I'm going to go shave my sideburns and armpits now.
