Hilarity ensues.

Boy is taking an acting class. Nothing grand, mostly it's children being told to Project and the like. They are doing a lot of improvisation though. Boy was saying he wanted some more practise at this, so I thought I'd go online and look some exercises up. I found a very interesting site where they talk about improve exercises. They said that frequently improve sessions turn into silly fests where people throw out random ideas to get the audience to laugh. This is because a) you get instant, pleasant feedback. And b)something about power and the audience that I forget, and I can't find the site again, so we'll skip this one for now.
The point is, laughter is a big positive reinforcement. If you try something that isn't funny you don't get immediate feedback about how well it worked. You act silly and get a big yuck, well by jove you're going to end up making with the silly.
Who in the audience would complain? Laughing is good. Why not ask the actors to make us laugh?

I used to read a blog by a Lady Leroy. She started her blog with no particular aim in mind, but quickly discovered she could make people laugh. Then her brother got sick with leukemia, and eventually died, and she felt squashed. She didn't feel comfortable being sad in the same place she used to entertain people. Eventually she gave up blogging to live her life privately.

I watch Boy struggle with this already. He wants his improv to be funny. And he wants his homeschooling blog to Entertain his readers. I spent half the afternoon convincing him that the blog was about his schoolwork. It is a place to display what he does. It is about him, not his audience.

I feel the push myself, sometimes, but I decided early on that this blog was not for entertainment. This blog is for myself. It is a place to think, and explore, and record. It is for my children and their children, so they can understand more of their own history someday. It is for my audience too, so they can either say "Yeah, me too!" or "Huh, I hadn't thought of it like that."

Of course, sometimes funny things happen on the way to the bank, and who am I to deny it?

Nothing much funny happened here today. There was plenty of laughter, though. Simon and I started the day tickling each other. Alas, this is a one sided affair, since he is hardly ticklish, but he giggles when I try to tickle him. Later, Boy nearly peed himself laughing because he snuck into the living room and Booed me but good. Got an actual scream out of me. My first reaction was to kick his ass into next week, but I laughed instead and he rolled on the floor with glee. And Peanut thinks anything is funny if you do it twice. I spent the evening making her giggle by kissing her forehead. Then kissing it again. And again. And once more again. Both she and I think that if something is funny once, it's especially funny the fiftieth time.

It was an especially productive day. Laundry, dishes, and shopping were done, in addition to the assembly of some shelves.

And a star will be going up on the calendar.

All in all, I'm pooped.
Going to bed satisfied,
ephelba