Fatherhood

Even though my trip is improv-centric, I don't actually want to post much about shows and the like. This will be one of the few, I hope.

The picture above is from the DCM Press Conference with the UCB, the start of the whole weekend. In Rbrts is holding Jd, Mtt Wlsh's son in his arms. Mtt claimed that he was retiring from performing and Rbrts decided to draft his son into the fold.

Later on in the marathon, Rbrts did a performance of his solo show, Lazy Man. As he tells it, Lazy Man came from so many people putting on their one-person shows and wanting to do the same. The only hitch was not wanting to go through the trouble writing material and workshopping. So, Rbrts decided he would improvise his one-man show - Lazy Man was born!

The first time I saw Lazy Man was at DCM 2002. The show ended up revolving around his pet peeves and, more specifically, The Swarm being the bane of his existance. He spent the better part of his half-hour ranting and raving against them and plotting their demise. It was amazingly hilarious, especially since his wife was a member of The Swarm.

Rbrts is just absolute commitment on stage to whatever is going on and to his emotional point of view. He's a juggernaut.

This year's Lazy Man was a little more laid back, but no less impressive. In fact, it was my favorite show of the whole marathon.

It featured Rbrts being truthful and honest about his anxieties and worries about his responsibilities, successes, and (perceived) failures as a person in middle age, as a husband, and a father. It was refreshing and inspiring to see someone allowing themselves to be completely vulnerable on stage. It was both funny and moving and pretty much everything that we're told to be on stage and that we tell students to be.