We were more prepared this time having had one show already under our belt. Changes were made to make the structure more tight. Ed kept the opening speech short, describing the premise and then moving right into the first team. Then, instead of announcing an intermission after the first team was over, Ed spent that time promoting everything from Thunderdome thongs to the next Kansas City Improv Festival. Five minutes later, the next team went. After than was the true intermission. Then the last group. From my point of view the structure came off as very smooth with little to no mistakes. That was what I was most proud of. As fun and as exciting as the first round was, it was sloppy and felt unrehearsed, to me. The more we do this, the more comfortable we'll get and the more professional it will seem.
The biggest tweek was the voting system. Instead of relying on noise and clapping, we preprinted ballots that had each team name on them. After the third performance was over, the audience could tear off the name of whichever team they liked best and drop it in one of three boxes that Ed, his wife Jill, and myself were walking with throughout the theater. Once all were collected, we created three separate piles of ballots while all the performers participated in Freeze Tag on stage. After all ballots were counted, the winner was announced.
In the end, it was a night where all three teams presented pieces that were incredibly different from one another. The audience was treated to three completely separate shows, something i've always believed Thunderdome should fulfill. In one way it stinks that this is a competition. That one team has to be voted on as the better of the three. Because after two shows, everyone that performed worked together to give the audience two very funny and very entertaining shows as a whole.
Congrats to Scriptease! And thank you very much to Babel Fish and Antiprov for participating.
