Preaching Through Improv

I do improv comedy theatre through ComedySportz Buffalo. For those unaware, it’s basically like “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” but two teams going head to head for audience laughter and applause.

Recently at a show; we were playing a game called “Hands Up” where the referee (host) gets categories from the audience. Things like: Types of Deserts, Things You Wouldn’t Find in Grandma’s Purse, Excuses for Being Late, State Capitals, HOLIDAYS. If you mumble, stumble, jumble or repeat you put a hand up. 2 times and you’re knocked out of the game. Last man standing wins points for their team.

I used the category of holidays to my advantage. Nobody was going to trip me up and cause me to repeat. I had the Dudeist Holidays in my pocket and I just went down the list. After I said each one the ref would tweet his whistle and tell me it wasn’t a holiday. Then I would give him the definition and meaning for each one I said. It was great.

Through that game, I was able to tell over 50 people about 5 Dudeist Holidays and about Dudeism in general.

The downside to this is; after the match while in the locker room (green room) one of the other actors called me out saying that I got away with using ‘fake’ holidays from a ‘fake’ religion to win that game. This struck me quite hard. This actor considers themself to be a champion for marginalized people, yet didn’t bat an eye to say my religion is a joke. I then had to go all dude and say “that’s just like, your opinion man” then another player stepped in and told the asshat that I actually run a congregation and perform weddings and that it’s actually a serious thing. This player is a bona fide minister with a christian religion and has stated on numerous occasions that if he wasn’t working in that capacity he would be full on dudeist (still considers himself a dude). It was cool having someone step in and have your back. It was cooler to spread the word of the dude through an improv comedy show.

Sorry for the long-winded rambling. It’s what I do.