For Hugo improv was just a fun outlet.
It wasn’t his day job and he embraced the failures with open arms.
It was a happy outcome to get a laugh but it didn’t make or break his night.
Then (dun dun dun) Hugo received lots of praise for his contribution to the Improv showcase and people said they would attend the next one just to see him perform.
This has royally ruined improv for Hugo because now he needs the laughs.
He wants to analyze and somehow enhance what he did right the last time while simultaneously immediately removing everything he did poorly.
You might be thinking, that’s a very uptight way to be, why is he acting so crazy all of a sudden?
Well, it wasn’t explicitly said in the praise, but Hugo read it in the subtext – you have to be unbelievable again.
The unspoken expectations from others weighs heavily on Hugo’s shoulders and is preventing him from feeling free again.
Little does he know that people understand the nature of improv and that it can’t always be good.
Instead he’s picturing an unforgiving audience that will make him feel awful for letting them down.
And just to be clear, Hugo has received nothing but positive feedback and he is creating his own suffering by imagining what others are ‘really’ thinking.
Thomas Duggan 