If you feel this is the way for you, if you hear that kind of call, if you feel you're really meant for this - that's what you have to do

It is here, it has finally arrived and all the footwork and preparation either pays off or it doesn't.

There's never a good time to say all of the thank-you's that need to be said - I keep trying to pick the time to make whatever speech needs to be made to publicly thank all the people that make this thing possible, not to mention amazing - but no matter when we do that there are hundreds of audience members and dozens of staff and support people that should also be hearing it that won't be in the room.  I hope this reaches some of them, at least, and makes some sense. I'm still in the middle of it all.

Everyone I've been in touch with lately has been giving me a lot of slack, saying "I'm sure you're really busy right now" and asking if I'm holding up ok because they assume this is the hard part of doing the Improv Festival.

Here's one of the hardest thing about the Festival: how it manages to be both never enough and too much all at once.

I already feel like I never actually get to see anyone that is here for the festival and I just hope they have a great time.  It's that host-of-the-party thing of getting to talk to everyone for 10 seconds but nobody for long enough.  I know it's only four days and some of our guests are only here for one or two of them and the time flies by and suddenly it's over.  And still it feels like so much cool stuff happens that it must have been a week long and any attempt to list my favorite moments is going to either include everything in the festival so far or leave out dozens of things that we completely awesome.

I hate not being able to include everyone that wants to come, I hate the selection process because there are so many great groups that apply to be part of this and we could easily fill an entire week (or two, or three, or as many as we decided to) with top notch improv.  I want to invite more people even though my main complaint is not getting to really hang out with the people we already have.

I want to thank every single audience for coming and tell them how much I love this and how excited I am for everything on stage.  But saying it before every show just makes it sound like I just say that about every show and it loses some value and turns into "just words"
The whole thing is just exciting as hell and I can only say "what you're about to see is one of my favorite things ever" so many times before I sound like a stuck record (kids, that's when a record keeps playing the same thing over and over WITHOUT a DJ doing it) but that's just because this whole festival is made up of my favorite things to see on stage and the shows that I'm really excited about and I honestly can't wait to see it every time.  Seriously.

I'm sure some of it gets mistaken for just trying to pitch the shows but one look at the way we run this thing will show you that this is why we do it.  Nobody here is getting paid, I'm not telling people they shouldn't miss the FrankenMatt/Splendid Things show because it puts money in my pocket, I'm not hawking t-shirts because we're turning a profit - we do it simply so we can keep doing it.

Seeing empty seats just bums me out for the person that didn't make it.  I want more people to be here for it so they can experience it - because that's all this is about, because it is one of those wonderful things that you truly have to be there for.
Not being here for it?  That would be the hard part.