Austin Improv

Today I had a burger for lunch at the Posse East. There's an older guy working there, I think he might be the owner, kind of has the good ol' boy thing down, kind of rambles as he talks, says sort of random stuff. I thought about him while I was eating, like as a potential character for improv. Anybody have any favorite or notable characters around town they like to observe?

I always keep an eye on the folks outside at Little City on the way to the Hideout - there always seems to be somebody loafing out there that would make a fascinating character

My favorite real-life character that I've seen recently was a guy sitting outside Epoch Coffee House. He was a lawyer, or a state congressman, from the sounds of his conversation. He was in a double-breasted suit with the jacket unuttoned, smoking a cigarette, and talking a lot. His sentences were peppered with profanities and his friend barely said a word. The lawyer was dripping with don't-give-a-fuck/exhausted high status. It was an interesting interaction to watch.

Ever meet Tito of Tito's Beverages? That guy's a trip. I sat next to him on a plane once.

Jennifer Gale - she's pretty out.

I also had dinner at the bar of P.F. Chang's next to Ted Nugent who's every bit the personality he plays up to be.

There's a homeless guy in town we lovingly refer to as 'ski boot' because he tried to sell us a (single) ski boot he obviously found in the trash. He had personality, Ski Boot. He kept coming out with more stuff from his shopping cart and giving us these amazing stories about them. He tried to convince us to let him use our cell phone to call Wesley Snipes which was pretty random.

There's a starbucks barrista across the street that has a crush on my roommate. The barrista used the steam wands on the espresso machine to lay down some appropriate stage fog and with a roomful of people staring in disbelief he proceeded to do a high kick to a split and started singing and dancing to Madonna's 'Vogue' I guess to impress my friend.

I don't know - there's hundreds. I come in contact with characters all the time. I kind of wish I remembered them better, now. Real life characters are treasures. Great topic.

Great topic, Frank.

My latest interesting character is one of the trainers at 24 Hour Fitness. I'd seen this guy a few times and thought he was a member but yesterday I saw him training. He's either pushing 50 or has been in the sun way too much. Very tan. His hair is slightly thinning, he wears those 70's tinted shades while he's in the windowless gym and a gold chain around his neck. Basically he looks like he was a ladie's man/cop in the 70's and didn't get the notice that times had moved forward. Yesterday I saw him on his knees pushing a girl's legs toward her chest and I thought, "There is no way, with a look like that, that he is not thinking about doing her."