Wow. I don't know why this hasn't dawned on me before, but I don't know if I've ever met another improvisor in touch with Anime and Game Fandom. I can't imagine the people at Improv Olympic or The Groundlings doing Cosplay. Is that because I'm a unique hybrid dork-comedianne? Or is it because Anime and Capcom/Square/Enix/Konami/Etc are as young to the US as I am? At both Boom Chicago and the other Improv Troupes I've been a part of over the years, (Ultimate Improv Nonwithstanding), I've been the youngest member of the team. Ultimate was different; here there were college kids when I was out of college, and I could make a Gundam Wing Sucks joke and they'd respond angrily and passionately (and incorrectly). I would love to connect with an Improvisor who remembered playing Sega Master System's Card-based games. Or Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog. I would love to meet an Improvisor who owned some fansubs and was almost done with .Hack or Witch Hunter Robin or whatever. But I'm guessing that as far as this generation of comedians go, I'm one of the very few.
It's not alienating. I'm not about to get upset about it or anything. But I have two very different audiences for this LiveJournal. My anime friends and my Improv friends. There's no crossover, as a general rule. I've got a few who do both: Jess Lacher comes to mind immediately. Hell, we even got her to join us at AX this year. But where the hell are all the improvisors who can even make a Pokemon joke without saying "Which One is Pokemon again? Is that the one that is Yellow and says his name over and over again?"
This is a long rant. I've just been reading this great article over at InsertCredit.com about Video Game Journalism, and I realized that I had no one to share it with. So! Write an entry!! Right-o. Toodle-Pip.