Location: Blue Spoon, Casco Bay Books and Tommy’s Park/ Post Office Park.

The Method: Ages ago Shelia had a cool idea about running a slow motion race in a public venue. Now that summer was here it was time to make that dream a reality. In order to add to the fun we decided that some of the Escapists would try to blend in as ordinary people who, one by one, would join in the race.

R.J.’s report:

Our first location was the Blue Spoon restaurant. It’s a gorgeous restaurant with big windows that face out on to the street… perfect for diners to view our race. While Brian, Ariel and I began to get in place for the race Shelia and Chris entered the restaurant separately… they tried blend in as “ordinary” diners but we had overlooked the fact that Shelia is a frequent patron to the Blue Spoon. So as soon as the race began one of the waitresses turned to Shelia and cheerfully said “Hey your friends are out there!”

Shelia literally ran with it. “Has the race started already?” She shouted as she dashed outside “I’m late!” She immediately proceeded (in slow motion of course!) to shove her way to the front. Chris pretended to be confused by the events and then said, “Is that the race outside? I’m supposed to be running in that too! ”. He then ran out and joined in the slow-motion fray. But it was too late for him to capture the lead. Shelia crossed the finish line and did an extremely time delayed victory dance. Inside the patrons were confused but amused. “Should we applaud?” Asked one person. Then on a signal from Shelia we all snapped into “real time” and nonchalantly walked away.

Our next target was Casco Bay Books. The bookstore has large glass wall that looks on to a large corridor, again perfect for a race. This time Shelia, Chris and I entered the bookstore and spread out and tried to look ordinary. Normally when browsing in a bookstore I get sucked into the first book I pull of the shelf but this time I was so nervous, that I could barley concentrate.

Ariel and Brian begin their race. They were so stealthy that no one noticed them until Shelia shouted, “Oh my god the race has started I’m late” and sped out into the corridor. Chris meanwhile, in a bid for verisimilitude, had gone to the bookstore café and ordered a root beer. He somehow managed to chug it down in less than thirty seconds before he to ran out into the corridor and joined the race.

I joined a group of women who were staring at the racers outside. “What’s going on?” I asked. “I don’t know their just running” One of the ladies laughed. “Oh my god the race has started? I’m late!” I yelled as I dashed out of the bookstore. Some of the bookstore patrons looked a little confused by having all of this randomness explode around them but most people were eagerly watching as Shelia one again triumphed and did her dance of slow-mo victory. Again on Shelia’s pre-arranged signal we snapped into normal mode and walked out of the bookstore.

Our next site was Tommy’s Park/ Post office park. Our goal was not to race but entertain people with our some of our improv games. The park was pretty well stocked with people ranging from a group of punk-ish kids, a requisite group of hacky-sack players, two lovers reclining on the stone bench and a guy in a buzz cut & docs reading a book. Our first game was the Oracle (see below for the previous time we played the game), I was on hand to be a random audience member as were our friends Alex and Joy but, as before, random people in the street were more than eager to step up to the plate. We got questions about who would win the world series, where babies come from and many, many, questions from the punk-ish kids about drugs (hey, considering the venue what can you expect?)

Our next game was called The Reverend, the idea of the game is that the audience gives us a topic for “Reverend” Brian’s sermon and we then use mime to try to get Brian to guess the topic of his sermon. However, as soon as “Chris said “And now we’re going to hear from the reverend Brian Giles…” the punkish-ish kids began a retreat.

“I knew it, it just a trick!” “They’re from some weird kind of church” “He just wants to preach a sermon to us!” they shouted as they scattered away.

We tried to explain to them that no it was just a joke, Brain wasn’t like other reverends who preached at the park, I mean, yes, he was ordained, but it was just on the internet This is just comedy people! (Upon more reflection I was kind of interested in what kind of Church they thought would employ an oracle.)

Anyway, we didn’t scare everyone away –and proceeded with the game. Finally Shelia hosted, poets corner. The object of the game was to simply make up a poem based on a word suggested by the audience. By this point the audience was really getting into the sprit of things and continued to shout out words even after we had selected one (hey we’d rather have too much enthusiasm than indifference)! Chris did some wonderful Dr. Seuss style poetry while Brian went with a Jack Kerouac style. Ariel said later that she was really nervous but she somehow managed to do a couple of pretty cool poems, one was even a freakin' haiku about a mysterious lover who saved her from a descent into drug addiction. I have to admit I chocked on my poems (alas not literally, that might have been more interesting), I was too worried about “performing” something really clever, smart or funny for the audience when of course I should have just been following instincts (after all the audience isn’t int erested in seeing a perfect polished poetry, the fun is all in the fact that I’m making it up as I go along!) Ah, well, this will definitely make me a better performer next time around!

Name: The Oracle!

Date: 7/3/05

Objective: To amuse the good citizens of downtown Portland and provide them with something out of the ordinary.

Location: Downtown Portland.

The Method: Through a tremendous force of will, Ariel, Chris and Shelia fused themselves into one entity… The Oracle!

The Oracle is based on an improv game Chris used to play with his old improv troupe. In the game the players construct a sentence, with each player contributing one word at a time. Our challenge would be to have ordinary people who were hanging around downtown Portland ask us a question and then, as The Oracle, provide them with answers that would be coherent or at least amusing. In order to provide the requisite mysterious aura that befits The Oracle, Ariel, Shelia and Chris decided to wail “whoooo!” and wave their arms around in a very spooky manner.

At 10 a.m. sharp (or thereabouts) Brian led the oracle to Post Office Park and begin to loudly exhort the passers by to ask the oracle questions. Because we figured The Oracle could look a little intimidating (what with the three heads, 6 arms and a tendency for ghostly wails) had asked some of our friends to “go undercover” as regular people who just happened to be dying to ask the oracle a question. But the citizens of Portland proved just how much Chutzpa they possessed! A regular passer-by was the first person to ask us a question.

“Will we ever live in peace?” She asked.

The Oracle answered “I… think… that… there… will… be… possibly… be… a… caring… loving… world… between… all… animals!”

Another man walking his dog approached the Oracle.

“Do you have a question sir? No matter how large or small the oracle can answer it!” Brian proclaimed. When the man hesitated Brian prompted him “Have you lost something?”

“Uh…my mind.” the man said (to be fair, he might have said "your mind").

“Where is this man’s mind?” asked Brian.

The Oracle gave the requisite wail and then replied “The… absence… of… mind… will… alleviate… the… pain… of… existence!”

“Wow!” Shouted Brian, “To be mindless is to be free of pain! It’s incredible, it’s Buddhist, it’s The Oracle ladies and gentleman!”

All too soon it was time for The Oracle to depart. We had managed to jolt people out of their everyday ruts and provide them with some amusement.

We thank the good-natured folks of Portland for playing along with us! We can’t wait to unleash another improv adventure.