It's Easier With Your Eyes Closed

Think what you want, but I'm talking about Bop-It.

Nope, still not a euphemism.

Actual Bop-It.  You know - that super annoying hand held game that you pass around in a circle and makes you feel like maybe your brain never evolved beyond the basal ganglia.  It doesn't help that the machine is mean.  Mess up and it yells things at you like, "Now do it again, ONLY BETTER."  (Sounds frighteningly like an acting teacher I once had.)

The reason I have been playing Bop-It recently is because of a new play I'm in called "Percival's Big Night".  One of the characters in the play references Bop-It at one point so our director took the opportunity to use the game as a warm-up tool.  Concentration.  Group Effort.  If you mess up, it really doesn't matter, let it go, it's a game.  And hey, look!  When you practice, you get better!

As our cast has begun to master the Bop-It, Herr Director has come up with different challenges for us to overcome, like flipping it when you pass it to the next person...

...Or doing it with you eyes closed.

I am not great at Bop-It.  When I have my eyes closed, though, I am significantly better.  The rest of the cast has found the same thing.  Why?

I can't speak for my fellow actors, but for me I know that having my eyes closed forces me to stop thinking and just do.  I don't have the opportunity to second guess myself.  Apparently my brain functions just fine if I just let it do its thing.  Fancy that.

So I'm learning how to trust myself.  From the Bop-It.  Wonderful.

-- Sarah Wharton