Creative bars in Minnesota are getting around the recent statewide smoking ban by exploiting an exemption for actors smoking on stage. How do they do this? They have theater nights where they declare that the bar is a stage and everyone who enters are actors.

I have to smile at this because I like people who creatively exploit loopholes but I bet it isn't as fun as it should be. I imagine a theater night at a bar where everyone who enters receives a role to play in an unfolding drama, one giant improvisation experiment.

The bouncer could be the casting director as people come in. "Okay, you are playing Buddy, a closeted homosexual who comes here twice a week to scope out the men, but never does anything about it. You are Joan, Buddy's older sister who is a single mother of three and a successful realtor but secretly wants to leave it all and start a pottery studio." And anyone who slips out of character gets bounced.

Now that would be a Theater Night.