Bob Dassie 4/13/06 Part 2
JF: Did you find there to be any difference in what the IO people would emphasize when they were training you and what the Second City people would emphasize?
BD: There was a different emphasis on different things. The foundation of improv is the same, but some of the things they were pursuing [were different.] At Second City, we were pursuing a sketch comedy show, which is a different thing than the IO long-form where you’re aiming for more of a coherent piece. There was nothing contradictory …eh, you know, there might have been, but now that I’m a teacher it seems like it was a communication of one person’s interpretation. So, I took it all with a grain of salt, and hopefully pulled something from both of them.
JF: Did you and Stephanie [Weir] start going out when you were on ‘The Lost Yetis?’
BD: [laughs] Yeah, toward the end of it. When we went to Edinborough is when starting seeing each other officially.
JF: How has it effected your improv together to be in a relationship then and married now? Has it made it easier or harder?
BD: You know, I think it’s a little of both. When we were performing and dating, I think we were just having fun, and we would, the group would give itself notes, and stuff like that. But now that it’s just her and I performing, we’re definitely more critical. We’ve been doing our show together for a while, and we’ve come a long way together in performing together in a cohesive way. In other words, we’ve set guidelines and rules to not violate [each other’s boundaries.] The relationship is of the utmost importance, and the show is way below. We’ve learned how to be respectful off-stage after shows. We learned how to give and take notes. It’s been more rewarding now. It seems like we can go deeper and farther into whatever we’re doing, but we’ve had to work hard at it.
JF: Have you ever had anyone come in coach WeirDass or some of the smaller groups you’ve been in?
BD: Yeah, when we first attempted WeirDass Noah Gregoropoulos, who's been a great influence by the way, coached us a little bit and helped us with our initial offerings. With Trio, which was me, Steph and Rich Talarico, we just embarked on something. We knew what we wanted to do, which was longer scenes, for the sake of discovery, rather than for the sake of time. We didn’t have a coach. We just played together and created some guidelines for ourselves. The same thing for the shows that I’ve done with the different incarnations of Quartet and Dasariski. We approach it with a likemindedness. We’re all trying to achieve the same thing, so we self-coach.
It’s great to have an outside eye, especially when Stephanie and I do Weirdass. When we did our written show, we had Tracy Phillips from Second City Chicago. She was a great mediator, as it were.
JF: Do you prefer coached or uncoached groups?
BD: You mean being in them?
JF: Yeah, I mean, now do you feel like you’re at the point where you don’t need a coach?
BD: No, you always need a coach. I’ll rephrase that, you always need someone to give you notes. I think especially improvisers tend to stop getting notes. I think we’re always being challenged with this. What we’ll do with Dasariski or Quartet, we’ll be each other’s coach. One person will put their point of view into it. So, we do self-coach.
As far as having an outside eye, that’s always valuable too. I think that any group that’s not getting where they want to be, or don’t feel like their being challenged, that’s when a coach should be brought in to kick them in the butt.
JF: What did you do after the Lost Yetis broke up?
BD: The Lost Yetis broke up, then I did sort of a throw together group called Monster Island for a little bit, then I started playing with Baby Wants Candy. They brought me in around 97 or 98. I don’t even remember. [laughs] I started playing with them and I kept doing the Armando Diaz show upstairs. So I was doing Armando and I was doing Baby Wants Candy and around that time is when we did Trio, and after that was WeirDass.
JF: So when you started working with Baby Wants Candy were they already doing the Musical, or did it start when you were there?
BD: No, they had been doing the Musical for around a year or more before I came on. They were doing some experimental stuff before that, but I didn’t do any of that. I went straight to the Musical.
JF: How did you adjust to doing musical improv? Did you have any training in that before?
BD: Back in the day, Improv Olympic used to do ‘Musical Options.’ The structure of the night was the two teams would start with a Musical Option. The first team would perform. Both teams would do a ‘Dream’ or a ‘Nightmare.’ Then the second team would perform. Then we’d finish the slot with a ‘Freeze Tag.’ Now, I think they just do two Harolds and they’re done. [laughs] They took out the games. It was just because the format wasn’t working. But back then …it seems like the audiences, especially in Chicago because they’re so inundated with long-form improvisation, they’re smarter. Musical Option is entertaining, but it’s more of a short-form game. Since IO was more focused on the long-form, they went to the long-form. I know places like ComedySportz do Musical Option, but in a different name, I’m sure.
But the question was ‘did I have musical training?’ Yes, I did. We used to do musical option all the time. I did a lot of musical improv stuff at Second City. As a matter of fact, our class show ended up doing an improvised song at the end of the show. So, it wasn’t extensive, but I did know how to sing and improvise onstage.
JF: I’ve heard that there’s kind of a pattern or something that musical improvisers use to create songs. Are there any tips or tricks that you guys used in Baby Wants Candy to try and create a Musical?
BD: I’ll say this, I think people may have tricks. I honestly do not. However fast or slow the music is, I just try to go with the emotion at the time. You know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. [laughs] I think that sometimes I really surprise myself when I’m singing in an improvised show, because I really try not to think about it. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but I’m saying that I don’t have any tricks, per se.
JF: How would you describe the format of what Baby Wants Candy does? It seems like it’s kind of a story.
BD: It’s kind of got the format of a musical Harold in a way, but with a little bit more of a story structure. I’m not saying that we have a story structure, but what I’m saying is that we know that we try to pursue the relationships in a scene amongst this over-arching story that we’re telling. As far as the structure goes, I’m not the spokesman for Baby on structure, so I might not be the person to ask. [laughs]
JF: Did you improvise with Carl and the Passions when you were in Chicago?
BD: I did. I wasn’t a formal member. But they had me play a couple times in Chicago when I was in town, then they had me play in New York a couple times, and I played with them a couple times in L.A. when they were out here for the improv festival.
JF: Do they do a more organic style of improv?
BD: Yeah, I would imagine. Like I said, I’ve only played with them a couple times. I don’t know what they rehearse, or if they’re pursuing a kind of organic thing, but I know that it’s kind of a cool thing to develop it together. It’s different schools of thought, new people with veteran people to bring an energy back into Harold. I love seeing that and that’s why I love playing with them.
JF: What was the main reason for you moving to Los Angeles?
BD: I had toured with Second City for just a very short time. My wife and I were about to get married. We were either going to get married and move to New York or get married and move to Los Angeles. When Stephanie got the job at MadTV, it was decided that yeah, we would get married and move to Los Angeles. It was definitely at a point in time that we were planning to move to further our careers.
JF: I’ve heard that some times people begin to feel like they’re spinning their wheels in Chicago. Was that true for you?
BD: It wasn’t like I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I felt like I wanted to pursue this on a more regular basis, so that’s what I did.
JF: Were you ever able to support yourself solely with improv, or did you have other jobs?
BD: When I was touring, I was supporting myself with just improv. I’ll say this, yes and no. There were times when I could, and times when I couldn’t. I still do computer stuff. I did computer stuff in Chicago. I do computer stuff out here in Los Angeles, that kind of makes the down time more bearable I suppose.
JF: What was your impression of Los Angeles when you moved there?
BD: For me, it was kind of a tough transition. I had never lived outside of Chicago, or Illinois. It was my first major move and it was in July 2001, so two months after I was there 9/11 happened. I’m not trying to say ‘woah, oh boy 9/11 really rocked me,’ because obviously my story is not one of the more riveting ones. But what it did do was make me feel far from home and feel a little bit lost. I felt lost out here, because it’s so vast.
I always say Los Angeles is a great place to live, but I wouldn’t want to visit. Mainly, when you visit here, it’s so hard to get a feel for what it is. It’s not until you live here that you can really take in all the different things. And there’s a lot of fucked up things in Los Angles, but you know, there’s a lot of fucked up things in Chicago. There’s a lot of fucked up things in New York. You just have to choose what kind of fucked up things you want, or I should say what kind of fucked up things you can live with. Steph and I still want to live in New York some day, but while we’re in Los Angeles we’re embracing all there is here.
JF: How was the artistic climate different in Los Angeles compared to Chicago, especially with regard to improv?
BD: Oh, it was kind of like a wasteland in a sense. There was this one little beacon called the Improv Olympic West, which was fighting it out on Santa Monica Blvd. They were doing a great job, but there was not a lot of the improv culture there, mainly because there was not a place to hang out after shows and all that.
I came right before the open of the theater. I saw how having your own permanent space changes a community, and really made the community blossom. So, it was really cool to see the transition from improv not being recognized to where at least now it’s got a couple of home bases out here with IO and the UCB. There’s a lot of options.
JF: So, if IO was on Santa Monica then it’s moved.
BD: Yeah, now it’s on Hollywood Blvd.
JF: Is that what you were referring to when they opened the permanent space?
BD: Yeah, they were just renting a theater space on Santa Monica Blvd., then they opened up their own space on Hollywood Blvd.
JF: Did you start teaching at IO West immediately?
BD: Um, yeah, pretty early. I moved out there and I started teaching relatively quick. I think a couple months after I was there.
JF: Did you find there to be any difference between Los Angeles and Chicago?
BD: You mean with the students?
JF: Yeah. [the phone disconnects. I call and we resume.]
BD: I definitely don’t have anything against to diss about the L.A. group, because one thing that the L.A. group did open the doors for me. One thing that I’ve found about Los Angeles is that it’s great to have the community out here. But I know that in the beginning students were less enthusiastic. But shows just kept on getting better. There are shows out here called Pete and Paul Explain it All and Beer, Shark, Mice. So, they had some great shows that the students started to get excited about, to kind of see what they were able to do.
BD: There was a different emphasis on different things. The foundation of improv is the same, but some of the things they were pursuing [were different.] At Second City, we were pursuing a sketch comedy show, which is a different thing than the IO long-form where you’re aiming for more of a coherent piece. There was nothing contradictory …eh, you know, there might have been, but now that I’m a teacher it seems like it was a communication of one person’s interpretation. So, I took it all with a grain of salt, and hopefully pulled something from both of them.
JF: Did you and Stephanie [Weir] start going out when you were on ‘The Lost Yetis?’
BD: [laughs] Yeah, toward the end of it. When we went to Edinborough is when starting seeing each other officially.
JF: How has it effected your improv together to be in a relationship then and married now? Has it made it easier or harder?
BD: You know, I think it’s a little of both. When we were performing and dating, I think we were just having fun, and we would, the group would give itself notes, and stuff like that. But now that it’s just her and I performing, we’re definitely more critical. We’ve been doing our show together for a while, and we’ve come a long way together in performing together in a cohesive way. In other words, we’ve set guidelines and rules to not violate [each other’s boundaries.] The relationship is of the utmost importance, and the show is way below. We’ve learned how to be respectful off-stage after shows. We learned how to give and take notes. It’s been more rewarding now. It seems like we can go deeper and farther into whatever we’re doing, but we’ve had to work hard at it.
JF: Have you ever had anyone come in coach WeirDass or some of the smaller groups you’ve been in?
BD: Yeah, when we first attempted WeirDass Noah Gregoropoulos, who's been a great influence by the way, coached us a little bit and helped us with our initial offerings. With Trio, which was me, Steph and Rich Talarico, we just embarked on something. We knew what we wanted to do, which was longer scenes, for the sake of discovery, rather than for the sake of time. We didn’t have a coach. We just played together and created some guidelines for ourselves. The same thing for the shows that I’ve done with the different incarnations of Quartet and Dasariski. We approach it with a likemindedness. We’re all trying to achieve the same thing, so we self-coach.
It’s great to have an outside eye, especially when Stephanie and I do Weirdass. When we did our written show, we had Tracy Phillips from Second City Chicago. She was a great mediator, as it were.
JF: Do you prefer coached or uncoached groups?
BD: You mean being in them?
JF: Yeah, I mean, now do you feel like you’re at the point where you don’t need a coach?
BD: No, you always need a coach. I’ll rephrase that, you always need someone to give you notes. I think especially improvisers tend to stop getting notes. I think we’re always being challenged with this. What we’ll do with Dasariski or Quartet, we’ll be each other’s coach. One person will put their point of view into it. So, we do self-coach.
As far as having an outside eye, that’s always valuable too. I think that any group that’s not getting where they want to be, or don’t feel like their being challenged, that’s when a coach should be brought in to kick them in the butt.
JF: What did you do after the Lost Yetis broke up?
BD: The Lost Yetis broke up, then I did sort of a throw together group called Monster Island for a little bit, then I started playing with Baby Wants Candy. They brought me in around 97 or 98. I don’t even remember. [laughs] I started playing with them and I kept doing the Armando Diaz show upstairs. So I was doing Armando and I was doing Baby Wants Candy and around that time is when we did Trio, and after that was WeirDass.
JF: So when you started working with Baby Wants Candy were they already doing the Musical, or did it start when you were there?
BD: No, they had been doing the Musical for around a year or more before I came on. They were doing some experimental stuff before that, but I didn’t do any of that. I went straight to the Musical.
JF: How did you adjust to doing musical improv? Did you have any training in that before?
BD: Back in the day, Improv Olympic used to do ‘Musical Options.’ The structure of the night was the two teams would start with a Musical Option. The first team would perform. Both teams would do a ‘Dream’ or a ‘Nightmare.’ Then the second team would perform. Then we’d finish the slot with a ‘Freeze Tag.’ Now, I think they just do two Harolds and they’re done. [laughs] They took out the games. It was just because the format wasn’t working. But back then …it seems like the audiences, especially in Chicago because they’re so inundated with long-form improvisation, they’re smarter. Musical Option is entertaining, but it’s more of a short-form game. Since IO was more focused on the long-form, they went to the long-form. I know places like ComedySportz do Musical Option, but in a different name, I’m sure.
But the question was ‘did I have musical training?’ Yes, I did. We used to do musical option all the time. I did a lot of musical improv stuff at Second City. As a matter of fact, our class show ended up doing an improvised song at the end of the show. So, it wasn’t extensive, but I did know how to sing and improvise onstage.
JF: I’ve heard that there’s kind of a pattern or something that musical improvisers use to create songs. Are there any tips or tricks that you guys used in Baby Wants Candy to try and create a Musical?
BD: I’ll say this, I think people may have tricks. I honestly do not. However fast or slow the music is, I just try to go with the emotion at the time. You know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. [laughs] I think that sometimes I really surprise myself when I’m singing in an improvised show, because I really try not to think about it. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but I’m saying that I don’t have any tricks, per se.
JF: How would you describe the format of what Baby Wants Candy does? It seems like it’s kind of a story.
BD: It’s kind of got the format of a musical Harold in a way, but with a little bit more of a story structure. I’m not saying that we have a story structure, but what I’m saying is that we know that we try to pursue the relationships in a scene amongst this over-arching story that we’re telling. As far as the structure goes, I’m not the spokesman for Baby on structure, so I might not be the person to ask. [laughs]
JF: Did you improvise with Carl and the Passions when you were in Chicago?
BD: I did. I wasn’t a formal member. But they had me play a couple times in Chicago when I was in town, then they had me play in New York a couple times, and I played with them a couple times in L.A. when they were out here for the improv festival.
JF: Do they do a more organic style of improv?
BD: Yeah, I would imagine. Like I said, I’ve only played with them a couple times. I don’t know what they rehearse, or if they’re pursuing a kind of organic thing, but I know that it’s kind of a cool thing to develop it together. It’s different schools of thought, new people with veteran people to bring an energy back into Harold. I love seeing that and that’s why I love playing with them.
JF: What was the main reason for you moving to Los Angeles?
BD: I had toured with Second City for just a very short time. My wife and I were about to get married. We were either going to get married and move to New York or get married and move to Los Angeles. When Stephanie got the job at MadTV, it was decided that yeah, we would get married and move to Los Angeles. It was definitely at a point in time that we were planning to move to further our careers.
JF: I’ve heard that some times people begin to feel like they’re spinning their wheels in Chicago. Was that true for you?
BD: It wasn’t like I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I felt like I wanted to pursue this on a more regular basis, so that’s what I did.
JF: Were you ever able to support yourself solely with improv, or did you have other jobs?
BD: When I was touring, I was supporting myself with just improv. I’ll say this, yes and no. There were times when I could, and times when I couldn’t. I still do computer stuff. I did computer stuff in Chicago. I do computer stuff out here in Los Angeles, that kind of makes the down time more bearable I suppose.
JF: What was your impression of Los Angeles when you moved there?
BD: For me, it was kind of a tough transition. I had never lived outside of Chicago, or Illinois. It was my first major move and it was in July 2001, so two months after I was there 9/11 happened. I’m not trying to say ‘woah, oh boy 9/11 really rocked me,’ because obviously my story is not one of the more riveting ones. But what it did do was make me feel far from home and feel a little bit lost. I felt lost out here, because it’s so vast.
I always say Los Angeles is a great place to live, but I wouldn’t want to visit. Mainly, when you visit here, it’s so hard to get a feel for what it is. It’s not until you live here that you can really take in all the different things. And there’s a lot of fucked up things in Los Angles, but you know, there’s a lot of fucked up things in Chicago. There’s a lot of fucked up things in New York. You just have to choose what kind of fucked up things you want, or I should say what kind of fucked up things you can live with. Steph and I still want to live in New York some day, but while we’re in Los Angeles we’re embracing all there is here.
JF: How was the artistic climate different in Los Angeles compared to Chicago, especially with regard to improv?
BD: Oh, it was kind of like a wasteland in a sense. There was this one little beacon called the Improv Olympic West, which was fighting it out on Santa Monica Blvd. They were doing a great job, but there was not a lot of the improv culture there, mainly because there was not a place to hang out after shows and all that.
I came right before the open of the theater. I saw how having your own permanent space changes a community, and really made the community blossom. So, it was really cool to see the transition from improv not being recognized to where at least now it’s got a couple of home bases out here with IO and the UCB. There’s a lot of options.
JF: So, if IO was on Santa Monica then it’s moved.
BD: Yeah, now it’s on Hollywood Blvd.
JF: Is that what you were referring to when they opened the permanent space?
BD: Yeah, they were just renting a theater space on Santa Monica Blvd., then they opened up their own space on Hollywood Blvd.
JF: Did you start teaching at IO West immediately?
BD: Um, yeah, pretty early. I moved out there and I started teaching relatively quick. I think a couple months after I was there.
JF: Did you find there to be any difference between Los Angeles and Chicago?
BD: You mean with the students?
JF: Yeah. [the phone disconnects. I call and we resume.]
BD: I definitely don’t have anything against to diss about the L.A. group, because one thing that the L.A. group did open the doors for me. One thing that I’ve found about Los Angeles is that it’s great to have the community out here. But I know that in the beginning students were less enthusiastic. But shows just kept on getting better. There are shows out here called Pete and Paul Explain it All and Beer, Shark, Mice. So, they had some great shows that the students started to get excited about, to kind of see what they were able to do.
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