David Pasquesi 11/15/06 Part 3

JF: Did you continue improvising consistently during the 90's?


DP: No, I didn't. I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. I improvised with Jeff Machowski [sp.?]at this place in Santa Monica called the Upfront Comedy Theater, and it was great. I hated being out there, but I enjoyed doing that. It was just kind of thrown together. They called them Harolds, but I have a hard time with that, because they really weren't. It was fun, but I didn't do anything consistently.

Then at the first Chicago Improv Festival, Scott Adsit, Mick Napier and I were asked to perform together. I hadn't been on stage with Mick in ten years at least. I had never been on stage with Scott. And we improvised. We didn't talk about how we were going to do anything. We got on stage. We did an hour and I had the time of my life. It was really fun. The next year there was another group thrown together.

Also, I was doing shows with Joe Bill. We would do these improvised monologue shows. I had a group together called Mo Green's Other Eye. We did that at the Annoyance. Then I was on stage with another group that just got pieced together at an improv festival. It was Noah [Gregoropoulos], [Jimmy] Carane, [Kevin] Dorff, [TJ] Jagadowski, [Mick] Napier and me. I think that's who it's was. Someone asked 'would you like to do more of this?' I said yeah.

Because the problem that I found was that the guys that I came up with weren't here. They were all in Los Angeles. So, I didn't have anybody to goof around with. Then I met these other guys and I met TJ, and I said 'yeah, I'd do it, if I can work with these guys. It'd be fun.' Then TJ and I started talking. I was doing a show at the Stepphenwolf, and we decided as soon as the show was done, we'd try something. We didn't know what we were going to try. We said 'let's start out with two, if we need more, we'll add them,' so it's still an experiment. We don't really know what it's going to turn into.



JF: How would you describe 'TJ & Dave' to someone who hasn't seen it?


DP: I don't know. It's a difficult task. My suggestion would be [laughs] come check it out and then you tell us what it is. Because it changes. We really don't know what it's going to be. That's one of the exciting things for me. We don't know if it's going to be a one two-person scene that lasts an hour, or if it's going to be twelve different characters. I guess someone described it as an improvised play, an improvised one act. I don't know. I guess that's close. ...That's certainly not what we're [trying to do]. We're just improvising. What it turns out to look like is really not [consistent from night to night]. I guess they all kind of look the same in that they're the story about whoever these people are. I don't know. I'm not able to explain it.



JF: How often do you guys stay in one location? Have there ever been times when it's just a monoscene between you two?


DP: It has been. It's not all that often. Usually it moves around a little bit. I remember one time we stood there and didn't move.



JF: Really? Why was that?


DP: It was at a funeral. We were in church, two guys in church at a funeral.



JF: How did that work out?


DP: It was great. There was no need to move. That's the other thing: whatever seems to be called for we'll do. If it means I'm going to go play your character, that's what's going to happen. Whatever seems to be required.



JF: That's one of the things I was curious about with your shows. I wanted to know if you guys tried to define your environment as much as you can early on, but what with what you just mentioned you seemed to define it as needed.


DP: Yeah, I think it all goes as needed. That's the way it seems to be working. As I say, it's still changing. I guess it may not look like it's changing that much on the outside. All the shows might look the same as four years ago, but it's different to us. Now that we've gotten comfortable with certain areas we've kind of pushed those areas, to be able to listen one another more specifically, to pay attention even more closely, rather than just the broad gestures of 'oh, I'm playing another character.' It really is just more of paying attention.



JF: How is it changing? I know it might be hard to be specific about it.


DP: I don't know that it's changing from the audience point of view, but after every show and during our rehearsals we try to discover ways we can communicate more deeply. Like bridge partners have a system of communicating that although everybody's privy to the information it doesn't mean the same thing. So, we're trying to develop a means of communication while performing. And we're not trying to come up with clues, or tells, or tricks or anything like that. Just ways like 'here's what I meant by this.' And 'I didn't seem to be able to communicate that to you.' As we're going over it, 'here's what I meant by that.' 'Oh, ok, I see.' So, we're just learning more about how one another communicates.



JF: A lot of it is body language?


DP: Exactly, body language, just the tiniest of stuff too. Anyone can come in lift their imaginary hat and say 'Good mornin' Guvernor, I'm here to clean your fucking chimney.' [laughs] We're trying to... I guess that's our challenge. There's nothing wrong with coming in and saying 'Good morning Guvernor' occasionally. The stuff we're interested in is the same as the first day: paying attention more closely.



JF: So, you guys don't take a suggestion?


DP: No, we get no suggestion.



JF: So where do you get your inspiration from for even taking on your starting position?


DP: What the other person is doing. It's the chicken and egg idea that you're asking about. I'm looking at what he's doing. He's looking at what I'm doing, and communication has already begun.



JF: It seems like there are dramatic elements that come up in your shows. There's a lot of silence. How do you guys deal with any conflict that might come up?


DP: That's one thing that I think TJ put well. He said the idea is drama is conflict, right? The disruption of a routine is conflict, and that's where the dramatic tension occurs. That's what some would say. TJ points out that conflict is going to happen. Let's try to postpone it as long as possible. It's going to show up. If we create it at the beginning, we haven't established anything these people before the conflict, so there's no change that can take place. The conflict should affect some sort of change in the relationship or within these characters, but if we don't know them already, we don't notice the change. That's all we know them as. These are those guys who react this way when the car blew up, but we don't know what they were like before the car blew up.



JF: So you guys don't try to avoid conflict?


DP: We don't seek it out. We do not seek out conflict or create it. Hopefully not. Sometimes we wind up screaming at each other too. So, it's all fluid. That's one of the things that's exciting about it. My idea of improvisation is constantly changing. It changes from show to show. What the audience is doing really has a huge effect.



JF: Have you guys had shows where there's no conflict?


DP: I think we have. I don't know. It really doesn't come into post-show discussion about whether or not we were successful. Whether or not there was conflict doesn't enter into that conversation. Whether or not we were sucessful we judge by if we missed anything the other person gave, or if we made a mistake about some information or something like that.



JF: Have you found it a challenge to play different characters within the same scene?


DP: To do it believably is difficult, rather than just the technique of jumping playing different people. To try and make them useful [is a challenge]. Or to play characters that TJ has initiated or to on occassion play TJ, to think and respond as he would, that's a great treat. Rather than me creating the lawyer. I know how I believe the lawyer guy I just made will think and behave, but I don't really know how TJ's lawyer thinks and behaves, because I don't really know how TJ thinks and behaves. That's a challenge, even moreso, to play the other guy's character.



JF: You just have to go balls out?


DP: Before that, you have to be paying attention very well, because you may be playing him in the next minute. Who is this guy? Truly, who is he? Not only what is he saying, how is he moving, what kind of guy is this? Because I may have to play him in a minute. It's another reason to pay hyper-attention.



JF: What are some of the things that you emphasized when you taught?


DP: I don't recall anymore what I used to teach. I can tell you what I teach now, and that's just paying attention to the other persons. All your problems will be solved by the other person on stage with you.



JF: How do you get people to focus in on the other person?


DP: I think they just need to be reminded that it's fine not to get laughs. The reward comes from having done the scene well. The reward comes from having gone through the entire scene without resorting to things that are less than noble.



JF: It seems like you might have to do a lot of acting excersizes?


DP: That's the thing. I don't really distinguish between it all. Like I said in the class that I was in that's what I was taught to do, except you've got a script. Here's a script, but pay attention to the other person. TJ and I started doing our show and this friend, an accomplished actor and an acting teacher for a number of years, he's in his 50's and he used to be a full-time teacher on an a faculty. He came to watch TJ and I and said 'well this is great for anyone.' There's often an idea that improvisation is different from acting and I don't think it is.



JF: Would you like to see improv get more theatrical in general, or is that something you don't even think of?


DP: I don't think about it. I would like to do more of it. As I said, I love coming to New York and doing it in a theater. I love that. I love that we're doing it. I also love seeing ASSSSCAT on tv.



JF: I think you might have to settle for that one episode.


DP: Regardless. I think that's great. I think it's great the Barrow Street [Theater] is doing improvisation. That's a pretty darn good theater. That's the kind of attention that good improvisation deserves.



JF: Are you familiar with the term 'the game'? 'The game of the scene'?


DP: Yeah, there was always a discussion of that, find the game, play the game, but I was always told you do that while you're improvising the scene. That's not the scene. You find the game and continue to play the game, while you're playing the scene. They're not mutually exclusive.



JF: Does that play a role in your own improv? Looking for patterns and trying to heighten them? Or are you more focused on moment to moment?


DP: I think it's more moment to moment, but then there's the idea of trust that those other things are going to be factored in. If I'm not having to catalog them, but if I'm aware of what's going on, they'll show up again. All that information, if I'm aware of it, if I pay attention it's all in there, will back if it's needed. That's my belief. It's all super-mystical. It really is to me. It's an excersize in faith. If I just get the fuck out of the way, this is a perfect scene. The only way this scene isn't perfect is if I interject a joke into it. It's already great. It doesn't need me.



JF: It's a hard thing to do.


DP: Yeah, especially because there is reward for doing the other. The audience laughs.



JF: What advice would you have to people starting improv?


DP: Don't do bad improvisation. That's the best thing for improvisation. Do not involve yourself with something that you know is bad. It's your responsibility to not fucking do it. 'Oh, but I'll get experience.' 'No, you will get bad experience.' Nope. Don't do it. Make it good.



JF: But what if they're not that good of an improviser at the time?


DP: Then they won't notice it's bad, so that's fine. If you're in with a bunch of people and some of them are better than you, great. Do that. If you know what you're doing, and you know that this thing you're going to step on stage with is going to be terrible, or once you've had the experience 'oh, that blew, and that's what these people are doing' remove yourself. That's all.



JF: Follow your heart so to speak?


DP: Yeah, absolutely. That's the same thing within the scene. Follow your heart, not your ego. Follow your heart rather than sell-out. Or sell-out [laughs], that's fine too. Go ahead. Sell out, and if everyone behaves the right way, you'll be selling out all by yourself.



JF: Do you have anything that you would like to say to the improv community that we didn't get out?


DP: Just that there is an improv community is a great thing. Going to New York, it's such a hoot to go there and people see it. There's an awful lot of options and stages that people have in New York and that they choose to go to improvisation is a wonderful thing. I think it's great. It's great. It's the best thing in the world. Improvisation is the best thing in the world.