Comedic Pursuits

Comedic Pursuits

By Comedic PursuitsComedyArtsComedy InterviewsPerforming Arts
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Comedic Pursuits episodes

  • Jaci Pulice is Trusting Her Choices

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    Blog post coming soon!



    But in the meantime, head to the benefit show for Jason Saenz, one of Jaci’s former iMusical teammates. Bonus: If you message Jaci with the answer to the secret question mentioned in her podcast episode, you can enter to win free tickets to the show.
    1 hr 8 min
  • FIST 2019 Round 1 Recap

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    We’re not your host Seth Payne. We’re Kara Kinsey, Kelsey Peters, and Krystal Ramseur. And we’re the new hosts of the Comedic Pursuits Podcast.



    The first thing we’re going to bring to you is some hot goss about what people are feeling about this year’s FIST. That’s Washington Improv Theater’s Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament.



    Our first impressions of FIST 2019 Round 1



    We’ve spoken to some competitors, and just to drop some names, we’ve got Justine Hipsky, Jenna Hall, the entire FIST team I Don’t Know Her, which includes Lauren Jordan, Precious Jenkins, Simone Webster, and Nichole Hill. We also talked to Isabelle Solomon and, the one dude, Tom Di Liberto, competing as The Lonely Weatherman.



    The interviews below have been edited for clarity. To hear the full responses, listen to the podcast episode.



    Jenna Hall, former FIST champion



    I am Jenna Hall. I am a member of Hellcat and Nox! and a 2017 FIST champion as part of the team Childish Things.



    As a recent FIST champion, do you have advice or suggestions that you would give everyone out there fighting to win FIST this year?



    I have a hard time with this because I went into FIST not expecting to win at all. I am not kidding. I think we got to the Final Four, and then I thought maybe we could win it. So honestly, I did not feel any pressure. It didn’t feel stressful. I genuinely just had so much fun with the three guys on my team. I just wanted to keep playing with those fools. It was so much fun.



    So I would say, just play to have fun, and don’t play to win. That’s a weird thing to say to people who are competitive. For those of you out there who really want it and are really competitive, I don’t know what to say.



    How did you form Childish Things?



    I was on Female Accent, which is an indie team that John Carroll invited me onto. I was talking to him about an idea for a FIST team based on a childhood toy and what would come from that. I knew I wanted to do FIST with Henry Ring because we took our very first improv class together back in 2013, and we went through the curriculum together, and we’d done FIST together two times before. So it was me, Henry, and John. And then, Liz Sanders recommended Joe Dawson. I’d seen him perform. He was great. So then he joined, and it was the four of us. We had one practice before we had our first show, and it was a blast.



    Was anybody on the team super competitive?



    23 min
  • Dane Cook is Not Putting On an Act

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    Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne. This is the show where I sit down with comedians to talk about their beginnings, their processes, coming up in the comedic scene, and their general adventures so far in the comedy world.



    I am so stoked to give this episode to you guys. I was able to sit down with someone who, if you’re a fan of stand-up comedy and have been paying attention to it for the last 20 years, you’ve definitely heard of.



    I’m talking, of course, about Dane Cook.



    Highlights from my interview with Dane Cook



    I was first introduced to Dane Cook’s material in high school when he released Harmful if Swallowed, an incredible comedy album. He later came out with Retaliation, Vicious Circle, Rough Around the Edges, and Isolated Incident. He’s been in such movies as Mystery Men, Waiting…, Employee of the Month, Mr. Brooks, Good Luck Chuck, and My Best Friend’s Girl, to name a few. In 2014, he directed, wrote, starred in, and produced his own special, Troublemaker.



    We’ll talk about Dane’s beginnings in Boston and moving to New York City and then eventually LA, and it is fascinating. He’s such a charismatic, down-to-earth dude. The stories he tells are hilarious, and it was such an honor to be able to talk to somebody I’ve looked up to for so long.



    He’s going to be on tour again for the first time in a while with material he’s been developing for the past three years. It’s kind of a big deal. It’s called the Tell It Like It Is Tour, and it’s launching on February 20, in Huntington, New York. He’ll be in DC on February 23, at 7pm at DAR Constitution Hall. If you haven’t bought your ticket already, you should because this is gonna be one for the books.



    I hope you guys enjoy this interview as much as I did. Without further ado, Dane Cook.



    Some parts of this interview have been edited for clarity. To hear Dane’s full responses, listen to his podcast episode.







    Early influences



    I found myself, even at a very early age, watching comedians and studying them. I was more interested if I knew a comedian was performing somewhere on television than in doing my homework. Early, early on in my career, I got ahold of some comedy albums and was listening to everybody, Carlin and Pryor and old Cosby stuff and Newhart.



    I loved physical comedy,
    1 hr 1 min
  • Dan Miller Knows Failure is Constant

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    Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits Podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne, and my guest today is Dan Miller.



    You might know him from the indie group Sistine Robot. Or maybe you know him from the Washington Improv Theater house team, Madeline. Or maybe you know him because he’s the director of external relations at WIT. Or because he’s part of FIST champion team, Beverly Crusher.



    Highlights from my interview with Dan Miller



    Regardless of how you know Dan Miller, I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Without further ado, the Dan Miller interview.



    Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity. To hear Dan’s full responses, listen to his podcast episode.



    Let Dan Miller pour you a cup of coffee before you get into this interview



    The early years



    I’m from Chantilly, Virginia, and I come from a family of introverts. Everybody was constantly reading, and I was the one who was coming up with voices and generally wondering why everybody was so quiet.



    I went to William and Mary and studied English. They had an improv group called I.T. (Improvisational Theater) that mainly did short-form. I auditioned, but I didn’t get on. Instead, I ended up spending hours and hours and hours at the student newspaper, The Flat Hat. A lot of my first comedic writing was for that paper.



    Tifaux.com



    When I graduated in the early 2000s, I had kind of a do-nothing job, so I ran a blog empire. I was writing several articles a day for my site, tifaux.com, just because I had nothing else to do. I wrote about Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica, and 30 Rock because those shows were on back then.



    I feel like TV writing today is very recap-centric, and this was before that time. I would write my takes on different shows. It’s like the opposite of improv because I spent a lot of time crafting everything and trying to make sure my jokes were properly worded. I still very much appreciate a well-crafted joke, whereas you can’t really plan for that in improv.



    But improv is so wonderful because of the community and collaboration aspect. And writing, whether you’re writing for a website or a blog, is a lot of alone time for five minutes of glory. Or in the case of a blog, nonexistent glory, hoping somebody comments to validate you. I can enjoy the process much more with improv and enjoy the product just as much.



    Getting into improv



    I got laid off from my job in 2009 and was depressed and just needed to get out of the...
    59 min

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