David Pasquesi: In the Limelight
No, it’s not Adrien Brody’s snarky older brother. It’s David Pasquesi, one of the stars of Spike TV’s first original half-hour comedy, The Factory.
Looking at Pasquesi’s IMDb page, he’s done a fair amount of TV and film work, but the majority of his experience comes from both theater and improv. He currently does shows and occasionally teaches at Chicago’s IO (Improv Olympic). Back in the day, he honed his improv chops under the tutelage of the legendary Del Close and was part of the class that developed The Harold. An improv geek’s reaction to that would be “Holy crap!” and everyone else should be thinking, “Who’s Harold?” Yeah, don’t worry about it. If this interests you though, check out this great interview he did back in ’06, all about his work in improv.
Fellow children of Second City, Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello and Mitch Rouse created, wrote and starred in Exit 57, to which Pasquesi contributed as a writer. This very same team went on to create Strangers with Candy. Pasquesi had a recurring role in the series as Stew the Meat Man. He was only in a few episodes, but one of my favorite scenes from the entire first season is when art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck argues with Stew at the Blank household (”Obviously you have a beef, Stew”). Pasquesi returned for the role in the 2005 feature film version of the series.
After a few roles here and there on TV and in movies, including Jeff Garlin’s I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With, Pasquesi joined Rouse’s new project for Spike TV, The Factory, playing the role of smart-ass Smitty, who lives with his ex-wife because neither of them can afford to get their own places. It’s the channel’s first original half-hour comedy and it’s totally improvised, in that Curb Your Enthusiasm sort of way. Perhaps it’s because I’m not part of Spike TV’s main demographic or I’m wary of watching material from the same place that brought us Stripperella, but I didn’t think the show was spectacular. Then again, I’ve only seen the pilot and improv’d shows often need a little time before they find their feet. I’ll probably tune in at least once more, just because I like Pasquesi.
To be quite honest, my main intention of writing this post wasn’t to promote The Factory. Surprising, I know. Really, I just wanted an excuse to share this video that Pasquesi did a few years ago. It’s called “Hobbies” and it’s a short film from a series about regrets. He plays angry and bitter disturbingly well, and his improv skills are super-impressive. Plus, I don’t know if some of you more avid readers have been able to tell, but I’m a fan of self-loathing out loud. Check it out (language NSFW):
The Factory officially premieres June 29th, but the first episode is available for streaming on the website. Watch it if you’re a guy and you’re into this sort of thing.
Ten Colbert clips you probably haven’t seen
Hardcore Stephen Colbert fans might take one look at this list and scoff. To them I say, “Hey, girls who live on the Colboards, chill out.” This list is meant for the casual fan of The Colbert Report, who loves the show and, at most, knows Colbert’s history through The Daily Show and maybe a little Strangers with Candy.
As someone who has been a fan of Colbert for about eight years, I’m here to educate, here to spread the good Word. It is the duty of a good fan — especially one with too much time on her hands — to change the minds of people that see Colbert just as the TV blowhard who happens to share his name.
Actually, because of this, I got into a small argument with a guard at DC’s National Portrait Gallery when I visited Colbert’s portrait. The guard told me that he didn’t see the appeal of super-annoying Colbert and couldn’t understand why his wife was so obsessed with the man. I tried to explain the awesomeness of his work and career, but didn’t have the time or my Colbert-ism conversion materials to make it work. I think I ended with something very hippie-esque, like, “Hey, man. Just give Colbert a chance. He’s good. He’s real good.” And then the guard made fun of the Batman pin on my jacket and I had to leave.
As some of you know, Stephen used to train in Chicago’s Second City, honing his improv chops for the big time. Another former student recently came across these old tapes in his garage and uploaded them on YouTube. They are a variety of sketches written and performed by Stephen and some other recognizable comedy faces. If you watch closely in this sketch, you can see the beginnings of the trademark Colbert eyebrow.
During his time at Second City, Colbert worked as an understudy for some guy named Steve Carell. In fact, they worked together quite a bit before being co-correspondents on The Daily Show. Not only did they do improv training about the same time, but they worked on the short-lived Dana Carvey Show, where – fun fact – Robert Smigel’s Ambiguously Gay Duo premiered, with Colbert and Carell voicing Ace and Gary. This is one of my favorite Colbert/Carell sketches from that time, mainly because they do fake-nausea very, very well. It’s called “Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food”.
Man, Colbert and Paul Dinello sure like to write… interesting… material for each other. I don’t think I have to say what that implies, as I can just let these clips (and their roles as Strangers with Candy lovers Chuck Noblet and Geoffrey Jellineck) do the talking. These videos come from the pair’s first Comedy Central project, a sketch show called Exit 57, which also co-starred Candy co-creators Amy Sedaris and Mitch Rouse and some other lady that seems to have faded into obscurity. The first video may not seem that Colbert/Dinello slash-tastic, but the second one involves a lot of mouth-to-mouth action. When I have company over to watch a movie and we’re waiting for the rest of the group to show up, I just loop this video on the projector until everyone arrives or someone yells at me. It’s usually the latter.
Actually, the end part of these compilation of Exit 57 promos is, umm, pretty extreme too:
The foursome that would go on to produce Strangers with Candy also collaborated on this short film from 1994. This film is called “The Tree Surgeon”, directed by Dinello’s brother Dan and starring Colbert as… a tree surgeon. Despite the fact that it’s taped with a shaky camera and there’s occasional giggling in the background, the video is pretty funny to watch. Sedaris’ “attractive” make-up alone is well worth it.
Colbert’s work on Comedy Central continued with his contributions to The Daily Show. Back when he was still a correspondent, he made one appearance on ABC’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? There was a lot of touching involved, especially when it came to working with Wayne Brady. The performances were okay, but it’s still interesting to watch Colbert do improv and fake-ski.
And here’s one that’s probably a little more familiar to you folks. It’s one of the first appearances of The Colbert Report. It originally started off as a gag on The Daily Show, with no intention of becoming a full-fledged program. I kind of miss the aggressiveness of some of it (”It’s French, bitch!”), but I’m glad the show has retained its smarminess.
And this commercial is from Colbert’s stint with GM Goodwrench from a few years back, which yielded some promotional cardboard cut-outs of him. I’m sure there’s at least one person out there who sleeps next to it every night. That’s what I like to convince myself, anyway, as it makes me feel better when I know there’s someone weirder than me out there.
Okay, so that’s ten. I hope you all have learned something (apart from “Wow, Annie’s creepy”). To wrap up, here’s a bonus eleventh clip. This is a fan video of Mr. Colbert showing off his best moves through various points in his career. After being on a show that closed episodes with weird numbers, almost winning a dance-off against a Korean pop star, and inexplicably strutting his stuff behind unsuspecting senators, Colbert has certainly done enough to warrant a couple of fan videos completely devoted to his dancing. Plus, this one has Scissor Sisters music. Enjoy.
Spike gets its own comedy series
Spike TV has ordered six episodes of Factory, a largely improvised comedy revolving around four small-town factory workers who’d rather do anything than work at their boring jobs, according to a Hollywood Reporter story. It will be the Guy Network’s first original comedy series.
Set to premiere on June 29 at 10 p.m., Factory is directed, produced by, and stars Mitch Rouse (pictured), co-creator of Strangers With Candy, the short-lived TV series that ran from 1999-2000, as well as the 2005 prequel feature film by the same name.
Rouse has an interesting list of credits. In addition to numerous feature films, he played Dr. Ryan Gibson on According to Jim (come on, there must be someone out there who watches this show), Fireman #1 on Reno 911, and was a regular on Exit 57, a mid-1990s comedy-sketch show.
Also in the Factory’s ensemble cast are Michael Coleman, Jay Leggett, and David Pasquesi. “Factory is a unique improvised comedy that captures the everyday lives of four regular guys,” said Bill McGoldrick, VP of original programming at Spike. “The humor speaks directly to our viewers, and Mitch’s sensibility is a perfect match for our brand.”
Is anyone else visualizing these guys hitting the stage au natural and magically twirling their hats? No? Ok, just me and my gutter brain then. Hey, it could happen.
Is an apple bong too strong for Paramount?
When I was younger, people I knew had various ways of smoking weed. One guy even made a bong out of an apple once. I didn’t know it at the time, but now I look back and he seems like the MacGyver of pot smokers. Though he’s not the only one who did such a thing, of course.
Case in point: the cover of the new Comedy Central Home Grown DVD. It’s a DVD that showcases various episodes of Comedy Central shows, including Chappelle’s Show, Reno 911, TV Funhouse, The Sarah Silverman Program, Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil, and Strangers with Candy. This is the cover that Paramount released to media outlets back in March. Now they’ve changed the cover to this, a closeup of a giant mushroom. Looks like they had second thoughts about having a bong on the cover of a DVD and decided to change it. Of course, I’m not sure if a mushroom connection is something they thought about all the way (and also having some people think of a penis when they see the cover, ahem).
The DVD comes out on June 10.