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I’m Seth Payne, and this is the very first episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast!
This was an idea that I came up with a little while ago. I was inspired by great podcasts like UCB’s Long-Form Conversations and Don Fanelli’s The Need to Fail. Both are awesome resources to find out more about comedy, coming up in comedy, trial and error within comedy—and both have been really instrumental in my own comedic pursuits, especially my failures. Anytime I go through a rough point in my comedy career, I listen to these podcasts, and they’re relatable, informative, and inspiring. So I wanted to do something like that in the DC area.
It was also kind of for a selfish reason: there are a lot of amazing performers in the DC scene who I’ve seen perform or who I kind of see in passing, but I don’t know their backstory or the rough times they’ve been through. So I partnered up with the Comedic Pursuits blog (which you can also find on Facebook and Instagram), which talks about different things that are happening in the DC comedy community—improv, sketch, stand-up, all that good stuff.
My first episode is an awesome interview that I did with Donna Steele. Unfortunately, we were kind of strapped for time; this was right before a Level Three: Character class I was taking at WIT that Donna was teaching. I apologize: right when we get into the good stuff at the end is when we had to cut it short. You’ll actually even notice I’m out of breath at the beginning of the episode. So this is one of the shorter episodes we’ll have.
In the upcoming interviews, I’ve realized when we get into the nitty-gritty, it gets really interesting, and I don’t really want to cut the episode off. So these will probably be a little longer from here on out. Bear with me. I’m trying out different formats and different questions for this podcast. It should be a good time.
Highlights from my interview with Donna Steele
You can listen to my full interview with improv performer and instructor Donna Steele by tuning into the podcast. But if you only have time for the highlights, here they are. Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
How did you get started in comedy?
I’m originally from Richmond, Virginia, and I moved to DC two years ago. I started doing improv in 2011 with The Coalition—they used to be the Richmond Comedy Coalition, and then when they got their space, they became The Coalition—at Gallery5, which is this cool old firehouse in Richmond that was converted it into an art space. If you’re ever in Richmond, you should check it out because it’s awesome. They host burlesque and comedy shows. A bunch of punk bands perform there.
But I actually kind of fell into improv. I didn’t want to do it. My friend, Joey, had to convince me for, like, six months to do it. And then one day he was just like, “We’re just gonna go to a class.” But he didn’t say that. He just said, “Let’s go get donuts,” and then he dropped me off at the class, and I was terrified.
Did you have any background in performing?
I was never in drama or anything. I was an art fanatic in terms of painting and photography and all those things— I talk a little about that on DC improviser and performer Zach Mason’s Like Yes podcast. People can’t believe I didn’t do drama. I’ve never been in a play. I guess maybe I was when I was in elementary school, but that might not count.
So I just fell into improv. I loved it immediately, and I met three of my best friends in my Level One class. We’ve now been best friends for seven years from that class, which is crazy.
What’s it like going through all your improv classes with your best friends?
It’s almost like being on a team already. But I think going through classes with the same people and different people are both beneficial. Because in taking classes with brand new people, you don’t get stuck in those habits that you might when you’re taking classes with friends. And you get a different experience from a whole different variety of performers.
I think five of us went through all the classes together, which was cool because at least I had that grounding and comfortability with them, and I wasn’t as nervous because they were there. And it was kind of this cool little community we were building.
Now The Coalition’s grown so much that that’s really not the case anymore with their classes. It’s similar to WIT, where so many people want to take classes that you don’t get the same intimacy that we had, so I feel very fortunate.
What was moving to DC like in terms of your comedy experience?
I moved to DC just two years ago. I ended up teaching pretty much immediately when I got up here. I messaged Jonathan Murphy, the head of the educational department at WIT and a good friend, about a random workshop, and he was like, “We need to get coffee.” So it was really cool that he just immediately kind of linked me and used me and molded me.
I think he was kind of starting to mold the curriculum up here. And it was around the time when my friend, Annie Barry, had also moved from California, and Jess Lee had moved from Portland. So I think he was using the outside perspectives that had come in.
What was your performance experience like?
I auditioned for Harold right when I moved up here, and I was on AstroMom. It was a brand new team. There are a bunch of familiar faces from that team who are either on ensembles or still on Harold. I loved it. It was really fun. I enjoyed getting a different perspective on Harold, which was exciting.
Richmond doesn’t have Harold teams. You go directly into house teams. So I was on a house team, Da Vinci, with Richmond, which was created with the formation of the theater. We were one of the original house teams. Recently we’re kind of disbanded, but after five years that’s pretty good, it’s a pretty good run. It was really fun. That team will always be probably my favorite team I was ever on. Don’t tell Hellcat.
I also did a lot of duo stuff, but I wasn’t on any other indie teams. I was just on AstroMom, and then I was teaching. Then I got on Hellcat and Yearbook at the same time because I auditioned for those the same week, and that was insane.
Tell us about Hellcat
I auditioned for Hellcat when it was still a special project called October Issue. It started as one of WIT’s seasonal runs, and then it turned into a special project as WIT’s all-female-identifying team, The October Issue. And then several months ago it became a WIT house team as newly branded Hellcat. Dana Malone was coaching us. She was amazing. And then Jordana Mishory took it over.
We’d started rebranding with Dana at the very end and moving away from October Issue because we wanted to become our own type of team and move toward being a house team. We just wanted to rebrand our format, and we felt like the October Issue name was really part of our old format, and we wanted to become something new. That’s kind of when Hellcat was born. The ideas just started rolling, and then we rode the energy wave to become what we are now, which is Hellcat.
For our shows, we have people bring in things like diaries, old emails, old AIM conversations, stuff from people’s pasts that are a little embarrassing. Then they come out and read and give a little backstory. It takes about two to three minutes, and then we roll into our format, which is based on what they read. We love it. It’s a very vulnerable experience to read, and I think it allows for really emotional, juicy, fun improv, which we love doing. We love playing characters. It’s worked out great for us, and we’ve really enjoyed it.
I don’t know if I’m supposed to say—I think I can—but some of us have Hellcat tattoos. I have one, Jenna Hall and Justine Hipsky have one. Other people are supposed to get them, but we’ll see when that happens, if at all.
What was your biggest failure within improv, and how did you overcome it?
I have two failures. One was, the first show I ever directed, I co-directed it with my really good friend. And it was actually really fun and great. But we had a plan for how to execute being directors and co-directors—and this is something I’d encourage other people to talk about prior to going in: if you’re co-directing a show with someone, really have a clear understanding of what you’re doing. Because we had this great, majestic idea to form the show. We had a loose outline, but we wanted input from the cast. And it got really messy, and I regret creating the show with the cast because they really wanted structure. It was such a complicated show to begin with that when we opened the floodgates, we weren’t able to handle everything they wanted to do and wanted to create. It was just too much input. So I think for me, I realized as a director that you are kind of the boss in a lot of ways. So you need to execute your artistic vision. That doesn’t mean you can’t take input from people you’re on the team with. But giving them more of a structure is important.
The second mistake was that we also played into that show. We weren’t doing the actual improv, we were off to the side kind of directing it. And I also regret that. I think one of us probably should have directed the show, and one of us should have been in it because there was no one to give notes. Both of us were just trying to just do too many things at one time.
So that was a great learning experience for me, and I’ve directed shows since that, taking from that experience, have gone really well. So that was awesome.
What was the biggest “aha” moment you ever had in improv?
I took a teaching workshop from Stephanie Anderson in Chicago. She’s amazing, and she breaks down teaching and what you should do and your energy level. She just breaks down a lot of these things that are set expectations in smaller communities for teachers to do, but in reality, they’re not real.
Like not going out with your students after class: there are going to be some students that can’t go. So if you’re spending extra time with some students, it’s like a weird power thing. And it’s keeping that separation until after class. I go out with my students at the end of class, and I say, “I’m gonna be at Lou’s at this time. Come hang out with me.” So it’s just keeping that professionalism and that separation so you can really give them all of your energy for that two-and-a-half hours instead of it being four hours where you just have to feel like you’re on the whole time.
So that was a really big Aha Moment for me, just that whole workshop and everything Stephanie talked about on aligning students who are struggling and not judging students if they slip in class or if they’re a little racist or whatever. That’s all fear-based, which I knew. But hearing someone else articulate it in the way she did, it’s improved my teaching 300 percent.
Some fun lightning round questions
What’s your dream FIST (Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament) team made of people you’ve never been on a team with?
Stacey Axler, Brady Peters, and Jonathan Murphy
What’s your favorite object work to do onstage?
The first thing that comes to mind is a sewing machine. I’ve gotten so good at doing object work of me sewing.
What’s a Harold team you love and would’ve loved to perform on?
Richie. They were so fun.
What are you doing now other than performing with Hellcat?
Yeah, I’m teaching classes and coaching the Heirloom Harold team. They’re really cool. I’m also on Colossus.
Where can people find you online?
Hellcat, Colossus—we’re going to be coming up with some creative stuff. So find Colossus on Facebook and Instagram. Hellcat, same thing, Facebook and Instagram. Hellcat has an awesome social media presence. We do some silly stuff.
You can friend me on Facebook or Instagram (@veganwildthing). I’m also on Twitter (@Dash9615). I have feelings about Twitter. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be funny on Twitter or if I’m supposed to save my funny for stand-up. I have a joke, like, every two weeks that I try to get on Buzzfeed. But Buzzfeed never listens to me.
Thanks for tuning in!
We’ll publish new episodes of the Comedic Pursuits podcast every other Thursday. Coming up next: Zach Mason.
