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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,