IFFBoston Screening Series
Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
Directed by: Alex Karpovky
Starring: TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi
Two Screenings:
Saturday, January 9 at 7pm and 9:30pm
Somerville Theatre Screening Room - 55 Davis Square
If you think improvisation is all sketch comedy and drunken audience suggestions, you obviously haven’t seen a performance by TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi. This masterful duo takes the art of improv to radical new levels by crafting an entirely original, hour-long play each time they perform. A word or a look from one to the other is all that prompts the creation of a story that will never be performed again. The mental dexterity and stamina needed to form and perpetuate the narrative are astounding in themselves—particularly when one of the actors takes over a character the other originated. But the trust and intense understanding each has of the other’s tiniest communications make the feat even more unforgettable.
TRUST US, THIS IS ALL MADE UP documents a hilarious one-time comedy performance by TJ and Dave, following them as they prepare before the show and evaluate what happened afterward. With his previous films, WOODPECKER (IFFBoston 2008) and THE HOLE STORY (IFFBoston 2005), director Alex Karpovky used short-form improv as part of the scriptwriting process and presented us with obsessive protagonists fixated on one vital idea. In TRUST US, that vital idea is improv itself, but here the protagonists’ obsession results in a unique creative partnership—and the delight and wonder of their audience.
—Kristina Aikens, IFFBoston 2009 catalog
