JEEVES
Ladies and gentlemen this is Jeeves, you’re listening to Blitz and I’m here with the very talented, very handsome, one half of the Bear Pack – Carlo Ritchie, how are you?
CARLO
Jeeves, very well. How are you?
JEEVES
Not too shabby. Aside from this weather.
CARLO
Ah yeh, it’s fun! Rain of the year, isn’t it?
JEEVES
Ah tell me about it.
CARLO
Yeh, it’s pretty wet, that’s suffice to say.
JEEVES
That’s right. Now, Carlo, you are part of the Bear Pack…
CARLO
That’s right.
JEEVES
The other member, Steen Raskpoloulos, is not with you…
CARLO
That’s right, he’s in London – he’s new hometown.
JEEVES
Oh really has he moved there?
CARLO
Yeh, he lives there – oh I shouldn’t say hometown ‘cos his hometown is still Sydney. His new home, I suppose is more accurate.
JEEVES
Ah right. But you guys are still the Bear Pack?
CARLO
That’s right, yes – some things never change!
JEEVES
Good! Can you tell us – some of our listeners are quite young and you guys have been around for a little while. Can you tell me – who are the Bear Pack?
CARLO
The Bear Pack is myself and Steen Raskolpoulos and we are very often accompanied by Ange Lavoipierre on the cello. So there’s three of us I suppose you’d say. But Ange isn’t always around, as in the case of our next show – we have a guest violiner – but generally, it’s the two of us and someone playing some form of stringed instrument.
JEEVES
Ah great – to provide some sort of mood/ atmosphere?
CARLO
That’s right yeh. So we provide a 50-55min totally improvised play and they improvise our sound track. So yeh, there’s a lot going on.
JEEVES
What is improvised comedy, Carlo?
CARLO
Well I guess it’s easy to think of it as it’s a play without a script … that’s funny. Or at least you’d hope that its funny
JEEVES
And you completely improvise a one hour show based on very little?
CARLO
That’s right, yep. So we’ve got no impetus other than two words from the audience: we get a locations and just a word that the audience fancies that particular night, and we just go for it. There’s no real format. There’s no structure, no planning. We just have our self and a stage.
JEEVES
That sounds hard. Is it hard?
CARLO
It’s not too difficult.. we’ve been doing it for a long time. You kind of blank out on the stage. It’s certainly stressful at times, because if you do a festival, for example we were just in Edinburgh – we had 18 shows in a row – there’s no way to guarantee that every show is going to be the same quality. They all end up turning out really well, but we might have an off night – you never know, you get terrified that maybe tonight will be the night that we all stuff it up.
JEEVES
Hopefully you don’t think about that going into the show, though.
CARLO
No. usually right before the show we just spend the afternoon getting to a kind of zoned out state and then we just go on – Steen and I have been it for 8 years and we’re best mates so we have a really good relationship, so we just have fun.
JEEVES
It sounds like one of those things that you need to have an excellent chemistry with each other on stage.
CARLO
Oh totally. Yep, totally. You need to have a very strong sense of trust with the other person because people, I think, associate improv with ‘a lack of safety net’, if I can use that term, but really the safety net that you have is with each other so you just need to know that the other person is going to be there in case something goes awry.
JEEVES
I’ve seen you guys perform a number of times and the chemistry between you guys is absolutely amazing! Have you ever though, found yourself in a situation where you’re like “oh my god , I have no idea what’s going on here”
CARLO
Um, yeh I mean most of the time we have no idea what’s going on. We have no idea what’s going to happen before we go up. Yeh, most of the time we’re totally flying blind. It’s generally the opposite. It gets to the point where you start thinking too much about where things are going, is generally when you tend to have a bit of a stuff up.
JEEVES
I have some questions here that I’ve sourced from verified Bear Pack fans…
CARLO
Ah, yes.
JEEVES
…If you’d like to indulge in answering these..
CARLO
Of course.
JEEVES
Have you ever been mistakenly affiliated with any BDSM or daddy-culture groups?
CARLO
Um, no actually. Which is a real shame cos that’s what we really set out to do when we named the group that way. But, no. Not yet.
JEEVES
Or furry culture. That’s probably more appropriate isn’t it?
Carlo: Furry culture? No, haven’t had furry culture yet but you know, the career is still young!
JEEVES
You haven’t had people dress up in bear costumes and rock up to a show?
CARLO
We have actually had people dress up as bears and come.
JEEVES
That’s a compliment, isn’t it?
CARLO
Yeh, I suppose, yeh! Yeh, that’s pretty wild when that happens. Whether or not they were furries – couldn’t tell you.
JEEVES
Well they hadn’t introduced themselves as furries, I guess.
CARLO
Yeh, I dunno if you’d do.
JEEVES
Good point! Yeh, vegan I can understand. And if you went to NIDA, I can understand but “Hi I’m Jeeves. I’m a furry” is not usually something you’d hear.
CARLO
Yeh. It would make for excellent table conversation, though!
JEEVES
Given Christmas is around the corner, what is the best present you have ever given someone?
CARLO
You know I think last year, I got my partner a bay tree. My partner is Filipino so a lot of Filipinos use a lot of bay and its one of those herbs that is pretty handy. So we have a bay tree and we use it all the time – it’s just this fantastic thing to have, really. I dunno if it’s the best thing but it’s the first thing that came to mind…
JEEVES
That’s great! I’ve never given anyone a bay tree but that’s suddenly on my list.
CARLO
Oh yeh, that’s got to be on everyone’s bucket list at some point on their life, you’d think.
JEEVES
Is there a bay shop?
CARLO
Yeh, in the Bay District.
JEEVES
Great. Ok. What’s your favourite smell, Carlo?
CARLO
Ooh! I would say, wet leaves.
JEEVES
Really?
CARLO
Yeh, like wet, fallen leaves, you know? That smell.
JEEVES
So you like Autumn… that sort of vibe?
CARLO
Yeh, that sort of under-story smell. That you can only get from the green light of a forest. Liquid amber is also a tree that I enjoy the smell of. I think it’s kind of similar to an oak, I guess.
JEEVES
Hmm. I think you’re a tree-person, Carlo.. from the last few questions?
CARLO
Yeh! I didn’t actually plan that but sometimes you find patterns in everything, don’t you?
JEEVES
Yeh, that’s nice. I like that. What is your favourite thing (I like this question) – what is your favourite thing about Steen?
CARLO
He is very compassionate. He is always makes time to check in on people. He really genuinely cares for his friends.
JEEVES
That’s lovely! When did you guys meet?
CARLO
We met in my first year of uni – Steen’s, I believe, second year of uni? And Steen at that time was coaching theatre sports. I can actually remember the first time I met Steen. I had gone to see an improv duo, Scratch perform. And I thought, “God I love improv; I just want to be a part of it.” So I went to the Sydney Uni Theatre sports jam which used to be on at Wednesday afternoons about 1 in the afternoon – I think they still are. And Steen was running it – he was sitting up on this window box – and coming in and seeing him and he like “yeh come in, man” And that’s how we met – that’s 10 years ago now.
JEEVES
That’s quite a lovely way to meet someone – at an improv jam.
CARLO
Hey that’s why you get to jams – to meet future best friends!
JEEVES
It’s sort of hard to rehearse for an improv show, but do you guys jam together all the time?
CARLO
We don’t actually. Like, when we hang out, we’ll do little riffs off each other but we don’t tend to jam. The big thing with us is that we’ve been performing for a really long time and we really know each other quite well and we found that when we jam together we tend to be a silly and that can sometime affect when we get on stage we go “ah did I do this in a jam?” It feels too much like planning.
JEEVES
Ok. I love that you guys are a duo and that you guys are doing really well – I want you to tell us about this show: you have a ONE NIGHT ONLY show coming up.
CARLO
That’s right, yep. We’ve got a show for one night only at the Enmore Theatre on the 8th of December. It’s going to be pretty wild. We’ve got a whole bunch of some of Australia’s best improvisers, certainly. It’s going to be divided into two halves – the first half is going to be those improvisers – they are going to taking inspiration from some musical guests including Montaigne and Mansionair who are going to be basically playing an original song and the improvisors will riff off that. Then in the second half it’s going to be myself and Steen joined by Susie Bishop on the violin and we’re going to be doing what we do best – doing a 55min improvised play and it’s all for charity. We do the whole show for the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.
JEEVES
I believe this show is dedicated to Elliot Miller.
CARLO
Yeh, so Elliot was a really amazing young improviser and really terrific friend of ours – Steen had coached him when he was at high school doing improv – then when he finished high school he came and was improvising with us a lot and improvising with our school: Improv Theatre Sydney and unfortunately he developed cancer. They found it when he was just 19. Yeh, he tragically died and so we dedicated the show to him. There were so many wonderful people who help him and his family and Chris O’Brien was one of those organisations and so it’s just a way of remembering him and giving back to the people that help him and his family out at the time.
JEEVES
That’s great and I think this show is such a wonderful way to do that and I’m really looking forward to it. Can you give us an idea of who some of these other improvisers are?
CARLO
Yes, we’ve got Cale Bain who basically brought Chicago-style, that’s longer-style improv, to Australia. We’ve got Kate Coates as well, who is an incredible improviser and we have a couple of new improvisers who are new on the scene who are absolutely fantastic. Then we have from the Australian Whose Line Is It Anyway, Bridie Connell. We’ve got Will Erimya whose an amazing improviser, Eden Lacey, Zoe Latima and Reuben Ward. So it’s a pretty terrific cast.
JEEVES
Yes, I have seen these people before – they are excellent and definitely worth seeing live at the Enmore theatre, December 8. I believe tickets are already on sale and it’s a great Christmas present – just going to see the show with someone!
CARLO
just a tasty little treat – taste of live theatre .
JEEVES
I missed out on one question, here and it is a question that we have talked about in one of our previous interviews. And probably quite appropriate given that Steen isn’t here… What if I were to join you as the new Bear Pack member?
CARLO
Yeh, I mean you keep bringing this up, Jeeves. And I’m flattered, man.. but um…
JEEVES
I’m just saying, cos Steen isn’t here and he’s got a new home – he’s abandoned you, essentially.
CARLO
I mean we still talk… like every week.. he’s not that far, you know.
JEEVES
Well, in London. It’s quite far.
CARLO
It’s only a flight, really isn’t it. We’re doing this show together, you know .
JEEVES
Say you wanted a hug. Who’s closer.. me or Steen?
CARLO
I guess if I need a hug, I’ll come to you.
JEEVES
Well, there you go and that’s what bear packs are all about, aren’t they? Just being there for one another and improvising?
CARLO
Yeh look Jeeves I’m going to have to get back to you on this . But keep asking because you never know, things may change!
JEEVES
You bet your pants I will… I could be like, Bear Cub.
CARLO
Yeh I mean… you can be that now.
JEEVES
Yeh?
CARLO
Doesn’t mean you have to be in the show. Doesn’t mean you have any official affiliation, other than this interviews, there doesn’t need to be any acknowledgment of that – you can just be that right now.
BEAR CUB
No no, I don’t want you to pigeonhole me into one of your furry-groupie friends. I’m not that guy. Let’s sign some papers and you heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen! It’s official!
CARLO
Well, not quite official in so much as it’s a title that you and I can use..
BEAR CUB
…and all of our listeners. So that’s pretty ofic..
CARLO
Um. You know.. let’s see how we go.
BEAR CUB
Cool. Well, ladies and gentlemen, one night only show – The Bear Pack – December 8 - Enmore Theatre. All proceeds go to the Chris O’Brien Lighthouse in memory of Elliot Miller. Thank you very much, Carlo! This has been such a delightful chat!
CARLO
Thanks Jeeves! Thanks very much!
BEAR CUB
And I’ll see you December 8.
CARLO
I’ll see you there!
