Third Frames: TJ & Dave

TJ & Dave at Second City Toronto. Photo by Sharilyn Johnson

Had a bomb fallen on Second City this past Sunday night, there would no longer be a Toronto improv community. Said one local improvisor/teacher, “my entire Facebook feed is in this room”.

Chicago improv heroes TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi – collectively TJ & Dave – spent last weekend in Toronto teaching advanced workshops for the newly-minted Vanguard School of Comedy, capping off their Canadian adventure with a late Sunday show on the SC Mainstage.

You know those Sunday night TLC parade-of-freaks documentaries that occasionally show conjoined twins attached via a highly inconvenient limb? And yet both are able to function and, y’know, drive and stuff? That’s the same sort of otherworldly synergy shared by TJ & Dave. (How did he know to do that at the exact same time that he went to do that?) A two-person longform, when done well, is a trip to watch. And it doesn’t get much better than TJ & Dave.

TJ & Dave perform Wednesday nights at the iO Theater in Chicago , and are frequent visitors to the Barrow Street Theater in New York. If you get the chance, also track down their documentary, Trust Us, This is All Made Up.

Click here for the full gallery from TJ & Dave’s Toronto show.

About the Author

Sharilyn Johnson is the author of the book Bears & Balls: The Colbert Report A-Z. Called "one of the city’s most discriminating comedy critics” by NOW Magazine, Sharilyn has been covering comedy for longer than she cares to admit. She served as the comedy reporter for Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine for five years, and was the host of the radio show Laugh Tracks for three seasons. Her work has also appeared in the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, The Apiary, and on CBC Radio's national comedy programs LOL and Definitely Not the Opera.