The Bear Pack

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Friday 31st May 2019

It's an Ashes cricket summer, and looks likely to be a narky one (a couple of controversial Aussies are already getting belters in the warm-up games) so if you have any intention of seeing Australian comedians soon, best do it before all the bitterness really kicks in.

How about next week, in fact? The lavishly praise-laden Steen Raskopoulos and Carlo Ritchie bring their improv duo The Bear Pack to the Soho Theatre from Wednesday 5th, and may actively encourage a bit of audience shouting, early on. Well, it's improv, which is as close to sport as comedy gets, when you think about it: a team, a crowd, no script. So how would they describe the act, if, say, an elderly relative asked?

"The Bear Pack is essentially a completely improvised play performed by two of your favourite grandsons whilst being accompanied by everyone's favourite instrument, the cello," says their spokesbear, whom we deduce to be Steen.

Those shows "exist for one night only and change each and every performance, from Galactic Space Wars to Haunted Ice Cream Parlours, to a time vortex that started in the year 1406. It's just under an hour so plenty of time to get home, make a cuppa and watch re-runs of Strictly."

Well sold. Right, into the Bear Pack backstory, which starts off pretty darn sporty too.

First gig?

We did an improv gig called Full Body Contact No Love Tennis in 2009 (the name came from our friend Cale who found an under-19 doubles tennis trophy in a garbage skip #truestory), which took place in the top of a pub near our university. The idea of the show was that you'd perform in pairs and have to do three scenes totalling 19 minutes. The crowd of eighteen didn't hate us so it gave us enough confidence to try it again.

Favourite show, ever?

I think our first Enmore Theatre show [in Sydney] three years ago. It's my favourite theatre in the world and we had performed there before, but as part of a huge theatre-sports mixed bill night of eight other teams.

It was always a goal of ours to perform there by ourselves and we did it to over 1,200 people - which was insane considering when we first started doing The Bear Pack, it was to 20-odd students at our university only six years earlier.

We've continued to do that gig three years on and all profits are donated to the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in honour of our friend Elliott Miller, who sadly passed away.

Worst gig?

We did a corporate gig for a CFO's birthday (we worked with them on a national campaign); it was at the bottom of a nightclub and everyone there was high on 'life'. Their suggestions were that of a thirteen year-old boy who'd just seen American Pie for the first time. We're still scrubbing ourselves in the shower to this date.

How do you respond if a gig doesn't fly: lengthy soul-searching, or move on swiftly?

I think with improv you have to move on. You can't dwell on it too much because you will never do the same show again and the audience will never see you do that again. Luckily for us Carlo is brilliant 99% of the time.

Who's the most disagreeable person you've come across in the business?

There was a TV exec in Australia who just argued with us about our show when we had a pitch meeting. "There's no way that was entirely improvised! You're lying, just tell me how you structure it, the beats you hit, the signals you give each other, how to know when to end it, how the plant knows what to yell as the suggestion for you guys," etc.

When we told them we'd never spoken about how we do the show and that before the shows we just sit opposite each other, hear our music and walk onstage, they didn't believe us and ended the meeting pretty much then and there. Got two free coffees though, so who's the real winner?

Is there one bit you loved, that audiences inexplicably didn't?

I think because we've performed with each other for many years now, you are always trying to keep things fresh and interesting. I know Carlo has hesitations when I endow him with characters who are supposed to have a great knowledge of hip-hop and he knows I LOVE IT when he gives me characters who are supposed to know actual endangered languages like the one he wrote his honours thesis on.

Any tips for new duos trying to come up with interesting stuff?

Always remember before the process starts why you're doing this with that particular person. For me, Carlo's insanely talented and I will continue to ride this gravy train until he knows I'm exploiting him.

The most memorable review, heckle or post-gig reaction?

We had two drunk audience members constantly heckle us through our show (they even gave us the suggestion at the start - "Tibetan Monastery') - "DO SOME IMPRO!" "IMPRO LIKE WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?!"

We kept doing cutaway scenes into the audience - pretending to be them and that it'd be a great idea to be quiet. Eventually, they left fifteen minutes into it and I shit you not the rest of the audience gave them a standing ovation.

After the show the head of the theatre approached us and said that an official complaint had been made against us, they said it was "the worst show they'd ever seen" and demanded their money back.

The head of the theatre said she had to watch us tomorrow night and evaluate. She did and said it was one of the best things she'd ever seen and she was personally going to write an email to the two audience members on our behalf.

What's the long-term plan for The Bear Pack?

A Bear Family.