Toronto-based writer Eli Pasic’s latest show is a comedy that will premiere at Tarragon Theatre’s Extraspace on April 11. Pasic began his career with music, and his one-man operetta was a hit at last summer’s Toronto Fringe Festival.
He talks to us about his journey from ambitious high schooler to theatre professional, and his latest shows.
From Music To Comedy To Musicals
“I studied at Berklee College of music for a year,” Eli says. That includes piano and composition. After that, reality got in the way. “It cost a fortune,” he says, “but the one year I spent was wonderful.”
Along with the cost, he realized he was a bad fit for the institution, given his primary interest leading from high school into college: To become an orchestrator of musicals in a style that was considered out of date. “I loved Cole Porter,” he says. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He made the transition to scriptwriting, and went on to write comedies and musicals, collaborating with the likes of Henry Krieger, the composer of Dreamgirls. At the same time, he continued studying music in his own way.
“It was a groovy thing that happened to me in high school,” he explains. As a 16-year-old high school student, he wrote an email to Larry Blank, a Brooklyn-born and Tony-nominated conductor and orchestrator. To his surprise, Blank responded, and over the years, Eli would send him his orchestral scores. Blank would return them with corrections and notes via email, an arrangement that continued for some time.
“I’m convinced that all those lessons in orchestration he taught me helped me write comedy,” he says. “Dialogue is music,” he explains. “You know when there’s wrong notes.” He described dialogue as having pitches and melodies. “I think any person that writes comedy has a sense of that rhythm and music. It’s very much instinctual, yet I think anyone can tell when it’s off.”
The funny parts are probably the easiest. “The challenge in my racket is the blend of story and comedy.” The frame of humour has to come with the usual dramatic elements of story. “The actual lines and jokes. It sort of comes naturally.”
Horror + Operetta
A recent project, The Exorcist: An Operetta, brings both threads together.
“It was the convergence of two passions,” he says. The Exorcist is one of Eli’s favourite films, and opera one of his favourite art forms. Eli’s one-man show, based on the seminal 1970s horror film, combines narration, dialogue, and song — with Eli at the piano — and premiered in late 2022.
“I was in control of the writing and performance.” It became a hit at the 2023 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Musicals, though, have a drawback. “It’s very expensive and difficult,” he says. Hence a solo show. “I wanted to do it because I wanted to keep all the money,” he laughs. Funding, as he notes, has changed since the pandemic. “You have to get ready to lose money,” he says. “It’s always harder than I remember.”
Friendly Fire
His new show, which hits the Tarragon Theatre stage on April 11, is called Friendly Fire: An Evening of Seven Pocket-Sized Comedies. While Eli writes and directs, he’s gathered a cast of four Toronto performers to flesh them out, including Kevin Forster, Kevin Hare, Isaiah Kolundzic, and Breanna Maloney.
The theme is the general absurdity of modern life, including toxic workplace romances, activists, corporations, TED talks, and more. No one is spared.
“It all flows together nicely,” he adds. Some of the stories come from unused material he already had. The newest part ends the show. He describes it as a parody of Oedipus Rex.
“It’s very funny,” he says. “It’s not just funny because of the writing, but because of the wonderful comic actors,” he adds.
Independent theatre is still, as he points out, one of the only places to experience unique perspectives and original artistry. “[It’s] what I love about the theatre,” he says. “It’s not like anything else.”
- Find more information, and tickets to the performances April 11 to 14, [HERE].
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