Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
There’s a great load of mystique surrounding improvisation. The long-form version in particular has its legends and its saints, its temples, commandments, and arcana based on the magic of spontaneous creation. Sometimes you’ve got to wonder whether that’s all just spin to keep the pews filled and the workshops running, the way it is in any religion. But then somebody goes and delivers a miracle.
Last night’s odyssey started as simply as could be, with Pasquesi standing maybe 15 feet from Glaser and grinning amiably at him. Joined by a buddy (Adsit), Glaser confided that he was creeped out because the grinning had been going on for a full 30 minutes. The setting, it developed, was a bar, and Pasquesi was just a nice-guy conventioneer with a tendency to grin amiably at people. The scene soon split focus as Pasquesi got into bar talk with Adsit, and Glaser struck up a conversation with Jagodowski. We heard snippets from each pair in nicely orchestrated turns. This one was in bike sales, that one bred dogs. There was some patter about the Bible. Pasquesi was in mourning because his wife had “burned down.”
