EDINBURGH FRINGE 2024
Interview
MO FRY
PASIC &
SUDI GREEN
WORSE THAN YOU
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora - studio
THEATRE / COMEDY / SOLO SHOW
Jul 31 Aug 1-11, 13-25: TICKETS
JULY 28, 2024
Confronted with her fear of being unlovable and forever misunderstood an overly self-aware comedian puts together the biggest show of her life. Desperate to connect, yet doomed to self-sabotage, she pushes therapists, dates and peers away through trauma dumping, a sexual obsession with Captain America, and pathologizing all of her exes with sociopathy. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll walk away with a new crush. A new play from actor/writer Mo Fry Pasic and director Sudi Green. The show is produced by Lauren Mandel for her production company, Disco Nap.
Hi Mo & Sudi, it’s lovely to talk with you both ahead of your Edinburgh Fringe debut, how’s your build up to the festival going?
MO FRY PASIC (MFP): Hi! We are genuinely delighted to talk to you! Sudi’s shorthand for me abroad is “Big Tall American Who Waves” because I love talking to strangers and saying hello to trees, so I’m actually happy I get to write some of these interviews - that way I don’t come in too hot. Hmm the buildup is interesting! It’s always the things you don’t expect that stress you out. I think the show is so solid and wonderful and I have such a deep confidence that even if only one person comes the whole time, it will change their life and that’s worth it. So, that part is a very nice feeling. Logistically, I’m a mess. I’m one of those people who could explain wave particle duality to you but will cry if I have to read too many emails. Bless our whole team and Lauren Mandel, our producer, for being so on top of it.
SUDI GREEN (SG): It feels like we are going through hell week from miles away. Way more emailing of tech specs than actual rehearsing. We always joke ‘we’re never worried about the performance, it’s everything else.’ We’ve been developing Worse Than You for just over a year and we are so in love with this version of the show.
Are there any nerves ahead of Worse Than You run at C Venues?
MFP: I have never wanted something to begin more. I need it to have started yesterday. My nerves are all in the unknown. Once it begins, good, bad, failure, success - I am at peace.
SG: We’ve heard so many stories about Fringe, from the amazing to the chaotic. Will people come see it? Don’t let us down, Edinburgh. Will they get it? Again, really depending on you, people of Edinburgh. There are actually a million things making me nervous now that I’m thinking about them so I’d like to stop answering them.
What made you want to bring Worse Than You to the fringe, was this always the dream?
MFP: The dream is obviously to never have to leave my house and have the world beg me for my art and I get paid a lot of money to make it with my friends from my house and my cat is there and I never worry whether or not it’s good or clearly communicated an abstract feeling because the world is obsessed with me and I can do no wrong- right? So short of that, this certainly is an honor, but not something I even knew to dream about until college when I stopped playing volleyball and started getting into comedy. I was so obsessed and delighted by everything David Mitchell did starting with Peep Show and moving to panel shows and learned about Fringe through him. While we didn’t set out to be at Fringe, it felt like the highest way we could honour a play that means a lot to Sudi and I and also it is exciting to walk in the footsteps of people I respect.
SG: We’ve had friends like Patti Harrison, Catherine Cohen, Greta Titleman all go to Fringe and have great experiences. I mean where else is there, the basement of a women’s college? Broadway? We would love to do both.
And what does Edinburgh Fringe mean to you both? (Please be prepared for a lot of oddities that are pretty normal in Scotland, and yes, they really do deep fry anything).
MFP: Oh gosh, I sort of covered this above. This reminds me of a time in the 3rd grade when the teacher handed out a sheet of paper and said “read ALL the instructions” very ominously. The first instruction said to write a paragraph about your day, but there was a sneaky instruction at the bottom of the page that said to ignore the instructions on top and write nothing. The kids who wrote nothing got fruit snacks. Needless to say I went home hungry and about a paragraph more reflective about my day. My favourite food is bread and butter - I’m prepared.
SG: So far it maybe feels like Fringe is running the internet out of a leaky pipe. But in a good way! It’s giving ‘the show must go on.’ Mo googled if there was a Sephora (a makeup store in the U.S.) Where are the gorgeous Scottish girlies getting their war paint? Can’t wait to find out.
Worse Than You had an amazing reception last year when you premiered at the Elysian Theatre in LA before moving to New York, did you imagine you would get the type of reaction you got for the show?
MFP: Yes! Hahaha, insane right? It’s a good show. Sudi knows what she’s doing. I know what I’m doing. And Lauren not only knows what she’s doing but has maintained a bigger vision that has only kept Sudi and I going up and bettering with each performance. I am grateful and confident (cut to: I’m sobbing in a Scottish broom cupboard, refusing to come out and perform).
SG: Our show is a bit of an odd bird because it’s about trauma but is also very comedy forward. We had to trust the audience to make those transitions with us between sad to ‘that’s a joke you can laugh at.’ I was blown away because our audiences were completely down to go on that rollercoaster with us.
"I get that this show is born of and inspired by my personal story. I know that I wrote it. I know I’m the one on the stage acting. But this play is Sudi and I. Every step of the way." - MO FRY PASIC
Can you tell me a little bit about how Worse Than You came about, what inspired you to write this play?
MFP: The pandemic really took me out creatively. I had gone from hosting a hit stand up comedy show with my friends and touring Europe with a successful play to nada. I tried to do stand up here and there, but I was down and out. Sudi wanted to direct and I had been hemming and hawing on what I wanted to make - what was good enough to make. Sudi gave me a deadline. She said “get me a script. It can be anything just have words to me in a month.”
I have many stories and experiences (unique!) but the one we chose to tell isn’t necessarily the most personally defining one to me. It’s the one that was best told on the stage.
Did you have any apprehensions about writing and performing in this production?
MFP: For sure!!! It deals with trauma and the fear of being misunderstood so that naturally leads to apprehension. It is a weird dance between the roles though. Writer to actor to comedian to actor. Comedian is always the one that takes over and I need to be kinder to the emotional or poetic parts of me. I didn’t used to be. That’s why this play didn’t exist until now. But I’ll die if I’m not being at least 50% very funny. I’ve worked through this in therapy and you’ll be relieved to know the laugh-need is not pathological, it’s just what I care about most (I am normal and good!) I mean it, If I was cast in *googles saddest plays* The Scottish Macbeth Play, did an incredible job, won a Tony, made everyone cry, but didn’t get a single laugh? I would QUIT!!!! (Do you like how in this example I’m unhappy and disillusioned by my TONY?).
What would you say have been the most interesting things you’ve discovered about yourself in the process of bringing Worse Than You to the stage?
MFP: My neurological type LOL. Divergent the house down BOOTS! I didn’t realise how literally I processed information. I didn’t realise that not everyone was a visual thinker. Or I guess not “didn’t realise” but it just wasn’t any of my business and I can’t fathom how quiet and measured and abstraction free a lot of people’s minds tend to be. I had to understand myself and my process sooo explicitly or my vision would get lost in translation.
In the writing process how self reflective did you allow yourself when you started creating your character?
MFP: Too. I’m never not. I’m never not self analysing, reflecting, trying to learn about myself, trying to heal myself, be kind, figure out my impulses and their origin, forgive, get angry, take accountability, pour my fears into a character and judge myself for judging my character. It’s too much!! I need to chill out and fuck more, but I’m also a romantic and kind of can only get it up for love so it’s tough. I’m sorry, did you say how grossly over personal did I allow myself to be?
Where did your passion for theatre, comedy and performing come from?
MFP: Television. I have been glued to a television since I was born. I loved Dick Van Dyke. I wanted to be a floppy-funny-long-body just like him and I think I’m doing an okay job of it. I genuinely don’t remember one thing that inspired me to perform. I have always been this way. So I guess that’s a personality disorder or somethin’ then, huh? Yea, print that. Big letters, please.
How much did you early exposure to improv help guide/inform the type of comedy/theatre you would start writing and performing?
MFP: Solely and completely. Every acting class I take is essentially teaching you to embody the tenets of improv through the framework of a script. The presence, the living nature of it, the collective YES that is required. It is everything that everything should be.
“Don’t think.” In my opinion that is the common thread between athletes and improvisers that make them the best actors. They know how to learn everything, train obsessively, and plan for possibilities so that when game day comes you turn your brain off and allow flow to take over. It’s magic, although I’m still trying to figure out how to turn my brain off without a ball flying at my face (meant as both a reference to sports and as an indictment on the toxicity of cis het male dominated improv communities. We’re having fun!)
With your background in TV and comedy specials what has the process been like for you directing Worse Than You, and will you continue to explore directing theatre?
SG: No matter what medium or city I’m working in, I say ‘that’s Hollywood baby’ a lot. It just grounds me in my work. Working on live TV like Saturday Night Live and awards shows is actually a lot like theatre. Costumes, blocking, sets, where do I hide this vibrator prop? In my TV experience, I learned that everything on screen needs to work towards communicating the main idea. I think that’s why some people who have seen Worse Than You have described it as ‘tight’ and I take it as a compliment. From our production scale, to the length, to the jokes; we are a lean, powerful morsel that should hit.
I would love to continue to direct theatre, direct film, tv, direct anything. I’m naturally bossy and I love working with actors because they’re generally more attractive than the average person and have so many words for feelings.
If you had only 3 words you could choose to describe Worse Than You what would they be?
MFP: Worse Than You - aren’t I awful? No, just kidding: Healing, silly, hot
SG: Pretty Trauma Vibrators.
You are close friends - what has the process been like for you working on this production?
MFP: A gift from god. We’ve been friends for a decade and I feel like a couple that finally had a kid. I understand myself better, we understand each other better. Being so close there is a shorthand, trust, and ease that allows us to ask for what we need. Also we vacation internationally together a lot and have both had really serious bathroom situations that culturally and physically were hard to handle, so we can do anything. (I did laugh a lot and loudly at Sudi’s situation and she did not laugh at mine and she does resent me for that, but what is long term platonic love without a little resentment)
SG: There have been a few times where we’ve said ‘fuck rehearsal’ and we’ve gone to dinner. Or be like “let’s block this scene and then we get to gossip!” The best thing is we have this shorthand and can be no bullshit in our communication without hurting each other’s feelings. I remember one scene I told Mo she had to be powerful, so she started doing this weird Mae West shimmy shoulder as she talked. I was like ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ She said “oh, you said powerful so I’m doing panther.” I said “got it, it’s not panther.” And then we moved on.
And how important is the creative collaboration between a playwright/actor and their director when working on a show like this?
MFP: It is the only thing. I get that this show is born of and inspired by my personal story. I know that I wrote it. I know I’m the one on the stage acting. But this play is Sudi and I. Every step of the way. I don’t think that’s common for everyone’s “solo show” and that’s why I stress this is a play with a single actor. One time, I asked Sudi if I could give her more titles than Director because we collaborate on rewrites and costume and production and total restructures and I wanted that to be acknowledged and she said to me “this is what a director does.”
SG: Actors need to feel safe. Especially actors who have also created the material, they need to feel comfortable taking risks and making weird choices. The director’s job, in my view, is to get on board with what they’re going for and push it to its best version. Thankfully we were on the same page to make this play as fucked up and funny as possible.
Do you have any routines or superstitions before you head out on stage?
MFP: I will always be an athlete trying to be an actor. I prefer it that way. Before a show I listen to three songs: Bring ‘Em Out by T.I, Heart of a Champion by Nelly, and Joe Budden’s Pump It Up. I do short sprints and high knees across the stage and then I think about doing some method acting warm ups and I do not do them.
I don’t understand theatre superstitions, but I will always respect them and the spaces I’m in. It’s hard though. I did a play for The Under The Radar festival at The Public Theater in New York and having come up in comedy I didn’t know the superstitions so I kept asking the do’s and don’t’s. Someone told me I wasn’t allowed to say “MacBeth'' in a theater. They said I had to say the “Scottish Play” (am I allowed to even type it? Is this egregious?) And I wanted so bad to be respectful but I had been so focused on not messing it up that during our dress rehearsal I, in earnest, announced “and no one worry about me saying the Scottish Play! I know to say MacBeth!” Which is so insane because even if I hadn’t mixed them up - I still said both.
SG: A mantra Mo and I have as friends is “big cookie.” ‘Big cookie’ means speaking with your full chest, being tough, and getting what you want. I got us necklaces that say ‘big cookie’ for like $3 on etsy before our first show and I wear it at every show we do. To bring the Big Cookie energy!!!!
What advice would you offer anyone wanting to start their journey in theatre?
MFP: Do it. Do it a thousand times. Do it in the back of a bar. Do it with your friends. Make a bad show. Do a bad play reading. Do not wait to get cast or for someone to say you’re the one. You’re the one, honey, I’m saying it. Now go do it.
SG: Make shit with your friends! Gather all the people who ‘get’ you and make as much as you can together, doesn’t matter how complicated or ambitious. If you find a great collaborator, hold on to them, nurture them like a delicate house plant. If you and your friends are laughing, you’re on the right track.
And finally, what would you like your 2024 fringe audiences to take away from Worse Than You?
MFP: Oh god, I hope they feel less alone. I love every single person who ever has and ever will come to my show. Maybe if someone really evil comes, I’ll reevaluate, but I don’t think so because anyone who takes the time to get up in the morning...to put on clothes....to brush their teeth...to put on an outfit even if their body feels weird that day...to buy a ticket....to take public transit or find parking...to take the risk to see something unknown...to hate it or love it or nothing it...to be there for me sitting in a theater next to no one or people coughing or people who smell...oh my god, that’s a miracle. There have been days where I could do none of those things and days where the first one felt impossible. I hope they know I think about that even if they don’t and I love them.
SG: That you can laugh at the most fucked up shit in life. Sometimes it’s the only thing you can do. Making jokes about our tragedies is how we can take ownership over them. Please come to our show and laugh with us! You also might have a good cry but we won’t leave you devastated; we promise.