Archive for October, 2007

Photographs courtesy of Brendan McMullen

In an article entitled Class Clowns, the New York Times talks about Human Giant and the amazing alum coming out of UCBNY at the moment. It’s a pretty extensive article that really goes into great detail about the incredible talent currently performing at the theater. As a student and performer at UCB, it’s really wonderful to have such a prestigious newspaper spotlight what is, in my opinion, one of the most creative and community based theaters in all of the country. It’s outrageous that a comedy club in Manhattan has shows every night of the week, most of them experimental, all of them cutting edge, a stage which is open to anyone (in the theater or not) to put on shows, all for the regular price of $5, sometimes free, $8 on weekends!

Did I mention the super reasonably priced bar?

UCBNY is the Future of Comedy

What few viewers of the MTV comic marathon may have realized was that nearly all of these promising young comedians had honed their craft at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, also known as U.C.B., a leaky, shabby and (usually) funny improv studio underneath a Gristedes supermarket in Chelsea. Its evolution into a farm system for television talent is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is that the theater started its life in New York.

The article goes on.

The New York scene began to grow in 1999 after the opening of U.C.B.‘s first theater and school in a former strip club on West 22nd Street. Many of the theater’s students went on to star in shows at the U.C.B. and other theaters, performing under names that range from the absurdly specific (Twelve Thousand Dollars) and the nonsensical (Rogue Elephant) to the unprintable.

In many ways, New York’s thriving improv culture resembles Chicago’s, but with one critical difference: Here, amateur comics can reasonably hope that their next onstage impersonation of a hypochondriac hamster might land them a job on television. And as more and more of those hopes have been realized, thanks to New York-based shows like “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” and “Saturday Night Live,” U.C.B. has sought to reinforce its position as a leading conservatory for the next generation of big-time comedians.

I think I might get the entire article tattooed on my back.