Results tagged “uprightcitizensbrigade”

The last time we talked to Charlie Todd in 2005, he wasn't sure if Ben Folds had ever heard of his prank website Improv Everywhere. A year later, he would find himself invited on stage by Folds in a setup where Charlie would pretend to be Ben in front of a sold out crowd. Improv Everywhere now boasts a YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers, its most popular Freeze Mission (originating in Grand Central Station) has been replicated in over 150 cities around the world and this year's No Pants Subway Ride had 1,200 participants in New York alone.

Word on the Grub Street is that the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre is eyeing the now-abandoned Two Boots Pioneer Theater space at 155 East 3rd Street. Alex Sidtis, directing manager of UCB-Chelsea, "revealed that the troupe is hoping to open an East Village outpost," and because most comedy is exponentially more funny when you add alcohol, it's all "depending on whether it can secure a tavern wine license (the theater will plead its case at a January 12 meeting of Community Board 3’s licensing committee)." Sidtis points out the pluses of the space, mainly "that the 99-seat theater has a lobby, and the layout, “It’s a little different [than that of the Chelsea location]. The shows will be more presentational and less theatrical in nature.”." Two Boots owner Phil Hartman told the site, “I love the theater and I’m pleased to think that it would stay alive as a theater and not get gutted and turned into something else.” The neighborhood got significantly less funny when Mo Pitkins closed over a year ago.

Williams has performed at the theater before at the ASSSSCAT 3000 show alongside more high-profile regulars like Poehler and other stars of SNL and 30 Rock who improvise every Sunday. But when he showed up last night at the theater, members of Bangs really had to improvise when they learned just before going on that he wished to join them on stage. The audience ate up what sounds like the sort of wildcard performance you'd expect from Williams and word from the team is that the star was nothing but friendly and gracious to them.

Saturday night viewers of NBC didn't get a new episode of Saturday Night Live, but 150 audience members at the UCB Theater did! Live and un-aired, the show was to help raise money for crew members affected by the strike. Amy Poehler, who organized the event, made this statement:"The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is a second home to a lot of these performers and writers. We are doing this to raise spirits, raise awareness, and...

First amNewYork outs the secret bars around town, and now the NY Post is revealing the up-until-now secret shows happening soon at UCB. The casts of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, both taking part in the WGA strike (as the actors are also writers), are bringing their shows to the stage. Each will perform new episodes live, in the small 150-seat theater -- 30 Rock on Monday the 19th and Saturday Night Live on...

FILM: BAM features the work of Al Santana tonight. The Brooklyn filmmaker "has been a fixture on the independent film and video scene for years and his work ranges from documentaries about the transatlantic slave trade to coping with 9/11." Santana will be on hand for a Q&A; tonight as well.

COMEDY: This weekend marks the 9th Annual Del Close Marathon. Del Close, if you don't know by now, "was the driving force behind improvisational comedy in Chicago for over 30 years influencing Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Mike Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley and the Upright Citizens Brigade to name a few." The annual weekend began after Del's passing in 1999.

MOVIE: By now you've probably seen Grizzly Man. The Werner Herzog directed documentary depicts one (slightly off kilter) man's relationship with nature. Over the course of 13 summers, Timothy Treadwell lived amongst the animals - most notably the bears, in the Alaskan wild. You know this doesn't end well.

TRIVIA: Think you know a lot about New York? Come "challenge your knowledge of New York places, faces, dates and facts at the New York Book Club’s first trivia night. Special guests Steve Zeitlin and Marci Reaven, authors of Hidden New York and directors of City Lore, will be on hand to explain and educate." They warn you to bone up on your trivia at www.citylore.org and www.placematters.net beforehand.

I was a journalist when I started performing comedy and pitched a profile of Jon Stewart to a people-focused magazine. It was Jon’s first year on The Daily Show, just before their Millennium special, and the night after Bob Dole first appeared as a guest. And the magazine wanted me to ask questions like “When are you getting married and how does it feel to make a lot of money?” Instead, I asked how he made people laugh not realizing it’s practically unanswerable but realizing the questions they wanted me to ask were ridiculous. Jon paused for about two minutes and said “It’s sad you’ve asked me a question I should know the answer to but don’t.” So we spent the time exploring that, and I wrote a piece entitled “ Jon Stewart: What makes people laugh,” which was killed, it never ran, and that’s the last piece I wrote for that magazine. Inside Joke came from that afternoon, and I’ve been lucky to take the stage with amazing people, all of whom happen to be comedians in one way or another. That interview with Jon is on the Inside Joke Web site too.

ART: John Finneran’s Bad Nights, Vandals is at Rivington Arms for the rest of the week. The quirky art displays faces in unlikely places: a rearranged face on a brick wall in one piece and a giddy star in another. - Stephanie Nikolopoulos

Looks like Aziz Ansari has transitioned from blogs to television, and we couldn't be more psyched for him! Along with Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer, Ansari is one third of the Human Giant team. The series will air on MTV in early 2007. Jason Woliner will direct and produce. We can't wait!

It was good. I did Oh, Hello, Invite Them Up, and last night I did a show that Eugene did for the first time in Brooklyn at a place called Union Hall. It was Todd Barry, A.D. Miles, Eugene, and myself. It was great. A really cool local Parkslope sort of crowd.

)

COMEDY: The Del Close Marathon is happening this weekend, the full schedule is here.

Ali Farahnakian, Comedian

Best New Year's Eve crime story ever, by Cab Drivers Tell Me I'm Pretty-- bonus points for writing it in blank verse:

With such strange, non-wintery weather, it can be hard to comprehend that the holiday season is upon us – or at least it would be if retailers weren’t so insistent with their decorating and constant gift idea promotions. Theater companies are doing their part, too, gearing up with a wide variety of traditional and anti-tradition productions. One of these, closer to the latter pole, is Balletto Stiletto at La MaMa. It’s loosely based on the Grimm Brothers’ “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” and tells the story of “the Appliance King of New Jersey” who locks his nine daughters in their room each night only to find every morning that their shoes bear the signs of long hours of partying. If it doesn’t sound like it has much to do with the holidays, well, that’s just one more thing it has going for it.

. It promises more pop culture references than the Gilmore Girls. Which is a lot! Gilmore Girls even beat out the OC on referencing the Arcade Fire. So if you love pop culture and laughing at the expense of broken hearted celebrities, then this may just be the show for you.

Rachel Korowitz, Improv Comedienne

And there's a great New York magazine article by Greg Sargent about Mayor Bloomberg becoming a politician, as in "finding his inner Rudy": "Hammer away one day, and escalate the assault the next on the radio�it�s City Politics 101, a mainstay of none other than the Hannibal Lecter of City Hall, Rudy Giuliani." Hannibal Lecter of City Hall - Gothamist would TOTALLY see that movie.

A new addition to Mayor Bloomberg's press conferences: Someone to add a drum flourish to his jokes, so reporters know to laugh, instead of laughing at the Mayor all the time!