I had no idea what improvisational comedy was until I took an Improv 101 class at the Uprights Citizens Brigade in Hollywood. The Uprights Citizens Brigade or UCB is a sketch/improv comedy group that began at Chicago’s ImprovOlympic in 1990. Famous alumni include Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Ali Farahnakian, Drew Franklin, Adam McKay, the late Rick Roman and Horatio Sanz. (Note: You can Google or IMDB any of these names and you’ll see their huge body of work.)
And if you’ve seen ANY popular comedy movies, TV shows or webisodes, chances are that the actors and writers are improv performers who’ve honed their craft onstage by creating funny and semi-ridiculous scenes usually with just a word suggestion from the audience.
After taking an improv class and seeing how difficult it can be to make a bunch of people laugh, I give these improv performers even more props because COMEDY IS HARD. Seriously. So, we here at Manolith decided to check out UCB’s popular “Facebook show” that stars the following witty comedians/actors/writers to see if I can learn to be funny. Uh. This is harder than I thought.
Paul Scheer – Creator/Producer/Actor of MTV’s “Human Giant,” and roles in Film/TV from “Year One”, “Bride Wars”, “30 Rock”, “The League”, and “Ass Backwards”. Oh and do you watch VH1’s “Best Week Ever”? Yeah, that’s him too.
Owen Burke – Started off at UCB New York and has performed at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, the San Francisco Sketchfest and the Chicago Improv Festival. He’s also had roles on “30 Rock”, “Human Giant”, “Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story” and “May the Best Man Win.”
Chad Carter - has written for Creature Comforts on CBS, MTV’s Human Giant, Comedy Central’s “CrossBalls”, ABC’s “My Kind of Town”, and the Adam McKay produced stage sketch show “George Bush is a Mother F*cker}.
Seth Morris – is a stand-up, sketch and improv comedian from San Francisco and the former Artistic Director of UCBTLA who has starred on shows from “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Reno 911″, “I Love You, Man” and “How I Met Your Mother.” And more. (Geez, my hands hurt from typing.)
Rob Huebel – Remember “The Inconsiderate Cell Phone Guy?” from the movie previews? Well, he’s also starred on shows from “The Office”, “Gary Unmarried”, “Reno 911″, “Human Giant” and more. (He also hijacked the camera during the interview…)
Rob Riggle – A former Marine Corps officer, Rob Riggle is best known for his Correspondent work on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” as well as Film/TV work from “Stepbrothers”, The Goods”, “Going the Distance”, “The Other Guys” and “Gary Unmarried”.
What exactly is the “Facebok show”? Well, during each weekly show, two people are randomly chosen in the audience to have their Facebook pages displayed and turned into a long-form improv comedy show. So whether you’re updating your Gacebook status 24/7 or you still have a Myspace account, you’ll definitely enjoy this show that makes fun of our current social media obsession.
Thanks again to Aysha Manori as well as to Paul, Owen, Chad, Seth, Rob and Rob.
(Videographer and Photography By: Aysha Manori)
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