Upright goes Lower East

Congrats to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, for gaining the community support of their new location in Manhattan’s Lower East Side! The new location hinged on them getting a liquor license (paying the bills hinges on those $2 PBRs), which they were approved for on Monday night.

If you’re just hearing about this story now, never fear — the location on 26th St. is staying put. This just means more shows, more chances for up and coming performers to get stage time, more choices for New Yorkers to make in a given evening.

And if you worry that another space just won’t feel the same? Take note that “the application passed given 10 stipulations regarding the control of traffic going in and out of the building”. So if you enjoy interns kicking you out of the theatre instantly after a show – and subsequently the box office area, the upstairs landing, and off the sidewalk itself – and losing track of your friends who don’t have their cellphones on? Sounds like you have more of that to look forward to!

I jest, of course. As I said in the IRC thread about this, as long as they aren’t expecting us to pull out our Metrocards during the next Del Close Marathon (walk to 6th for the FV?), I think this will be fantastic.

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Is it just me, or has the annual No Pants Subway Ride sort of run its course? I’m a fan of Improv Everywhere, but it seems everyone knows about this thing in advance (even the cops). I thought the purpose of these things was to create something truly head-scratching / eyebrow raising. When hundreds of pantsless people show up and are being photographed by several IE photographers (and in one case this year a random camera crew with a boom mic), doesn’t it just scream “stunt”? Maybe I’m just being grumpy.

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The PBS documentary series Make ‘Em Laugh premieres on PBS this Wednesday night, and I’ll share my thoughts here after it airs. Mainstream documentaries about the history of comedy usually only rate as “okay”, but I have hope this will be a notch above that. Host Billy Crystal did a pretty good job of selling it on Monday night’s Letterman (and slid into the next chair down afterwards to be the first guest in recent memory to stick around through the whole show).

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Sharilyn Johnson

Sharilyn Johnson is a writer and communications professional. She's been an entertainment reporter since 1995, and began focusing on comedy in 1998. Before relocating to Toronto in 2008, she served as the comedy reporter for Winnipeg's alt weekly, Uptown Magazine, for five years and hosted the weekly radio program Laugh Tracks on CJUM for three seasons. Her comedy coverage has also appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press, and on CBC Radio's national comedy show LOL.

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Upright goes Lower East

Sharilyn Johnson

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