Third Beat

The crowds at this year’s DCM seemed larger than ever before, and it was never so obvious as when I arrived at the UCBT on Sunday afternoon. 3 years ago, I arrived at 2pm and easily got a seat in the front row. This year? I arrived at 2pm and it was already standing-room only.

The second thing that hit me was the smell of… fermentation? It had only been 12 hours since I’d last experienced it, but how quickly we forget. I took a stroll through the backstage, which was free of all the insanity I’d fought my way through for a free beer the night (er… morning?) before. The theme of the day: standing water! There was lots of it back there, even though the concrete maze had been well-cleaned by the volunteers.

Unfortunately, the stage hadn’t been cleaned quite as well from the previous night’s Match Game watermelon fiasco, which is where I ended up having to sit for over. five. hours. with. no. back. support. in order to get good photos. I could stretch during that precious moment of blackout time between shows, and peel myself off the watermellon-y floor for a few seconds, but holy hell, I’m OLD. I felt this for a solid 48 hours afterwards.

Sticky buttcheeks aside, Sunday afternoon always presents my favourite shows of Marathon.

Scheer-McBrayer was genius as always. I can’t get enough of Paul and Jack, and could have watched this for another hour easily. Those who got to see the extended show at FIT were very fortunate.

Let’s Have a Ball is, in my opinion, the best regular show at UCBT. I was glad to see Becky Drysdale in this edition, but Laura Krafft and Christina Gausas were very missed.

Jason Mantzoukas filled in for Rob Riggle alongside Rob Huebel in Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold. Which makes perfect sense, since Huebel filled in for Riggle alongside Mantzoukas in Friday night’s Mantziggle (you follow?). The two ended up spitting some water at each other, which the improv-savvy audience heightened by instantly providing dozens more bottles of water. I obviously lack photos of this, as camera gear and litres of water do not mix. But what DOES mix is water and stage filth. While Huebel ran in place for about 3 minutes post-waterfight, he worked up what I can only describe as a “murky froth” on the surface of the stage. Yum!

Although a note to future volunteers: mopping the puddles of stage filth away from the middle of the stage doesn’t mean mopping it towards those of us sitting on the floor. Thanks.

Mantzoukas did apologize for the “wet t-shirt contest” when he returned for First Date, sans Jessica St. Clair. He had an audience volunteer be his “date”, and Pam Victor did a fantastic job of keeping things just awkward enough, while being open to whatever direction Manzoukas nudged her in. She blogged about the experience here.

Can anyone get enough Baby Wants Candy? Featuring 2 of my all-time favourite improvisors, Peter Gwinn and Becky Drysdale (the rest are no slouches either — Jack McBrayer, Thomas Middleditch, etc) BWC continually stands up as the best musical improv show I’ve ever seen. Try as I might to catch their semi-regular performances at the Barrow Street Theatre while I’m in town, I failed through the previous 52 weeks, so this was a very welcome fix. This particular story took place on a submarine, and almost immediately one of Gwinn’s castmates bestowed the profession of “ballet dancer” upon him. He replied pointedly that there would be no dancing, because “the floors of this submarine are very wet!” Loved it all. Was it as memorable as last year’s adventure at the Kit Kat Kaboodle? Not quite, but I don’t think anything could be!

Mmmmm… fooood! Walsh & Roberts actually cooked something appetizing this year! Matt and Ian put together what was essentially an elaborate quesadilla, complete with chicken and roasted veggies, and had no trouble finding audience volunteers to sample it. Maybe the biggest selling point was their admission that they couldn’t find soap backstage, and instead washed their hands with Comet. Owen Burke stole the show, as always, by playing the perfect lowbrow idiot stage manager while Matt and Ian berated him from the Moe/Larry perspectives.

Last year, I skipped the Sunday night Asssscat to catch a flight that never got off the ground (the first of three, thanks Air Canada). I did attend this year, but frankly I was burned out and not engaged by improv happening 50 feet away from me in a giant space at FIT. I can’t remember much other than the audience interactions, including a monologue from one girl who got fired from her temp job for opening a secret file and painting a unicorn and falling asleep (I’m not sure we ever got to the bottom of what that meant, to be honest). I do wish I’d taken advantage of a “free” evening in NYC to do something a little more productive (like nap, before my friend convinced me to go for Korean food after midnight when I had a 5:30am wake-up call) and will likely skip Asssscat next year.

Assorted additional thoughts from DCMXI:

-I had the privilege of attending special DCM workshops with Joe Wengert, Anthony King, and Chris Gethard. All I can say is that these guys confirmed to me why UCB’s training program is so highly regarded (in case I was in danger of forgetting?). I was initially intimidated to be in classes alongside a bunch of 501 grads (I only have my 201 from UCB) but it’s amazing how comfortable you can get in a class led by someone really passionate about what they’re teaching. Simply awesome.

-The crowds in past years were getting out of control, but now just are out of control. I read one report that someone waited 3 hours to get into the theatre in time for Lazy Man on Saturday evening, and didn’t make it in. My opinion: they should consider moving the theatre cleanings to prime times (seriously, like 11pm on Saturday). It may not be popular, but it would be fair to people waiting in line all evening.

-In a related issue, I mentioned this elsewhere, but I think it’s poor form for the lineup changes to not be reflected on the website. Riggle dropped out, Ed Helms missed the Friday show, Jessica St. Clair wasn’t in First Date… yet all their names still appeared on the schedule. And it wasn’t because of an inability to change it, because Mailer-Daemon was added just a few days before DCM. When audiences are forced to make difficult scheduling choices, doesn’t it seem fair to give them accurate information?

And since I’m on a complaining streak, this would be a good time for you to bring up photography.

“Hey Shar, where can I find all these photos you keep yakking about?”

Why thanks for asking. Here’s the situation:

Sample photos & lengthy explanation after the jump.

Ahh, Friday! Fresh faces, sanitary eating habits, and hydrated bodies. This was the way of life just days ago. It’s hard to believe now, after living in our own filth for the remainder of the weekend, that we were ever sober and possessed clean laundry.

I spent my time at the Del Close Marathon occupied with photography duties, so my recaps are brief (but pretty). Full sets of photos are not currently available, but I’ve chosen one from each show to tease y’all.

Favourite moments from Friday night:

-All of Press Conference, including Matt Besser choking up a little talking about Del’s final words to the UCB4.

-Chris Gethard as an unstoppable Andy Rooney during Stepfathers. Hilarious.

-Matt Walsh and Jon Glazer calling “time outs” during Apples & Oranges to explain improv technique to the crowd.

-Mark Sutton singing Dido during Bassprov. So out of context.

Wyatt Cenac sat in for Ed Helms in Satellites, the Dave Matthews Band inspired show. The ask-for was a favourite DMB lyric or song title, from a fan. The selected fan chose “Crash Into Me”. To which an actual douchey DMB fan responded “you’re not really a fan!”. Ok, I admit it, that d’bag was me. But no true DMB fan considers that song their favourite, and if they did they certainly wouldn’t publicly admit it. C’mon, fake DMB fans, leave Satellites alone! (I kid, of course. Sort of.)

Which does also bring up the point: when the (arguably) 2 biggest stars of DCM (Helms and Rob Riggle) bailed on shows, UCB’s lips were sealed. No changes were posted or made on the website. When everyone’s schedules are made so strategically (you can’t normally get BACK into a venue for hours after you’ve left), isn’t it kinda crappy to let people try to venue hop to see a specific person who isn’t even going to be there?

I’d had a long day so I turned in early, missing such epic performances as Yoda Hot Tub at 3am. But never fear — Sean over at The Comic’s Comic has the details of those shenanigans, including video of Brett Gelman’s backstage prep. Definitely worth checking out!

More to come re: Saturday’s shows, including my thoughts on staying awake long enough to witness my first-ever Match Game ‘76.

In the meantime, here are those shots from Friday night. Lots more under the jump.

View more photos

Throughout the week leading up to the 11th annual Del Close Marathon in New York, improv folks from all perspectives enlighten us with their expectations for this weekend’s 3-day improv extravaganza.

Today: Hey cool, it’s Matt Walsh, member of the Upright Citizens Brigade (and therefore co-founder of the UCB Theatre and of the Del Close Marathon), and all-around hero to a generation of young improvisors!

Does the popularity of Marathon make it more exciting now, or do you miss the past years? What do you consider the heyday of DCM?

The heyday of the DCM is now, I think it’s amazing that so many people care about improv. The more people at the DCM the better. The only thing I miss about the beginning years is that when it was small everyone got a free porterhouse steak and a one on one life coaching session with Amy Poehler.

What’s changed the most about Marathon since the beginning, aside from the attendance numbers?

I think the variety and the quality of shows has gotten better. Also, more babies are being born at the marathon every year. Last year three boys named Del were birthed in the audience.

What’s the most wonderful thing and the most horrifying thing you’ve ever witnessed during DCM?

Match Game, Drunken Sonic Assault, and Robot TV never fail to disappoint with lots of chaos. Also last year Paul Simon came down and did a two person show with Mayor Bloomberg, it was a little wordy but still so special.

There seems to be a very intense dedication to Marathon. Even guys who’ve gone off to success in LA come back New York for it. Aside from the free beer backstage, what makes Marathon so significant to people?

I think the camaraderie between performers is pretty strong. Lots of people come back to see their old friends. Also the freedom for the shows to go anywhere, the more bizarre or outrageous the better. There are no headliners, no ego trips (except Matt Besser needing his own weed trailer) everyone is there to do the work.

Any hints as to what you and Ian will be cooking on Sunday afternoon?

There’s a rumor that their might be a dish called bacon surprise(bacon wrapped in bacon covered in bacon) or maybe some stuffed french toast. Owen Burke and I usually figure it out the night before. We also like to do dishes with liquor in them so maybe some bourbon bread pudding.

Bonus question, because I want to be the first to ask: Where’s Amy?

There is a live satellite feed hooked up to Amy’s trailer on set in LA, she watches the shows live and if something doesn’t please her she has a button that can kill the stage lights immediately and then that group is asked to leave. She also sends one of the homeless men she owns to give the first suggestion to inspire the whole weekend. Last year the man said “Help me I’m a prisoner”.

UCB THEATRE PANEL

Moderator: Paul Provenza

Panelists: Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Neil Campbell, Andy Daly, Lennon Parham, Horatio Sanz

Good turnout for this one, presumably from nerds like myself who enjoy anything and anything to do with the UCBT. Paul Provenza was absolutely the best choice possible to moderate this panel. He does standup at their Los Angeles theatre, and is incredibly passionate about sharing good comedy with people.

If you’ve ever attended the Press Conference that kicks off the annual Del Close Marathon at the UCB’s New York location, you’ll have a good idea of what was discussed in this panel. Lots of history of the theatre, the history of the UCB itself, and the general philosophy that they learned from Del Close and continue to teach today.

Provenza asked how they had the confidence to enter the teaching marketplace back in the late 90s, and Matt Walsh pointed out that nobody was doing longform in New York back then, never mind teaching it.

“I went through the Players Workshop in Chicago, for a year, and realized ‘oh, these guys don’t know what they’re talking about’,” said Matt Besser.

Ian Roberts noted that “we’re not a bilking organization” with endless levels of classes like a “9th Eagle level” or a “Silver Bear level”.

The discussion turned to the concept of the “game of the scene” which is the UCB’s focus above all else and sets them apart from other schools. Besser noted that this comes in very helpful for actors who are instructed to improvise with a script. They’ve been trained to immediately identify the “game” within the written scene and build upon it, which generally will improve a writer’s idea rather than take it in a completely different direction.

Provenza pointed out the unique business model of the theatre: nobody pays to do a show there, and nobody gets paid. Roberts confirmed that “the theatre, if you took away the classes, isn’t a money maker.”

“We have a really low [ticket] price and that’s a decision we made way back,” Roberts continued, saying that that goal was to be seen by as many people as possible, and keeping the price low accomplishes that. They would rather have a lot of people paying a little, than have half the number of people paying more.

Neil Campbell, Artistic Director of the UCBT-LA, said that there was no real place to do sketch in LA until UCBT opened its second location there in 2005. It was easy to gain a following in LA because everyone was “so happy to have a place to do it”.

Besser recalled opening their original theatre on 22nd St. in New York, a former porn theatre where they had to scrape condoms off the floor and throw bricks at the mirrors on the wall because they couldn’t get them down any other way.

He then mentioned going through a similar process (sans condoms) currently for their secondary New York location in the East Village, which will be opening in November of this year (“I think that’s news”). The new venue will feature mostly standup and sketch shows, while the main location on 26th street will continue to focus on improv.

Lennon Parham remembered her first time going to a show at the old space on 22nd, and feeling like an outcast because everyone seemed to know each other (of course, she became a part of the community, and is LA-bound for her role in the new CBS series Accidentally On Purpose).

She also spoke about the common vocabulary UCB performers have, so everyone knows how to play with each other. Also, “there are so many UCB people in the world, it’s inevitable you’re going to work with them,” she said.

An audience member asked about bailing on scenes that aren’t working. Andy Daly said that the back line can almost always bail you out, and Roberts said that “sometimes the only way to play a scene real is to walk off the stage, but it’s up to your scene partner to keep you there.” The don’t-kill-your-scene-partner lesson followed.

Daly confirmed that for a short period, the theatre experienced a “mild Robin Williams infestation.” When he would drop in for Asssscat, he would naturally start a scene at the very front of the stage, making it hard for the others to interact with him.

“Once he realized we were going to make whatever choice he made funny, he relaxed,” said Parham.

Horatio Sanz noted that despite the difference in styles, “he’s like the Pope. If he shows up, you have to invite him into your house.”

When an improv nerd walks into a theatre and sees UCB Theatre co-founders Matt Walsh, Matt Besser, and Ian Roberts standing in the centre of the stage, the reaction is almost physical. These are the guys, and unless you live in LA, you’ll rarely see them on stage together outside of their annual Del Close Marathon appearances.

While there was an unjust supply of empty seats (which the Montreal improvisers I met in the lobby afterwards called the “Zoofest effect”), there was definitely a core group of young improv nerds with this-is-so-effing-cool looks on their faces that indicated that they knew the importance of these shows, even if the majority of Montreal didn’t.

So what is Asssscat? I’ll hand it over to Wikipedia:

“A guest monologist, often a celebrity, gets a suggestion and tells a true story inspired by it. Then the improvisers create scenes inspired by the monologue. If the improvisers feel they want another monologue, they call the monologist back onto the stage. There’s two halves of about 25 minutes each. Each half has only one, maybe two, or (rarely) three monologues, through the structure only requires one. It’s based on the Armando.”

The three welcomed Horatio Sanz, Lennon Parham, Chad Carter, and Andy Daly to the stage, with Chris Gethard as the monologist. I would have much rather seen Gethard in the regular cast, and some effort made to get a non-UCB person in the monologist role. The city is teeming with comedy stars right now, so to not see that opportunity taken was a bit disappointing.

From the audience suggestion of “radish”, Gethard offered up a few different stories about food, leading to first beats about a talkative customer at a restaurant, and ice cream parlour owners deciding to be mean to customers.

His second set of stories about being pursued online by gay guys, and being enticed to a girl’s bedroom on the pretense of watching a movie inspired innuendo-heavy scenes, and brought back the talkative-restaurant-customer game in a scene with Parham and Sanz on a blind date.

Gethard’s third story was about meeting Morrissey, and how his blog entry about it went viral (I’ll admit to having shared the link on my Facebook myself). The comments about him and his appearance were brutal, and this inspired a final batch of scenes mainly about people commenting on each other’s appearances.

It seemed shorter than a typical Asssscat in New York (the show has run every Sunday night for over a decade), but nobody can really complain. Whether 100% of them knew it or not, this was the best improv that audience may ever see in Montreal.

Following this was North America’s Best Comic, a show out of UCBT-LA. The sparse audience (sparser after the 4 walkouts in the first 10 minutes) was witness to a stream of standup characters competing for the title including Walsh as a bitter comic screwed by the industry who turned into a Christian comic, Besser as a blind and deaf guy with no arms, Parham as a washed-up divorcee, and Daly as a high-energy comic who only spews out vague references.

Roberts, Daly, and Besser served as the panel of judges, with Roberts doing all too good a job as a, uh, “slow” gentleman named Leonard who was plucked from the audience to represent us on the panel.

While I loved absolutely everyone involved as individuals, the standup part of me didn’t fall in love with this show. I do get that this is an exercise in character work (and it’s character work done well). And I do get that this is a parody of what became an awful, awful tv show. But there’s an ongoing perception among standups that improvisers don’t respect the art (and vice versa). Maybe it’s because I identify myself as a standup person slightly more than an improv person, but I felt like the performers didn’t have the perspective to warrant winking at the audience, which I think is necessary. The same would be true if a bunch of standups got on stage and acted like clichéd bad improvisers. You would suspect that deep down, they kinda meant it.

Was it bad? No, certainly not. Did it warrant a primetime slot on Friday night? I would have rather seen Parham and Gethard have another chance to do their one-person shows, or a lengthier Asssscat in its place. It’s definitely more of a show for that late-night-at-DCM mood.