from the Back of the Room

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.

Make no mistake: sitting in the UCB Theatre for 7.5 hours straight on the Saturday night of the Del Close Marathon is a physical effort, especially for someone who normally has to be talked into leaving her apartment on a Saturday night. How those people who stayed through the entire Marathon did it, I have no idea.

I was drenched in sweat almost immediately. I drank 2 bottles of fruit smoothies and lots of water, and was still horribly dehydrated by the end of it. Holding a 2-pound weight infront of my face the entire time didn’t help the comfort level. At 30, I certainly felt I was at the older end of the late-night audience spectrum, I imagine because most people older than me have died in similar conditions at past Marathons, their corpses hidden behind the drywall (which would explain the smell).

One of my highlights Saturday night was seeing Improvised Shakespeare for the first time. I’d been meaning to for ages, and it never seemed to work out for me. Their following is totally justified.

Ian Roberts didn’t disappoint with Lazy Man. The hour flew by. The highlight was him reluctantly telling a story that had been an in-joke between he and his brother since they were kids, about Ian getting away with swearing during a family road trip, and his brother trying failing to get him in trouble. The story was told reluctantly because Mr. and Mrs. Roberts were sitting just feet away from their son, and Ian worried that the story won’t be special anymore now that they know about it. It was an oddly personal moment, something I didn’t expect to see during the Saturday night of DCM.

I was pleased to see Ed Helms perform in what would be his only show of Marathon, Seth & Ed’s Puppet Talk Show. Having left their “puppet theatre” back in LA, Helms and Seth Morris came out on stage with what appeared to be paper tablecloths covering their heads. Damn them, thought I with the camera. At this point, it would have been about 95 degrees in the theatre, plus the lights shining on them, so it only took about a minute before Helms commented on the heat and the fact that the makeshift human backdrops may have been a bad idea. I’d often wanted to yell “take it off!” at Helms, so I gave into that impulse and they subsequently removed their little paper barriers. Gentlemen, my camera thanks you.

Their celebrity guest, Sarah Silverman, also returned to the stage for the Benson Interruption (along with Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer). I sure have been getting my fill of Sarah lately, between this and Toronto in July! I definitely am not complaining. She was hilarious and interesting and WOW is that girl photogenic. The Comic’s Comic has video of her appearance with Seth & Ed, which is worth the watch.

After Doug Benson & friends, the true late-night insanity started. Smartest Panel of Experts (hilarious), Cracked Out (was NOT expecting this to turn into a bad rave!), Psychic Improv (strange change of pace), and then the coup de grasse…

In prior years, I had not stayed late enough for Match Game ‘76. It’s been described to me as “epic”, and I missed out on last year’s Brooke Shields appearance and subsequent bullshit retelling of it in the NY Daily News. I was determined and committed to seeing it this year, and I suppose it was worth sticking around about an hour past my “fed up” point.

I was in the absolute wrong place for viewing much of the Match Game insanity, but it was crazy and enjoyable and fun to catch glimpses of Jack McBrayer getting shit upon. But it’s definitely a frat-boy thing. Yes, let’s smash a watermelon on the stage… not caring that the girls sitting on the stage infront of you may have a differing opinion on how much fun that is. (Having photographed a lot of variety/sketch shows, this a bit of a sore point for me, as I’ve actually had asshole performers purposely try to get prop food/beverage on my camera gear. So this whole disregard-for-comfort-and-property thing gets me kinda pissy.)

I must admit I don’t remember half of what I witnessed during Match Game ‘76 — I couldn’t even properly answer my friend who asked me who all was in it — so I pray video surfaces at some point. Though I’m sure many of the performs pray that it doesn’t.

It was 2:30 am. I had made it as far as I had promised myself I would. After a run backstage to chug a Miller Lite (I was that desperate for liquids) I went back to the hotel and showered with my clothes on, as they had been rendered too disgusting to even contaminate my luggage with. And it was off to sleep and get ready to do it again the following afternoon.

1 photo from each show included after the jump.

View more photos

To tide you all over while I continue editing my Del Close Marathon photos (why does Lightroom arbitrarily stop creating XMP files halfway through a batch?!?!), take a listen to this fantastic interview with Stephen Colbert on the Sirius radio show Stand Up with Pete Dominick. Pete is the warm-up guy for the Colbert Report, and I always enjoy his crowd work when I go to tapings (I also saw him work a very tired, fed up, and very distracted crowd at a Last Comic Standing taping, and successfully holding onto that group was quite an impressive feat).

Colbert has often talked about the improv-inspired “yes and” theory of life, most famously in his speech at Knox College. It turns out, it’s the same agreement instinct that made him accept the offer to do the show in Iraq for a week (“an improvisor would say yes”).

Right-click and save-as

OR

Listen on Pete’s website

This is the second time he’s appeared on Pete’s radio show, and easily the better of the two (he kept slipping into character the first time around). He hasn’t done a lengthy interview since returning, and you really get a sense of what an impact performing for the troops had on him personally.

So enjoy this, while I spend another evening cursing out Adobe.

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

It’s your dream gig, the one you’ve worked your whole career for. You know your voice, you have your bits that work, and nobody in the audience has heard your jokes before. It all seems perfect, until they tell you you’re going on right after the guy who just committed suicide.

This is the challenge Fred Kennedy faces as he turns on his mic at Toronto’s 102.1 The Edge, and tries to figure out how to be funny for an audience still pointing fingers after the loss of a radio icon.

“Fearless” Fred Kennedy has had the standard climb up the radio ladder. A brief stint in broadcasting school. Fired from gigs in such glamourous locales as Port Hawkesbury, NS. Being told by his boss in Dryden, ON on his first day that he would never succeed as an announcer. Pushing buttons on the overnight shift at Winnipeg’s Power 97 while earning moments of morning show airtime for executing stunts like slapping the Premier in the face with a flyswatter, drinking over 20 Slurpees in four hours, and urinating in his sweatpants while auditioning for Canadian Idol.

“I did a lot of really high brow stuff,” he says.

He bounced from there to his hometown of Lloydminster, AB and back to Power 97 again, which is where I met him in 2004 (he’d show up to do prep for his evening shift downstairs, while I was trying to finish up client proposals before the end of the day upstairs). My first impression was that he must be some sort of burnout, but he quickly proved to be the kind of guy who’d give you the shirt off his back (or in our case, give you the car off his driveway and let you cover it in expandable foam for a dumb promotion). He had the gig at such a young age for good reason. He was natural, silly, outspoken and knew how to latch onto a concept and run with it.

“I just talk to people about what’s going on in my mediocre life,” he explains. “For instance one time my wife and I got into an argument about who had a better mustache, Burton Cummings or Hal Johnson from the Participaction commercials of the early nineties. That afternoon I just opened up the phones and talked about who had the greatest mustache in history.”

He developed a strong enough fanbase in Winnipeg to warrant a move to Edmonton. Then, the really big guys came knocking: The Edge 102.1 in Toronto, one of the most coveted gigs in the country.

“I won the Steve Young Broadcaster of the Year award this year. While I was in Toronto the program director took me out for lunch and just talked to me very casually about the idea of coming to Toronto. I’d always wanted to work here, ever since I rolled into town for the Rage Against the Machine concert and heard The Edge playing Ocean Size by Jane’s Addiction,” he explains.

Well aware that talk is cheap in this business, he didn’t take anything for granted until the deal was done. Kennedy learned he was in, two days before 20-year Edge veteran Martin Streek learned he was out. Such is the nature of radio.

But not long after his career at the Edge came to an end, Streek chose to also end his life. Fred found out through a phone call from his new boss.

“He told me that they were still looking forward to my arrival in Toronto and not to blame myself,” he says. “Later that night Bookie called me, and reassured me that I shouldn’t be panicking. It was the best possible phone call I could have gotten at that point. I was having a Lady MacBeth freak out. He really calmed me down and explained the behind the scenes stuff. I will never forget that phone call and will always be grateful for it. Bookie is one of the most decent human beings ever.”

His bosses may have his back, but the same can’t be said for devoted Edge listeners who considered Streek a major part of their lives.

“I knew he had been around forever and had a very devout fan following, and for good reason. He was one of those music guys that hardcore fans always gush for. I think the sad part is that he was such a pillar in the station,” he says.

Fred Kennedy is not Martin Streek – nor will he try to be – a fact that’s a sore point among Toronto radio devotees who view him as the poster boy for the literal and figurative death of quality radio.

“There’s some radio site called Toronto Mike or Mike in Toronto or something. It’s a prototypical website that’s full of people who’ve either been fired or are just starting out and are already jaded. Basically no matter what happens in the radio business they’re the people who will always say it’s for the worst. Joe Blow gets fired and it’s the worst thing that has ever happened in radio EVER! Even though when he was on air the week before they trashed him without remorse. All that typical nonsense.”

Still, these are his new listeners, and he will have to deal with them. This isn’t the scariest situation he’s been in (he once was threatened with a shotgun for stating his support of gay marriage in Alberta, and points out that “if I can deal with that, I don’t think I need to be concerned with the radio savants of the interweb”). But it’s a unique challenge on top of the already-unique challenge of starting a new high-profile gig.

So what will happen in that first day, week, month? Is “Fearless” Fred at all afraid of more venom?

“I know there’s gonna be backlash, but it’s nothing new. Dean Blundell told me how bad he got it when he took over for Humble and Fred, but look at him now. He’s doing great and even though he still has his detractors his ratings speak volumes about how few they are,” he says.

“I’ll just open the phone lines and let things happen and talk to people” he says. “If someone wants to call in and be a dick I can always just hang up on them. But even in those cases I like to give people a chance to vent, sometimes they realize you’re really not the Antichrist they take you for and you turn a hater into a listener.”

There is is still the possibility that regardless of how he introduces himself to Streek’s audience, it won’t be good enough for some people.

“It’s frustrating because no matter what I say about Martin I will always be associated with his death. Even though he never met me, and I never met him.”

But at the end of the day?

“Let these people run their mouths. I work at the fucking Edge,” he says, “the best rock station in the country.”

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, Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre NYC Artistic Director – and the man behind the DCM schedule – Anthony King.

Tell us about the selection process for groups submitting for the first time. How much competition is there, what do you look for in on a tape, and does being from out of town help significantly?

There is incredible competition for DCM shows. We got over 1000 submissions and could only admit just over 300. We do try to include as many groups as we can from all over the country – and the world (there’s a group from Finland this year!). When I watch tapes, I’m looking for, well, good improv. I also try to get recommendations from improv teachers and theatre directors I know in major improv cities that send lots of submissions (LA, Chicago, etc.). That’s incredibly helpful. We also try to include as many people as possible in the marathon, so two- and three-person groups have a tougher time getting accepted if they’re not mind-blowingly awesome.

Dealing almost exclusively with UCB-trained improvisors throughout the rest of the year, do the styles of non-UCB groups really jump out at you? Can you tell right away who has been UCB trained and who hasn’t?

I don’t know that I can tell if a group has been UCB-trained or not. I can usually tell if a group is good or not. All the improv theatres are doing, basically, the same thing – we just approach it a little differently. So I find that the good improv from almost every city and theatre looks very, very similar. It’s the bad improv that is radically different – and bad for different reasons. But most of the submissions I get are good. We just don’t have room for everything.

Ok, so spill it: why no Wicked Fuckin’ Queeyah this year? (and while we’re at it, why no Daily Show / Colbert Report Jam?)

No one submitted Wicked Fuckin’ Queeyah! Those knuckleheads were too busy punching pregnant women and throwing full cans of beer at Jeter. There’s no Daily Show/Colbert show this year because a lot of the regulars from that show are now busy in LA being famous. So we replaced it with the 30 Rock Jam. They’re also busy being famous – but they’re doing it in NYC.

The dates for Marathon have moved around the last few years, evolving from mid-July to now mid-August. Why the change, and what can we expect for next year?

We’re always looking for the sweet spot in between other festivals and conflicts. The end of July is the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal where the UCB Theatre had a stage this year. I’m not sure when the DCM will be next year. We may experiment with the beginning of July or we may leave it in August. We try to announce the date in late spring so people have lots of time to make plans.

With the second UCBT location opening in the East Village in November, has thought been given to whether it will be used as a DCM venue? Is there a chance this will be the last year people can venue-hop without a Metrocard?

I hope we’ll be able to open in November! We don’t have an official opening date yet since we’re still jumping through all the legal hoops you have to deal with in New York City. So until that becomes official, I honestly haven’t given much thought to the role that space will play in the marathon. We might just open the pipes and turn it into a turkish bath.