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!
Del's likeness presides over Walsh (middle) and his UCB mates during last year's Press Conference. Photo by Sharilyn Johnson
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”.
Bad news, marathoners: Rob Riggle has confirmed that he is pulling out of this year’s Del Close Marathon.
From Twitter:
@RobRiggle I will not be @ the Del Close Marathon this year, so bummed out! Only missed two before; both because of war. Now, filming a movie. ROWYCO!
"May I be excused from Marathon? I have a note from my agent." Riggle performs in Satellites at DCM 2008. Photo by Sharilyn Johnson
Back in the spring, Riggle booked standup dates at Cobb’s in San Francisco — which disappeared from his calendar right after Marathon dates were confirmed for that same weekend. I assume that wasn’t a coincidence, and that Marathon remains a priority for him. You certainly can’t blame the guy for choosing a film career over a few improv shows.
No word yet on who will replace him in Delta Force or Mantziggle, but keep an eye on the schedule, as it should be updated soon.
BTW, that reference in Riggle’s tweet to “war” is because of his time serving in the Middle East while an active Marine. During all of his absences from Respecto, his teammates would hang his UMSC t-shirt on the back wall so he’d still have a presence. This year, one assumes they’ll nail a large sack of money to the wall.
Another absentee this year is Reuben Williams member Lennon Parham, who is also missing for positive reasons: her role in the new fall show Accidentally On Purpose, filming right now in LA. I spoke with her recently and she’s understandably pretty sad about missing DCM, so watch the show this fall so that her sacrifice isn’t in vain!
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: Austin,TX group – and first-time DCM performers – Northshore Local prepare for their trek to New York.
Who the heck are you guys?
We’re a love-monkey of improvisers representing Austin to it’s fullest with the freshest Austinite attitude and a love for the nerdy. We like trains and beaches, and when we grow up we would like to be robots that shoot lasers from our eyes and make a mean set of pancakes.
How long has Marathon been on your radar as a group? When did you initially decide to submit?
We formed in August of 2008 and when we were setting goals for ourselves early on, we wanted to be ready and comfortable as a troupe to perform at the Del Close Marathon. I guess you can say it has been one of our goals from the beginning, something to look forward to. We were waiting for DCM to take submissions, and we are very excited to take part this year, just one year from when we began as a troupe.
Have any members of Northshore Local attended DCM, or the UCB, before this?
This is our first time as a troupe to attend DCM, and for most of us, if not all, this will be out first time individually experiencing the Marathon.
What kind of DCM survival tips have you gotten?
The advice we’ve been given by members of the Austin Improv Community that have been before are centered on the logistics of the Marathon, and Mom-and-Dad type advice… “Don’t forget to get your wristband the first day…Do as much as you can in the short amount of time you’re given…Relax and have a good time!…This is your chance to see the troupes you’ve been wanting to see since you began your improv career!…Workshops! Workshops! Workshops!”
Who are you most excited to watch perform during the weekend?
Some of us are really excited to see Horatio Sanz & The Kings of Improv, Baby Wants Candy, UCB, and of course we’d like to support all the other troupes from ColdTowne Theater and the Austin Improv Community by seeing their shows as well!
How do you expect this to be different from other improv festivals you’ve performed at?
This is our FIRST festival as a troupe! Some of us have been at other festivals as part of other troupes, but as a whole this will be out first. How exciting that our first festival is the DCM!
Northshore Local performs at the Del Close Marathon on Friday at 11:45pm, at Urban Stages.
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 house manager Chuck Dauble, who is taking care of anything and everything at DCM’s home base this weekend, efficiently answers those venue-specific questions.
How are the venue rules different for the 3 days? (ie. food, photos, etc)
I’ve only worked at UCB so I can’t answer the drink/food/photo question about the other locations. No food* or photos** at UCB.
On a scale of 1-10, how much does Gristedes hate DCM weekend? Any other neighbors require sucking up to?
Gristedes will love us as always. We will handle any crowds with the greatest respect for our neighbors. NO ONE will hate UCB Theatre.
Your opinion: will this be the year an out of town performer jumps up and swings from a ceiling pipe, breaks it, and floods the theatre?
Matt Walsh is the only out of town performer I can think of who swings from pipes, so probably him. Maybe Joe Wengert.
Who is updating the new UCB Tech Booth Twitter page?
Don’t like, or have Twitter… But I just found out on Justin Purnell’s Twitter page that the tech booth has a Twitter page. Cool! [ed: it remains a mystery!]
What’s the biggest logistical challenge you face for Marathon?
Biggest logistical problem is how to shove all this fun into 3 days! Yeah! Sorry Del.
[Ed. note:
*Wha?! Upon further investigation, while "no food" is technically the rule at UCBT even during Marathon, it's not really enforced. So don't panic and start carboloading just yet. Just take this as a reminder that bringing in a $50 order of Thai takeout from across the street will be frowned upon. Items from the McD's dollar menu, perhaps less so. For the sake of those sitting around you, try to keep your food items to the dry and non-smelly variety.
**Same thing. I've never seen anyone busted at Marathon, but use common sense. Keep the flash off, don't take video, and you'll probably be okay.]
While we’re on the subject of maneuvering through Marathon weekend…
There is no shortage of Del Close Marathon survival guides online: The Apiary and Improvoker have fantastic roundups of tips past and present. My rules are simple: get in line earlier than you think you’ll need to, drink lots of water, remember to eat, and if you aren’t absorbing what’s happening on stage that means it’s time to go home and sleep.
And make yourself a schedule to stick to! There still isn’t an iCal version of the schedule on the website like in previous years, but there’s nothing wrong with the good old paper-and-highlighter method. Be sure to check the website again before heading out each day, because occasionally things change (like Ed Helms not making it into town until Saturday last year, causing the Puppet Talk Show to get rescheduled).
As for staying connected? Afterwards, expect writeups here and on other blogs, and loads of photos on the DCM Flickr group. There’s a small crew of official photographers – including yours truly – who will be liberally snapping away at as many shows as we can get to, so for the greater good please be kind and let us maneuver around you. We’re not trying to take your spot, honest!
During the weekend, though, Twitter is key. Can you believe almost nobody was on Twitter at this time last year? I’ll be posting updates as much as I can (@sharilynj), using the agreed upon hashtag #dcm11 — which is already in heavy rotation! Volume of tweets through the weekend will depend partially on whether anyone can get a signal in the basement. Plus there’s the aforementioned Twitter account for the booth at the UCBT, which is @ucbtbooth
Also, for more instant photos, the DCM Tumblr is newly refreshed for this year and ready to feed your backstage photos. Take this opportunity to browse last year’s, and see how many people you spot who have since joined the cast of a network tv show.
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.
From L: Sanz, Roberts, Parham, Daly
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.”
From L: Besser, Campbell, Walsh, Provenza, Sanz, Roberts, Parham, Daly
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.
Matt Walsh, Andy Daly & Matt Besser (r, as the Pope). Photo by Sharilyn Johnson
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.
What the below photo illustrates – other than a dire need to upgrade my cellphone – is that Toronto has officially been hit with a Just For Laughs marketing blitz. Banners like these line the busiest downtown thoroughfares, bright green posters adorn the bus shelters, and it seems there’s no excuse for anyone not to realize that in just 3 weeks, Toronto will host the 3rd annual offshoot of the Montreal fest.
…Read more of Calendar Cleanup: Just For Laughs & Del Close Marathon
The #1 thing I miss about New York is the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre (and its $2 PBR). It’s an incredible place, churning out mind-blowing improv on a level that makes people like me wonder why we’re even bothering taking classes because we can never be that good.
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.
