The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy
group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original
incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts,
and Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin, whose
picture is the UCB logo. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando
Diaz, and Rich Fulcher. In 2013, Besser, Roberts and Walsh wrote
The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.
History The Upright Citizens Brigade began
performing improv and sketch comedy at Kill the Poet in Chicago. Their first
show was called Virtual Reality. The group followed with shows entitled
UCBTV, Conference on the Future of Happiness, Thunderball, Bucket of Truth,
Big Dirty Hands, The Real Real World, and Punch Your Friend in the Face.
In 1993, the Upright Citizens Brigade were regular guests on stage at the New
Variety produced and hosted by R O'Donnell at the Chicago Improv comedy
club, 504 N. Wells. In 1996, the Upright Citizens Brigade
relocated to New York and began performing shows and offering improv
training at Solo Arts Group. These shows and classes were so popular that the UCB
were able to open their own theater, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, at 161
W. 22nd Street in Chelsea on February 4, 1999, in a former nude dance club. On
April 1, 2003, they moved to a new space at 307 W. 26th Street. In July 2005, the
UCB opened at the Tamarind Theatre in Los Angeles at 5919 Franklin Ave. The
Upright Citizens Brigade have also been a featured performance in the Comedy
Tent at the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee,
for the past three years. Television series
The group formed a television series dedicated to their sketch comedy on
Comedy Central that aired for three seasons from 1998 to 2000. Each season
contained 10 episodes, which included sketches inspired by their live shows
and new material. Each episode was centered around a theme, to be tied
together in some way by the end. The progression of each episode essentially
followed an improv format known as the Harold, which was invented by Del Close,
improv teacher and mentor to the UCB. Additionally, episodes in each season
would make reference to a fictitious element within the show's world and
would culminate in a season finale that would focus exclusively on this element.
The show avoided overused staples of sketch shows, and rarely used pop
culture parodies or celebrity impersonations.
The four main actors rarely appeared as themselves. They each took various roles
throughout the sketches, which were linked by segments featuring Adair,
Colby, Antoine, and Trotter, the Upright Citizens Brigade.
The show centered on a group called 'The Upright Citizens Brigade', an
underground organization "with no government ties and unlimited resources"
dedicated to creating and monitoring chaos from their secure underground
base. The sketches depict chaotic or bizarre events in the world, events
which are shown to be often directly engineered by the UCB.
Another defining feature of the show was a series of real-world pranks, which
tied in with the show's theme. Usually run at the end of each episode, these
hidden-camera pranks featured the cast interacting with strangers. These
segments featured such concepts as attempts by UCB cast to buy the
fictitious drug "supercool" from real drug dealers in shady dance clubs, a UCB
mother trying to convince a real store clerk to let her put up flyers
advertising "baby fights," Roberts dressed as Santa Claus standing outside
a department store offering free samples of his "Santa Liqueur", and the UCB at a
sidewalk stand attempting to sell "poo-sticks" as defensive weapons to
passersby. In the Season 2 finale, the DEA invaded
the UCB lair as part of a raid to find a Supercool smuggling ring. As a result,
in the third and final season, the UCB had set up operation in a bakery
delivery truck. The UCB characters also had less of a presence in the episodes,
appearing frequently in cut scenes. The show was not renewed by Comedy
Central after the third season. Its players have since moved on to other
projects while still performing in various combinations at their weekly
improvised show, ASSSSCAT, which can be seen once on Saturday and Sunday nights
in Los Angeles, and twice on Sunday nights in New York. In Los Angeles, the
Sunday night show is free, as is the second show in New York. One of the
show's running jokes involves cast members explaining that "it's free to
get in, but you have to pay to leave." A version of the show's Bucket of Truth is
passed around and donations are taken. Both Poehler and Sanz went on to perform
on Saturday Night Live. Comedy Central released a DVD containing the episodes
of the first season in 2003. The Season 2 DVD was released on September 18, 2007
in the United States. In the fall of 2005, Bravo showed a one-hour special of
ASSSSCAT Improv with guest stars like Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Andy
Richter. Then in March 2007, a performance of ASSSSCAT was recorded at
the LA Theatre with all four original members and also Chad Carter, Sean
Conroy, Andrew Daly, Horatio Sanz, as well as guest monologists Will Arnett,
Ed Helms, Jen Kirkman, Thomas Lennon, Paul F. Tompkins and Kate Walsh. This
was released on DVD in March 2008 and features the full ASSSSCAT show and some
bonus clips and interviews. The show's motto was "Don't think."
The show opened with this narration, voiced by improv legend and UCB guru Del
Close: "From the dawn of civilization, they have existed in order to undermine
it. Our only enemy is the status quo. Our only friend is chaos. They have no
government ties and unlimited resources. If something goes wrong, we are the
cause. Every corner of the earth is under their surveillance. If you do it,
we see it. Always. We believe the powerful should be made less powerful.
We have heard the voice of society, begging us to destabilize it. Antoine.
Colby. Trotter. Adair. We are the Upright Citizens Brigade."
= Episodes= Season 1
Season 2 Note: Season 2 was released on DVD
September 18, 2007. Season 3
Note: Season 3 was released on DVD June 26, 2014.
See also The Second City
The Groundlings ImprovOlympic
Under the Gun Theater References
= Further reading= Raftery, Brian. High-Status Characters:
How The Upright Citizens Brigade Stormed A City, Started A Scene, And Changed
Comedy Forever. Brooklyn: Megawatt Press.
External links Official website
Upright Citizens Brigade at the Internet Movie Database
Upright Citizens Brigade at TV.com Audio Interview with Matt Besser on The
Sound of Young America: MP3 Link Video interview with Michael Delaney
Review of 2nd season DVD The Onion A.V. Club interview from 1998