CHOO onthis

I loveeee me some comedy! I like laughing, hearing people laugh. It makes me happy. I do what I can to keep myself light and fresh by watching the best comedies (Thursday night NBC lineup) on TV, sketch, stand-up, improv. ALLADAT.

Luckily, up the street and a few avenues over from me is Upright Citizens Brigade. UCB started as a comedy group in Chicago. Anyone notable on TV have their roots at UCB - Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, well, basically the entire cast of SNL, Donald Glover and basically the entire cast of Community, and many others. Last night, my roomie Serena and I went to UCB for ASSSSCAT 3000, UCB’s completely improvised show.

The show format is as follows: Guest monologist takes suggestions from the audience and will tell a true story inspired by that suggestion. The rest of the improv team builds scenes based on that story. The entire show was amazingly hilarious and it helps when you have some unique audience members contributing to the show as well - a Geology major turned dominatrix etc etc. A few special guests always participate so having Horatio Sanz and Gabe (Zach Woods) from The Office there was a nice surprise.

Tips if you want to check it out:

1. Take me. Seriously. I will always be down. Also because…(please refer to tip #4.)
2. If you’re lazy and don’t want to wait…7:30 shows are $10 - Reservations and tickets can be bought online but they are released only a couple weeks in advance and sell out quickly.
3. 9:30 shows are FREE. You can go to UCB at 8:15 to pick up your free ticket and return when the show starts or you can do what we did and stand in the standby line. As long as you’re not around the corner of Gristedes, you’ll most likely make it in.
4. Go with a good story. Every show, the emcees will ask if anyone has something interesting to say. If your story is good, you’re adding to the experience and how cool would it be to be made fun of! I didn’t have anything to contribute this time but next time, maybe after a few PBRs, I’ll get the courage to entertain.