When you’re surrounded by several hundred sweat-drenched people on a New York City sidewalk for hours at a time, you don’t expect to see so many smiles. Unless, apparently, the crowd’s waiting to catch a taping of celebrity quiz show Match Game ‘76, or an X-rated pantomime performed by chanting robots, or a brilliantly threaded 30 minutes of completely improvised comedy — or all three in the same hour. Last weekend, a small army of exuberant fans streamed into the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (and several nearby spaces) for all this and more, courtesy of the 14th annual Del Close Marathon, a sleepless weekend celebrating improv at [...]
Better start figuring out how to clone yourself because the 14th Annual Del Close Marathon Line-Up is a doozy. The non-stop 50+ hour improv festival, which begins on June 29th, is nearly two months earlier than it has been in previous years, as to not interfere with pilot casting and thus allow more LA performers to participate. Some notable shows include: "30 Rock Writers", which pairs actual 30 Rock writers with the actors who play TGS writers – a nearly three-hour taping of Matt Besser's podcast, improv4humans – "Hot Sauce", featuring Ben Schwartz, Adam Pally, and Gil Ozeri – and like 12 zillion more shows. Seriously, just go through [...]
“Hey. Remember DCM? (I don’t. Please fill me in.)”
Four days after I get home from the Upright Citizen Brigade Theatre’s 13th annual Del Close Marathon, this message pops up on my Facebook wall. I laugh for a second, trying to think of a stupid joke before realizing that — holy shit — I kind of can’t. Remember DCM, that is.
Towards the end, 50 straight hours of non-stop comedy on three stages (four, counting nightly featured shows) begin to blend together. Plus, the weekend-long festival is overcast by a frantic feeling of wanting to see everything (especially since this is likely your only annual chance to [...]
