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Posts tagged as ian roberts

From the Archives

Looking Back at the Upright Citizen's Brigade TV Show with the UCB4

by | February 22nd, 2013

The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)

The Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater has been talked about quite a bit this month, with escalating Facebook messages, responses from people working in every [...]

UCB

Grand Opening Of UCB's Second NY Location Is (You Got It) Improvised

by | October 31st, 2011

This weekend saw the grand opening of the UCB's second location in New York, after two long years of securing licenses, tearing down walls, and proving that it's not a sex club. Those New Yorkers, always so worried about a little sex club here or there! UCB co-founders Matt Besser and Ian Roberts couldn't get to the big opening because of that darned snowstorm, but ultimately there was a show (featuring Fugazi's Ian MacKaye) that Amy Poehler called "the perfect combination of funny and weird and sloppy." Ah, improvisers, always rolling with the punches. Welcome, UCBeast!

Promos

Conan's Slew of New Promos

by | October 7th, 2010

The marketing machine is in full effect over at TBS, what with the debut of Conan a mere month away. In the last two days, they've posted a full 10 new promos to the Team Coco YouTube channel. Half of them are Conan doing various silly things in front of a blue background, while the other half feature Conan riding in his new blimp with blimp pilot Ian Roberts. One of those is above, the rest are over at the aforementioned channel.

Podcasts

Listen to Matt Besser and Ian Roberts Explain the History, Philosophy, and Economics of UCB

by | January 30th, 2013

UCB Theatre founders Matt Besser and Ian Roberts did a special episode of Besser's Earwolf podcast improv4humans today, in which they walk listeners through the theater's philosophy and economics. In response to the recent internet hubbub over the theater's practice of not paying stand-ups, Besser and Roberts use the episode as a forum to explain that they use all the money generated by the theater's popular weekend shows to keep the place running during its less-popular free or cheap weekday shows. Check it out here.

Looking Back

A Love Letter To UCB's 15 Years In New York

by | September 26th, 2011

To honor the UCB's 15 years in NYC and the opening of UCBeast, New York Mag checked in with about 50 alumni of the many-headed comedy hydra, who discuss everything from the troupe's guerilla improv days in Chicago (Horatio Sanz: "My idea was, 'How awesome would it be to be arrested in front of this audience, and have them thinking, Did they plan this? How did they get that cop car? What’s going on?'”) to the process of bringing long-form to NYC (Rob Corddry: "In 90 minutes, they changed how I felt and thought about comedy. It was punk rock — super dirty and loose.") Says Amy Poehler, [...]

buddy comedies

Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart Join Forces for 'Get Hard'

by | December 10th, 2012

Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart are attached to star together in Get Hard, a new comedy movie that Warner Brothers is in talks to acquire, Deadline reports. In the movie, Ferrell will play a bank manager being sent to maximum security prison for a crime he didn't commit, and Hart will be the street-smart guy he hires to toughen him up in his last 30 days of freedom before being put behind bars. The Upright Citizens Brigade's Ian Roberts and writing partner Jay Martel, who are the showrunners and executive producers on Comedy Central's Key & Peele, wrote the script. Will Ferrell's company Gary Sanchez will produce. The [...]

Where Are They Now

Checking In With the Cast of Upright Citizens Brigade

by | June 17th, 2011

Whatever happened to predictability, the milkman, the paperboy, evening TV…and the cast and creators of Upright Citizens Brigade?

The list of hilarious and groundbreaking comedians who have trained at Upright Citizens Brigade is staggering. There are actors and actresses from The Office, Parks and Recreation, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Party Down — and that’s just a small portion of the TV shows represented. The film list is just as long and equally as impressive.

And it’s all thanks to Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh, who together formed the UCB Theatre, first in New York then Los [...]

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