Oh, hello! It’s our 10th episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak”! Nicole Drespel (Bucky), John Flynn (Oh, Hey Guys!), & Phil Jackson (Cardigan Does Brunch) join Abra to create a world where two breasts won’t get you a Bud Light, but a clavicle will, child birth is fueled by Red Bull and peanut M&Ms, and weiners get stage fright.
Oh, hello! In this week’s episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak” Fran Gillespie (The Law Firm), Kevin Hines (The Curfew), and Ryan Karels (Grandma’s Ashes) join Abra in creating a world where Keanu Reeves Makes-A-Wish to surf, sea urchins need adopting, and the key to health is a Viactiv and a hard roll.
Will Harris over at The A.V. Club has a great interview with actress Jami Gertz today. Gertz was one of the stars of Anne Beatts's short-lived, much-loved sitcom Square Pegs, which Beatts's SNL buddy Bill Murray guested on once. In the interview, Gertz reveals that Murray was trying to put together an improvised movie circa 1983/1984 and had recruited her to be part of the cast:
"I did some improv with [Bill Murray] back in Chicago, with Del Close. He really introduced me into the improv world and what improv is all about. In fact, there was a small time there where we were… well, he was trying to get a movie [...]
The following was posted to Billy Merritt's Improv Dance Party Tumblr. It's reprinted here (with illustrations by David Kantrowitz added) with permission.
I’ve been teaching some form of improvisation for 18 years now, and I will keep on teaching as long as I can. I love it, I will not apologize. There was a time that I was worried about the phrase “Those that can’t do, teach” — was that me? Am I condemned to teaching while watching others succeed around me?
Yes and No.
Others will succeed whether I teach or not. I seem to be getting a steady stream of work outside of improv (VO’s, TV, and Model [...]
Somewhere in the middle of an episode of Louie, one of television’s most critically acclaimed comedies, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. As Louis C.K. confessed his love to his very uninterested platonic friend Pamela, I found myself re-experiencing all the pain and rejection that came from my own dramatic failed attempt to win the girl I'd been infatuated with for over six years. This was the first time I'd cried since my cat Milhouse was put to sleep years ago. I honestly would have never thought an episode of a show like Louie could garner such a reaction from me, but the more I thought about it, the [...]
I had to take a Xanax to write this article. My anxiety makes it hard to start; my depression and self-doubt make it hard to come to any conclusion. And so, in classic neurotic fashion, I begin with skepticism:
“Are you SERIOUS?" Marc Maron asked me, presumably rhetorically, upon hearing my reason for calling him. I don’t think he was trying to be mean. It seemed like genuine disbelief.
I told him that I was. That I believed — in the face of countless evidence to the contrary — that mental illness was an obstacle to good comedy and not a tool for its deployment. That there exists a [...]
Interviews by Matt Visconage.
Improv was doomed with a semantics crisis from the start.
When long-form improvisation began to flourish as its own art form under comedy guru Del Close in Chicago in the 1980s, “improv” referred to The Improv, a popular chain of stand-up comedy clubs in dozens of cities around the country. The Palm Beach Improv, for example.
When I used to intern at an improv theater in Hollywood, it wasn’t uncommon to find a couple who wandered in from the street, expecting to see a guy with a microphone, telling jokes. Television shows like Whose Line Is It, Anyway? helped audiences distinguish improv from stand-up, [...]
Oh, hello! In this week’s episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak” improv wonders Will Hines (The Stepfathers), Morgan Grace Jarrett (Grandma’s Ashes), and Michael Kayne (Diamond Lion) join Abra to create a world where nipple clamps find danger, kids be munching on tiles, and movie theaters are for dump offs.
Oh, hello! In this episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak,” improv gems from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC Matt Fisher (The Law Firm), Connor Ratliff (I'm Too Fragile For This), and Tracey Wigfield (30 Rock) join Abra in getting comfy and creating a world where Goofy runs a meth lab, Lane Bryant has a gang, and the Family Circus finds a home in a butthole.
These days, it’s safe to say every college in the country has an improv group. Most of them perform “short-form” games, but several have also adopted the “long-form” style best known in cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. While many of these groups are located in those regions, or have Ivy League pedigrees, a good number have miraculously sprung up in the country’s unlikeliest of corners, from the swamps of Florida to a few miles from the Canadian border in Washington state.
Despite their regional differences, it’s interesting how similar many of these groups are. Most have around 9-12 members. All of them are extremely popular on [...]
In this week’s episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak” Elaine Carroll (Very Mary Kate), Nate Dern (Friday Night Hot Chicks Mic), and Tim Martin (Airwolf) join Abra to create a world where Gilbert Gottfried and Sean Connery have a web series, Meryl Streep comes in from the cold, and a town’s love must be measured.
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Oh, hello! In this episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak" Chelsea Clarke (The Curfew), Josh Patten (Saturday Night Live, Grandma’s Ashes), and Gavin Speiller (Death By Roo Roo) join Abra to create a world where mushroom heads perish, America's coins are threatened, and Hugh Grant has to kill, but loves sweets.
Oh, hello! In this week’s episode of “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak" Aaron Jackson (Salmon Diane), Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), and Jim Santangeli (The Curfew) join Abra in creating a world where Colonial Williamsburg is the new Hollywood, VHS nests protect babies, and ham hocks make your pee pee smoky.
Oh, hello! Welcome to “Make Yourself Comfy with Abra Tabak.” Every week, Abra will invite three comedian friends to improvise unscripted scenes all made up on the spot. In this premiere episode, improv extraordinaires from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC, Neil Casey (brand new SNL writer), Brian Faas, and Shannon O’Neill, join Abra in getting comfy and creating a world in which airplanes have an upstairs, babies question their identities, and nothing is more burny than a shot of Grand Marnier.
