Splitsider

Do you like improv and podcasts? Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to. Do you loooooove improv and podcasts? Then this is fantastic news! UCB founder Matt Besser launched a new podcast on Earwolf today called improv4humans, and it consists of longform improv based on a one-word suggestion from Besser's Twitter followers. This must be what improv was like back in the golden days of radio, when people just listened to the scenes without the visual experience of watching guys in plaid and glasses cut imaginary vegetables. Back when the whole family would gather around the radio to hear FDR give his famous Fireside Monologues to generate [...]

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, [...]

The Earwolf Challenge, the weekly contest to crown one amateur podcast as the Earwolf network's newest show, is barreling towards it dramatic conclusion with only three podcasts left in the running following today's installment. The Challenge began the week with Totally Laime, Left Handed Radio, Little Dum Dum Club, and Bob and Dan Cast as its four remaining shows, but one was eliminated after giving what the judges deemed this round's weakest performance.

Host Matt Besser has been toying with his approach these past few shows, injecting more energy into his opening salutations and addressing web commenters' who've been bitching and moaning about how the show operates. The Earwolf.com [...]

What happens to the victims in Human Centipede after they're separated from each other? They've got a lot of interpersonal issues to deal with. Here's a new video from Jon Daly featuring Rob Heubel, Steve Agee and Matt Besser that explores just that. As one would expect from a video about Human Centipede, it is gross.

Here's another sketch from Matt Besser's Comedy Central pilot This Show Will Get You High. It stars the hilarious Brett Gelman, who was voted as one of comedy's favorite comedians in our poll last month.

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!

It's a big week for the Earwolf podcasting network for two reasons: 1) Earwolf's partnership with Funny or Die just kicked off on Monday, and 2) After two months of intense competition, it's time to crown the winner of the first-ever Earwolf Challenge. In the contest that aims to be the American Idol of comedy podcasting, 10 amateur programs entered for a chance to become Earwolf's newest show. The winning podcast will appear amongst the other shows on Earwolf's official website (and on Funny or Die) for one year, providing a major boost in listeners from what's become the leading network in comedy podcasting.

We’ve been getting a lot of emails this morning about a particular audience monologist that performed at the Assssscat at the Del Close Marathon on Sunday, August 14. In case you don’t know, the Del Close Marathon is the Upright Citizens Brigade’s annual improv fest in New York and Asssscat is the improv show that caps off the weekend. Last night, improviser Poupak Sepehri posted on her Tumblr about the show and in it linked to a video of the monologue, posted by improviser Stephanie Streisand. Having raised his hand and been chosen by the performers on stage to tell a story, the audience member in [...]

I've posted a few sketches from Matt Besser's This Show Will Get You High, but this is definitely the most insane one of the bunch. It starts off twisted and ends so much further than you expect it to. Amazing.

Original UCB member Matt Besser was tapped by Comedy Central to do a new sketch show pilot, and what he came up with was This Show Will Get You High. It wasn't picked up, unfortunately, but now Comedy Central is prepping to air the pilot a few times in the middle of the night. Luckily, the individual sketches are starting to pop up online so you don't need to wait until 4am to see them.

This sketch, written by Besser and Onion News Network writer Chris Kelly, makes me instinctively cross my legs.

It's pretty remarkable how many dance movies Hollywood has churned out over the years. What's even more remarkable, though, is how godawful terrible most of them are. (Did you enjoy Center Stage too? We were so young!). I guess what I'm saying is, anyone who grew up watching Save The Last Dance will spent the first 30 minutes of Matt Besser's Freak Dance cringing in recognition. Cringing and laughing. Craughing. But you'll have to do it quietly because the Freak Dance score is part Jesus Christ Superstar, part Rent, and every note is worth hearing.

In this week’s Earwolf Challenge, podcast network Earwolf’s weekly competition to select its newest show, host Matt Besser and the producers threw a little bit of a curveball at the three remaining contestants. While past week’s challenges have revolved around assignments like utilizing the guest and developing a strong theme song and intro, this week’s task, entitled “Time Crunch,” saw Besser and company deceiving the podcasters to see how they can handle a crisis. Dreamed up by Earwolf founder Scott Aukerman, this challenge called for Besser to tell the competitors they’ll have an hour to interview Zach Galifianakis, only to pull the rug out from under them by saying [...]

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 [...]

Here's another sketch from Matt Besser's This Show Will Get You High, this one starring Conan's Andy Richter. It's called Blow Globe, and it's about a globe that performs fellatio, naturally.