upright citizens brigade

Upright Citizens Brigade Is Officially Reopening in NYC (Gramercy Park) This Fall

June 29, 2023

It was only a few years ago when the fate of comedy juggernaut, The Upright Citizens Brigade, seemed vastly unsure. The COVID-19 Pandemic wreaked havoc throughout the comedy world, but it definitely forced UCB to reckon with how it extended itself and with its very own structure and integrity as a comedy institution/brand/school. In 2020, UCB was reduced to one physical venue, their original LA location in Franklin Village, then, subsequently, sold off as entire brand from the original UCB 4 to its current multi-party ownership.

By the end of the year, UCB will have two mainstay locations as they’ve officially locked in a lease at 242 E. 14th St., New York, New York. Yes, UCB NY will be a thing once more and brighter days are ahead (especially with UCB LA already having returning to their stacked 7-night-a-week programming and configuring a way to pay performers). That puts this new UCB in Gramercy Park, which is on a whole other side of Manhattan from Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, former UCB locations. The old spot of UCB East won’t be too far as will NYC comedy havens, The Stand (just four blocks away) and Club Cumming (9 blocks away).

UCB aims to have shows going by this Fall and, with that in mind, are already taking submissions for their house teams including Harold (improv), Maude (sketch), and Betty (characters). Deadlines/dates are as follows:

Harold:
deadline to submit: 8/16
auditions: 9/21-24
callbacks: 9/29-10/1

Maude & Betty:
deadline to submit: 7/26
auditions: 8/23-8/27
callbacks: 9/8-9/10

Get more details and submit at ucbcomedy.com/auditions.

Otherwise, look forward to Manhattan getting a little less clubby in a few months.

Pick of the Day: UCB Homecoming (in LA) 9/30 & 10/1

September 14, 2022

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Nearly everything in comedy that has survived from COVID-19 lockdown that has intended to return has indeed return with only a very tiny group of exceptions. In LA, the Ice House in Pasadena and the Upright Citizens Brigade have not opened their doors once more for nightly shows like they had in 2019, but, for UCB, that will be changing in the next couple of weeks.

From having to close most of their theater spaces and selling the entire brand to a new three party ownership, UCB is set for a ‘homecoming’ over two nights on Fri. Sept. 30th and Sat. Oct. 1st. that will feature their best improv, sketch, and characters including:

Elefante-A monologist from the world of entertainment tells personal stories which inspire scenes by a rotating cast of LA’s best improvisers. Elefante is the Upright Citizens Brigade’s staple improv comedy show.

An improv showcase of: The Big Team, Spanish Aqui Presents, Asian AF: Voltron, Queer World

Homecoming Parade-40 characters, 60 seconds in front of a crowd with hosts John Milhiser & Veronica Osorio Vidette.

It’ll be an intriguing return as UCB will return to an entirely transformed comedy scene as bit of the big dogs that they once were, but a bit of the new kids since many UCB alums have found their way to The Elysian or Largo over the last couple of years (and the internal reckoning they had in 2020), not to mention trying to discern what the new direction of UCB under its new ownership will be.

In any case, some of the very best improvisers and sketch folks in the scene will be going up on those two nights and it’ll be worth $20 of your bucks to head back to UCB Franklin, still hallowed comedy ground in LA as far as we’re concerned, and catch any three of these shows at least once, if not twice. Get tickets here.

UCB Sells Off Sunset Location, Plans to Keep UCB Franklin Going

December 24, 2020

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Just announced last night, The UCB4 (Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, and Ian Roberts) announced the closure and sale of the second LA based home of the Upright Citizens Brigade located near Thai Town on Sunset Blvd. The massive complex was bought and refurbished from an abandoned rehab center six years ago and represents a big step forward for UCB as a theater, institution, and company. There were three stories that housed a main stage, a training center, studios for film/video/podcast, cafe, lounge/second stage, and valet parking.

It was a big undertaking for UCB, but it was a bright, shiny, new home for one of the most recognizable brands for comedy in the country. The ever-enduring COVID-19 pandemic has forced a sale and subsequent closure of the theater since mortgage payments couldn’t be made with only so much revenue coming in from virtual classes (especially as it it’s still very murky as to when and how live venues will be allowed and have guidance to safely reopen).

Fortunately, UCB plans to keep their longstanding first location on Franklin Ave, the tiny black box theater that is just the main stage and nothing else, open as they also transition to a non-profit. If UCB Franklin does manage to reopen on the other side of COVID-19, it will be the Upright Citizens Brigade’s only physical location (down from 3 & 1/2 of them pre-pandemic).

While it had to go through its own shake-up and reckoning earlier this year to rid itself of toxic practices and institute true inclusion and diversity, UCB still represents a major pillar in comedy and we can only hope that it will keep getting to fulfill that role going into the future.

An update from the UCB4 pic.twitter.com/QN1lmjvHle

— UCB Theatre LA (@ucbtla) December 24, 2020

UCB Gets a Letter About Bringing BIPOC to the Table

June 16, 2020

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As you have seen, so many arts and media institutions are reevaluating and doing a top-to-bottom rebuilding of their organizations as to truly be inclusive and rid themselves from systemic racism.

In comedy, Second City has had their own reckoning from an open letter sent from black alums and staffers in changing their ways and now, The Upright Citizens Brigade, which is currently in the process of trying to become a non-profit organization as part of their structural reorganization, received a letter from Project Rethink (an organization of long time UCB BIPOC performers), that’s a “formal response from the Black UCB Community”.

Within the letter, which has made the rounds on social media over the last couple of days, they demand involvement on the selection of Non-Profit Board Members, go from an Artistic Director to an Artistic Committee, and detailed reform of their Training Center. You can read the whole letter below.

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Recently I’ve been asked a lot about my experience as a black performer at @ucbtla here’s my answer. I love the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. I started working there in 1999. In the more than two decades that I’ve been affiliated with the theater, I have always felt like I had a creative space to call home. And I’ve watched over this time as the community of color has grown. The UCB 4 — Besser, Walsh, Amy and Ian have always been mentors and role models to me. Without them or the theater I don’t know if I would have the career I have today. that is my experience. One lesson we should all be learning right now is how to listen to everyone’s experiences. How not to discount or gaslight someone if they’ve had a different experience than you. Over the past few weeks I’ve talked with other people who have encountered bias, prejudice and racism at the UCB theater and in the school. And these unfortunate experiences are preventing voices of color from thriving — from feeling comfortable — from feeling like they can truly call the theater home. institutional racism is real and exists everywhere. It’s not going to go away by just hiring a black person here or firing a racist cop there. It’s going to take fundamental change to the power structures of our institutions. It’s going to take self-reflection and opening minds to new ideas. (please still fire racist cops) each of us need to look at the institutions we are a part and products of and ask ourselves what we can do to change them for the better. More importantly, ask the people who have been disenfranchised what they think can be done to change for the better. Which is why I have signed on to #ProjectRethink along with the rest of my Black Indigenous People of Color community at UCB. Prejudice and bias are like a virus. Racism like the disease. We must expose it, call it out and eradicate it in all its forms. Especially in the institutions we love the most. If you read all this, thank you. If you are a UCB performer or student who has ever been disenfranchised at the theater, I am very sorry. I hope you will join me and I hope UCB will join us in making our institution a better place. #blacklivesmatter

A post shared by Colton Dunn (@captdope) on Jun 14, 2020 at 10:07pm PDT

Thus far, @UCBTLA has tweeted in response to this letter, “Thank you so much to Project Rethink! These are amazing ideas for our re-launch. Please know moving forward w/ your help is both welcome & necessary. We look forward to working w/ you and following your lead to make UCB theatre & school the inclusive community we know it can be.”

All the points that have been brought up in all of the comedy theaters/schools/institutions by performers, alumni, and staffers are great first steps forwards towards true inclusion and representation and ridding systemic racism and white supremacy through every crevice where it has crept in. Live comedy, as far as we know, still has a long way to go as the direction of the pandemic is almost as unsure at the current moment as when it started. With that in mind, we hope that these changes can sincerely be implemented with all this spare time before getting to legitimately reopening (whenever that will happen).

The Comedy Bureau Field Report Ep. 4: Debra DiGiovanni & Adaptation

April 22, 2020

News, The Comedy Bureau Field Report

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The wondrous and hysterical Canadian transplant Debra DiGiovanni and TCB’s Jake Kroeger have quite the hopeful chat about her numerous gigs doing live-streaming comedy in the last several weeks and how she might specifically imagine to take the stage again and what that might really look like (especially for someone who has played comedy venues of all sorts of sizes). Also, they touch upon the tragic closure of the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC, the rescheduling of some major comedy festivals, as well as what’s new and/or noteworthy in comedy this week.

Follow Debra @debradg on Instagram & @debradigiovanni on Twitter. Tune in to her daily Instagram Live check-in show Afternoon Delight with Zach Noe Towers at 4PM PT via her Instagram handle. The Comedy Bureau @thecomedybureau across platforms and please, please support TCB via GoFundMe, Patreon, or on Venmo (@jakekroeger).

Produced by Jake Kroeger
Music by Brian Granillo
Artwork by Andrew Delman and KT

UCB Hell’s Kitchen and NYC Training Center Are Permanently Closing

April 21, 2020

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(via Vulture)

Announced today via e-mail by UCB, The Upright Citizens Brigade’s venue in Hell’s Kitchen and their dedicated NYC Training Center will stay closed once the stay-at-home/lockdown orders are lifted in NYC. As an organization, it apparently became too much of a financial stress on their entire organization during this pandemic to keep all of their schools and theaters afloat while they are relying pretty much on online classes right now to pay their leases. It’s truly heartbreaking to hear of these closures as the Upright Citizens Brigade made their bones with their own theater first in NYC and now there is no brick and mortar UCB venue in the five boroughs.

The fate of the rest of UCB, which includes the LA theaters and schools at UCB Franklin and UCB Sunset have yet to be officially determined (though we wouldn’t be surprised to see UCB revert to operating solely out of UCB Franklin if they have to have to keep cutting costs to save the entirety of Upright Citizens Brigade).

A comment was added that the closures of the NYC venues doesn’t mean that UCB’s presence in NYC is over, but to what that might specifically mean in the future is unclear at this time, especially with UCB already having lots of financial strain before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States.

We will keep you updated more on the status of UCB’s venues as we hear and we can only hope that other comedy clubs, theaters, schools will get to stay open when all of this is over.