The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990.[1] The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando Diaz, Ali Farahnakian and Rich Fulcher.
In 2013, Besser, Roberts and Walsh wrote The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.[2]
The Upright Citizens Brigade began performing improv and sketch comedy at Kill the Poet in Chicago. Their first show was called Virtual Reality. The group followed with shows titled UCBTV, Conference on the Future of Happiness, Thunderball, Bucket of Truth, Big Dirty Hands, The Real Real World, and Punch Your Friend in the Face.
In 1993, the Upright Citizens Brigade (Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, and Horatio Sanz) were regular guests on stage at the New Variety produced and hosted by Richard O'Donnell at the Chicago Improv comedy club, 504 N. Wells.[3]
In 1996, prior to opening their own theatre, the Upright Citizens Brigade relocated to New York performing their signature improv show, ASSSSCAT, first at KGB Bar, and then later at Solo Arts. Solo Arts was the first semi-permanent home to the Upright Citizens Brigade's Harold Teams and is considered by some to be the group's first theatre.[4][5][6] The shows and classes at Solo Arts were so popular that the UCB were able to open their own theater, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, at 161 W. 22nd Street in Chelsea on February 4, 1999.[7] This was a 75-seat auditorium that used to be the Harmony Burlesque Theater, an all-nude lap-dancing club—essentially a storefront. The original theatre was closed on November 18, 2002, after a building inspector ordered the theater to be shut down due to fire code violations. In the months that followed, the theater found a temporary home at the Access Theater on lower Broadway, then moved to the Chelsea Playhouse for a short time before finding a permanent space.[8]
On April 1, 2003, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre moved to its second official space in Chelsea, a 150-seat theater at 307 West 26th Street in NYC in the former Maverick Theater. The new venue had several advantages over the previous theater on 22nd Street, such as double capacity, a more professional tech booth, larger green room with a greater separation from the stage area, two dressing rooms, storage rooms, twice the number of bathrooms, and a "chill out room".[9][10]
In July 2005, the UCB opened at the Tamarind Theatre in Los Angeles at 5919 Franklin Avenue (between Tamarind & North Bronson Avenue).
In September 2011,[11] UCB opened a second theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at 153 E 3rd St. This theater featured 124 seats, two lobbies, and a full bar known as the "Hot Chicks Room" in reference to an episode of the Upright Citizens Brigade TV show.[12] Often referred to as "the Beast" (a portmanteau shortening of "UCB East"), the theater was initially opened in hopes of showcasing more stand-up comedy. This venue ran smaller-scale shows for $10 or less.[13][14] The UCB East permanently closed on February 9, 2019. In its stead, the group once (but no longer) offered three nights of programming per week in the nearby SubCulture theatre on Bleecker Street.[13]
At the start of 2017, ticket prices increased (the first in ten years).[15] In October 2017, it was announced that the UCB Chelsea location would close. The last show in Chelsea was Wednesday, November 28, 2017.[16]
The next UCB space, from November 30, 2017, was at 555 42nd Street in Hell's Kitchen,[17] the former home to the Pearl Theatre Company.[18]
The Upright Citizens Brigade has performed in the Comedy Tent at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,[19] UCB had locations in the New York City neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and the East Village, and on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this location and the New York training center were closed on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, leaving no NYC locations of UCB, with no confirmed plans for revival.[20] However, on June 29, 2023, UCB announced its return to New York at 242 E. 14th Street, which will house a 130-seat theater, a bar, and a lounge. The space was expected to open in early 2024.
In 2005, the Los Angeles branch of the theater opened at 5919 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, offering up improv, sketch and stand-up comedy shows nightly with a 120-seat capacity. Soon after, Comedy Bang! Bang! (formerly Comedy Death-Ray), a Los Angeles alternative comedy show moved from its former home at the M Bar to join the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, appearing on Tuesday nights.[21]
An expansion in Los Angeles started in 2014.[22] In 2014, UCB announced the opening of UCB Theatre Sunset located at 5419 Sunset Boulevard for November 1. The venue played home to Upright Citizens Brigade's training center, an 85-seat theatre, cafe/performance space called Inner Sanctum, video production offices, and even retail stores on street level.[23] This location was sold in December 2020, leaving the Franklin theater as the only space owned by UCB.[24]
In March 2022, former owner and CEO of The Onion, Mike McAvoy, and co-founder of Mosaic talent management, Jimmy Miller, acquired UCB and its lone remaining theater with the backing of venture capitalist, Elysian Park. They reopened the UCB comedy theater and Los Angeles training centers in September 2022.[25]
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre or just UCB) is an American improvisational and sketch comedy training center and theatre, originally founded by UCB troupe members Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh.[26][8]
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Training Center teaches long form improv, sketch, writing, parts of directing, and various other comedy skills.[26] The training center's philosophy of improv is based largely on the teachings of Del Close, with a strong emphasis on the "game" of the scene.[27] In 2013, they co-authored a manual titled The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.[28][29] The primary improvisational form is "The Harold", and the theater in all its incarnations has had a group of "Harold Teams", house teams that perform regularly.[30]
The original group, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Amy Poehler have had two TV shows—Upright Citizens Brigade and The UCB Show—and their show ASSSSCAT has been televised twice. In addition to this they had a TV movie called Escape From It's a Wonderful Life and appeared weekly on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the 90s.
In the way of film, in 2002 they created and starred in the film Martin & Orloff, and made another movie in 2007 titled Wild Girls Gone. Neither film was particularly successful or well received.
The group has participated in web series including the ongoing series UCB Comedy Originals, created in 2008, which occasionally shows sketches, and I Hate Being Single, created in 2012.
In 2016, Universal Cable Productions announced signing Upright Citizens Brigade to a first-look production deal.[31]
Saturday Night Live has been known for seeking top talent from UCB's pool of students.[32]
TV shows like The Chris Gethard Show created by Chris Gethard; and Broad City created by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer started out as UCB experiments.
