friday night i had the pleasure of seeing the upright citizen brigade (east)'s GENTRIFY.
what: gentrify, a multi-act comedy show running every friday night at ucb east!
where: ucb east, east village
drinkability: there's a bar! wahoo! we had wine.
show length: an hour
out of four: three/four
we just returned from a four day jaunt in the concrete jungle of new york city! i had never been before (i know, i KNOW) and dustin had only flirted with the city a bit during a couple of previous tours through there. staying with my pal brittany in hamilton heights in manhattan she showed us the city as if we lived there, avoiding the typical long lines of top-of-building sights and statue of liberty tours. instead she took us all around manhattan, through central park, to the met, here there everywhere...and friday night we ended our evening in the east village in brooklyn for some comedy.
a good friend from college, audrey, is working and studying at ucb and offered us some tickets when she found out we were coming into town. she suggested gentrify and we agreed. (thanks aud!!) we also chose front row seats...nothing better than being right up in the action, right?? i was actually incredibly surprised at how large the room is at ucb east. i've experienced many iO shows here in chicago & the room seemed double the size. either way, super simple with just a stage, some mics, and a single curtain, we were set to go.
gentrify is set up like this: they have their typical team who starts the show (according to the site this includes d'arcy carden, alden ford, kelly hudson, brandon scott jones, and justin tyler, but our cast was slightly different) with an audience warm up and a few jokes as a team. they take this opportunity to poke any fun at the audience they can (out of towners, what what!) and then to ultimately introduce their guests. we got the opportunity to see stand up comedians austin rodrigues, don fanelli & dru johnston, michelle wolf & peggy o'leary.
and then game on! each comedian gets about 10 minutes to do a set and the wonderful thing about the particular performance we saw is how different all the performers were. also: i've been with dustin for three and a half years now and i can count on one hand how many times i've seen him laugh as hard as he did that night. awesome.
between acts pairs of the team come out to comment on the last performer, make a few jokes of their own and keep the game moving forward by getting the next performers out on stage. my two highlights from the show were comedy team don fanelli & dru johnston, determined to convince the audience that billy joel is in every circumstance better than the beatles. also: the last performer of the evening michelle wolf. giant curly red hair (of my dreams!!!) she stole the show for me. you...go..girl?
anyway. then the team ends with improv from a suggestion from the audience. ours was "circuit breaker"...and the improv that followed was just about as exciting as the topic. but! alas, we loved the show and the experience and the wine (which i gave to dustin to finish. $4 margaritas at blockheads before the show made for shifty eyes in whitney).
this of course is just one of many many shows that ucb offers. i'd definitely return to see more talent in the city...and so should you.
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upcoming may shows:
friday may 17, 8pm: strawdog theatre's big love
saturday may 25, 7:30pm: the hypocrites' ivywild
join me, will you?
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