ABSTRACT
When I first started doing improv, I did not think of it as getting into the business of it. I liked comedy of all kinds in college. I tried out for the improv troupe at Syracuse University. From there, we started doing short form. I discovered Upright Citizen Brigade (UCB) through one of my friends in the group. Upright Citizens Brigade is the name for comedians from Chicago who moved to New York to try to get a television show. Amy Poehler is one of the founding members. Adam McKay was a founding member. He directed and wrote Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and more recently he has done more directing, such as The Big Short and Vice. Then, there is Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, and Ian Roberts. They had a television show on Comedy Central. They used a bit of their notoriety there to start a theater and make a place for long-form improvisation in New York. Long-form improvisation during that time was mostly done in Chicago and maybe a little in Toronto. They kind of brought it to New York and started their own theater. The ethos behind the theater was “cheap shows.” All of the shows were perhaps five bucks when they started or free.
