Upright Citizens Brigade Teams Up With Seeso For 18th Annual Del Close Marathon
UCB teams up with Seeso to bring the Del Close Marathon to even more fans. By Carly Petrone.
Most people are afraid of failure. At the Upright Citizens Brigade, performers are expected to, if not encouraged, to fail. This past weekend, thousands of performers from around the world set foot on nine NYC stages to do just that during the 18th annual Del Close Marathon.
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This epic three-day improv festival (56-straight hours to be exact) was started by UCB founders Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh back in 1999, the year improv genius Del Close passed away. What started out as an all-night experiment has now morphed into a weekend-long event, where some of the biggest names in comedy come together to perform in shows you'll never see again.
For the first time ever, UCB partnered up with Seeso, the premium comedy streaming channel, to bring even more DCM memories to the small screen. Fans were also able to watch a special screening of the documentary, "Thank You Del: The Story of the Del Close Marathon," which was shot over more than three years and includes incredible moments from the festival as well as on-camera interviews with comedians like Louis CK, Nick Kroll, Sasheer Zamata, and Adam McKay.
Cutting the film down from 450 hours to less than two was no easy task for director Todd Bieber and head producer Julie Gomez.
"The first cut was 400 hours. We didn't want to lose anything," Bieber said. "I went to the public access station in Chicago, which had been documenting the comedy scene for years. I sat in the basement with 30 beta tapes covered in dust. It was fun as an improv nerd to see that stuff that no one had seen in 20 years. There were a bunch of interviews. There was one from Chris Farley before he was on SNL."
Bieber also mentioned the sad fact that Del Close, himself, never quite reached the level of fame that he knew all of his students would one day achieve.
"He always said, 'I'm the door from which you will pass but I will not," Bieber said.
"Once he used an invocation about himself which was very revealing. It was all about how he was going to be the vehicle for everyone to succeed -- how he wasn't going to be in the limelight and realizing that about himself." added co-founder Matt Besser.
Del was also quite an eccentric person, which led to plenty of funny interactions with his students. Poehler has her own distinct memory with Del.
"I was at an airport with him and he didn't want me to go through security with him. He wasn't smoking at the time so instead he was going to ashtrays and picking out cigarettes. Totally disgusting." Poehler said with a chuckle.
Now an entirely new generation of comedians are using Del's teachings to master the art of improvisation. Gil Ozeri and John Gemberling are quickly becoming a duo not to be missed at DCM. "Sincerely, over the last three to five years, these guys have been the MVP's of late night bit shows of the marathon," said Besser. Gemberling filled in as host for Anthony Atamanuik's popular Pie Babies show, which occurred at 3:40 in the morning. "Anthony normally comes out as a character named Pissnose the Mind Clown – the son of Anne Frank and Hitler. The pie babies are people in diapers. He makes them do scenes and then if he's displeased with the scene he hits them with pies. I'll have to be a different clown." said Gemberling.
A few UCBers shared their take on what it was like when they were first starting out. Former UCB Touring Company member, D'arcy Carden, revealed that her first performance on stage wasn't exactly her best.
"I was so nervous and my jokes didn't make sense and I was not following a single rule that I had learned," Carden said. "But I learned from it. I did cry myself to sleep that night which my husband really remembers and brings it up a lot."
It's that get-back-up-and-try-it-again attitude that makes UCB such an encouraging place to practice Del Close's teachings.
"You can't think, 'If I don't get it right this time I'll never get it right. It's so not true,'" Poehler added.
Seasoned performer Chris Gethard also knows how important it is to fail on stage.
"You're gonna fail a lot. If you're f--ing up, that's part of the process, so don't bail on it just because of that. You have to fail. You're never going to be the best right out of the gate," Gethard said.
UCB favorite Ben Schwartz started out as an intern back in 2003 and has plenty of fond memories, specifically regarding the typically star-studded Sunday night show called ASSSCAT.
"You get to meet all these people you look up to but the coolest thing is the monologist would be insane – like Alec Baldwin, Mike Myers – huge people. Being able to see who it was, every time I would walk over to the corner to see the audience react when Amy or Matt would announce who it was. The crowd would go crazy. Like Oprah crazy," Schwartz said.
Chris Gethard could definitely relate to the terrifying feeling of performing on stage with your comedic idols.
"My first ASSSCAT was the scariest night of my life. Jason Sudeikis had to physically pull me off the back wall and force me into a scene with Amy Poehler, which is like a sentence no one wants to say about themselves." Gethard said.
Countless shenanigans have occurred at the marathon over the past 18 years. SNL alum Horatio Sanz got arrested after performing a virtual protest and stopping traffic on a major street, while former Artistic Director Anthony King also "felt the blue" (while wearing full rave makeup) when he had to explain to the police why Jon Daly and Brett Gelman were being married by Jason Mantzoukas, who was dressed as Osama Bin Laden. Performer Katie Dippold attributes a few scars to that time she rode a motorized cooler filled with beer in the theater and wiped out on the wall. Drew Tarver even admitted to throwing up along 8th Avenue after a night of drinking, only to then go on and perform in his first-ever DCM minutes later.
Now that the marathon has grown to 680 shows, there's bound to be even more hilarious stories on the horizon.
"I'm proud that this year is more diverse, more filled with a community of voices that reflect who comes to this theater and comedy. The marathon introduces you to people that may be your friends for life or wife or you may fall in love with something that will eventually be the thing you do forever," Poehler said. "You'll find some kind of love whether it be improv, a person, or drugs."
So, how would the founders and performers sum up the weekend in three words? Click on the video above to find out.
Want even more UCB Comedy? Seeso just renewed its popular Original Series "The UCB Show," from hosts, creators, and Upright Citizen's Brigade founders Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Matt Besser. Filming for season two began filming its second season over the weekend.
Take a look at everything that went down at the Del Close Marathon using the hashtag #DCM18.
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Carly Petrone is the founder of Petrone on the Rocks, a lifestyle site about food, drinks, beauty, travel, and more. She lives in New York City.