The city radiated heat; the sky burned. Yet the summer air yielded with anticipation: the audience had exploded with laughter.
Main facets of improv: uncensored jokes, a bit of self-deprecating humor, but overall, quite hysterical content. It all tied into a very pleasant evening on the night of June 24th.
The day was presented in a wave of announcements, but it all began as the Upright Citizen’s Brigade hosted the 18th annual Del Close Improv Comedy Marathon. The institution foresees hundreds of similar improv shows across the United States and the world. The marathon took place From Friday, June 24 to Sunday June 26.
Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh and Matt Besser, among others,were on hand to showcase a well-defined example of acute comedic penmanship. With quality delivery and prose you would expect. Regarding the show, Del Close Marathon talent expertly licensed the help of the audience to further the laughs, and assist with the Q&A. Highlights of the evening included:
1) The return of the Seeso Original Series, “the UCB show” – an announcement of which made it’s debut at the Marathon. Season two began shooting at the comedy show.
2) The private escapades of Gil Ozeri; Snapchat and bathroom stories galore!
3) The reveal of Echo Kellum’s (otherwise known as Curtis Holt) superhero persona in the upcoming season of CW drama, The Arrow. (Note: it’s quite terrific!)
In addition, various individuals hailing from many kinds of shows and series had taken the stage among our main commentators to successfully gauge the exposition. Such a display entailed the likes of: D’Arcy Carden , Horatio Sanz, Jason Mantzoukas, John Gemberling and more. Nothing was left unbarred as our guests discussed past inspirations, hurdles and future prospects.
With each new character that graced the stage, DCM talent opened the floor to questions; there were very hilarious and informative results:
Gil Ozeri and John Gemberling’s TV Marathon viewing experiences:
Q: Gil, what have you learned from your TV marathon viewings that would help anyone here in the audience?
A: “Don’t drink Redbull or have coffee. I watched all the episodes of “Entourage” in a row with John and Adam. 57 hours. I was micro-napping and getting very irritated. I would say – yeah, don’t drink redbull or coffee because you come down right after it and sort of crash. So just go through it without drinking.
Q: John, what are your experiences with TV Marathoning?
A: “I mean – he was only one that had to stay awake the whole time – so I took breaks – but I do know he did two and a half days of “Two And A Half Men” before that.
A(Gil responding): “Two And A Half Men” is arguably a worse show.
A new feature starring Horatio Sanz:
“We also have a new deal with Universal Cable Productions, UCP – we’re out developing stuff, including a Latino sketch comedy show with Horatio Sanz. ”
How to make the best of “failing” with Jon Daly and Chris Gethard, (with Gethard responding):
Q: You do a little bit of everything before starting out? Or do you try to focus on one thing over the other?
A: “I think that some people are naturally gonna climb rather quickly and, yeah, they focus at it. But it took me a really long time and I feel like I constantly did bad things until I failed hard enough. Then, I was like “whelp guess I have to decide whether to keep trying and just find another avenue,” but I think that the main thing is that no matter what you do, you’re gonna fail a lot, so I wouldn’t worry so much about dabbling in one or the other, but to just commit to the idea of fucking up. That’s part of the process – you have to fail – you’re not gonna be good out of the gate. There’s no way you’re gonna be at your best out of the gate so whatever it is, don’t secede yourself into believing that “”X” isn’t working, maybe I’ll try this,” you’re not gonna stop failing if you keep bouncing around to the next thing. You have to fail, you can’t escape it.”
D’Arcy Carden’s new sitcom:
Q: So D’Arcy, you’re on a new sitcom right? ”
A: “Yeah, it’s called “The Good Place“, it’s Mike Schur’s new show. It stars Ted Danson and Kristen Bell and it’s just some of the most fun I’ve ever had!”
The final result is an amalgamate – an amusing performance of hilarious proportions – and everyone played a fantastic role in Friday’s performance.
The actors used the occasion partly as tribute to celebrate the life of the late Del Close, legendary comedian and namesake of the event. A film titled, “Thank You, Del: The Story of the Del Close Marathon” is available on Seeso platforms beginning today. Del Close had passed away in 1999.
“This entire marathon was put up to honor Del Close, who died fifteen years ago. We started it the year he died. And one of the reasons we did it was because we felt that, at the time, people outside of Chicago and certainly the Improv community didn’t know who Del Close was. He was even a bit frustrated with that too. And we were like “let’s let people know!” We’d do that in New York – we’d put on a lot of shows and put his name out there and do it every year.”
