Upcoming Events

Ongoing Every Sun	Asssscat 3000
Ongoing Every Thu	Showgirls: The Best Movie Ever Made. Ever!
Ongoing Every Mon	Crash Test!
Ongoing Various Dates	The Nights of Our Lives
Ongoing Every Mon	Human Giant

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Profile

Inarguably the city's premiere improvisational/sketch comedy venue, UCB may also be the city's busiest, offering a packed schedule of instruction and performance every week. As many as five shows take place some nights. Plus, each term, over a dozen classes teach various levels of UCB’s predominant long-form improv technique (called The Harold) as well as sketch writing. Successful students go on to perform live at the theatre. Based in a 150-seat basement space under Gristedes, the thrust stage certainly isn’t attracting audiences looking for creature comforts. Seats are rickety, the ceiling is claustrophobically low, and the sightlines are sometimes downright atrocious. But in a world where Broadway audiences age faster than dogs, the UCB is refreshingly young and hasn’t lost its fangs. Maybe it’s the star cache that comes when co-founder Amy Poehler (an SNL-regular) brings co-workers to perform or workshop new material. Maybe it's a growing cult of enthusiasts for the Chicago-born troupe's short-lived Comedy Central series. Whatever it is, since 1999, a rowdy-but-no-heckling, post-collegiate atmosphere has been a constant at this hothouse of humor. — Lori Cole

Every summer since 1999, UCB has held a Del Close marathon (dedicated to their late improv guru) which showcases some of the best long-form improv in the country.