MATT BESSER TO PERFORM TEN-WEEK RESIDENCY AT COMEDY DEATH-RAY
Comedy Death-Ray, Los Angeles’s premier comedy show, is proud to announce that Upright Citizens Brigade founding member and the pride of Arkansas Matt Besser will be recording sets over the next few months, exclusively at CDR’s Tuesday night program, and will be releasing them the very same week on UCBcomedy.com.
Fans have delighted to Mr. Besser’s antics over the six-year history of CDR, with recent exploits including “Skittles 4 Wittels,” “The Upstager,” and “The Guy Fixing The Air-Conditioner.” Audiences have oft wondered what a concentrated dose of Mr. Besser would offer. At last the wondering must cease.
"Comedy Death-Ray is the Olympics of the alternative comedy world,” Mr. Besser replied when asked for comment. “It was a dream come true when my residency was accepted. For the last three years I have trained at CDR to be able to meet the challenge of the comedic decathalon I will perform these bits with all my heart, not just for the comedy nerds in the CDR audience, but also for the comedy nerds in the middle of America. I do these ten sets for you.”
Mr. Besser will appear at the popular comedy spot ten separate Tuesdays through October. In these ten weeks, Mr. Besser will attempt all ten disciplines of comedy in an effort to reach “the perfect ten:”
1. Topical
2. Blue
3. Satire
4. Parody
5. Multiple characters – no costumes, no props; voice only
6. Musical
7. Impression
8. Physical
9. Stand-up – one word suggestions given the week before over internet and stage
10. Improvised – crowd work, taking suggestions
"I’m neither deluded nor vain enough to consider myself the Michael Phelps of comedy,” Mr. Besser continued. “I am more like the Kerri Strug. I just want one gold night and I will give everything to get it. Even if I bomb the first nine Tuesdays, I will limp to the stage, maybe only standing on one tired old bit, but I will perform that bit with all my heart.”
The excitement starts this Tuesday, 19 August 2008, as Mr. Besser shares the bill with fan-favorite Todd Glass and Saturday Night Live’s Casey Wilson, launching his ten-night-stand with a surprise bit guaranteed to both amuse and shock the audience into convulsions of laughter.
"This is for all the comedy nerds in all the towns across this great land of ours – like Topeka, Harrisburg, Dover, Little Rock, and a few more that I can’t remember now,” Mr. Besser beamed. “God bless the Comedy Death-Ray for giving me the opportunity to achieve my dream.”
THE BACK ROOM – Three Way!
This is the sexiest episode of the Back Room. Digg it if you dig it! Spread it, if it turns you on!
AUG. 7
F’d Up & Illegal Videos
UCB Theater in NYC
11pm
These are videos (found or taped) that have never/rarely been seen on a TV or movie screen, and for good reason. No narcs allowed! (we don't show Faces of Death bullshit)
Hosted by: Dr. Cocky Muther F'r AKA Matt Besser & Mister Aidsnotfunny AKA Matt Walsh
Come to the show. You’ll probably walk out. No bull shit.
AUG. 8-10
DEL CLOSE MARATHON
@ UCB Theater in NYC
DCM Schedule
[These are the shows that I am in at the marathon.]
Friday
4:30 - Marathon Press Conference
12:30 - Pass the Mic – improvised standup
3:15 - Breakdance Improv Contest
Saturday
6 - UCB – me, Walsh, and Ian
Midnight - America’s Best Comic
1 - Smartest Panel of Experts in Universe Ever
3:45 - Drunken Sonic Assault: Ten Year Retrospective
*The show is every Friday but I will miss a couple.
These are the shows I am in for sure:
May 16 & 30; June 6
LA WEEKLY THEATER PICK
FREAK DANCE: THE FORBIDDEN DIRTY BOOGALOO
Much of the propulsion in Matt Besser’s dance confection comes from the great breakdance interludes by the Bad Newz Bearz crew (Joel Lara, Jose D. Martinez, Ernie Rodriguez, Isaac Lara and Jesus Corla). The rest derives from Besser’s comic-book satire of self-righteous programs claiming to use the arts to get kids off drugs. Our hero, Funky Bunch (Michael Cassady), sports a DARE T-shirt and tries to rally a clan of inner-city youth led by an aging homey (Hal Rudnick) who suffers the effects of a brain injury from dancing on the ceiling, as well as the complete evisceration of his penis from too much friction with the ground. There’s even a rich girl (Megan Lynam) — “I’m not so rich that I can’t learn to be poor.” They hunker down in an abandoned office and rehearse their dance moves. Enter the Building Inspector (Besser), in the colonial attire of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, slapping them with a $2K fine. How to endure? A dance contest, of course, pitting their slick moves against the sleazy lap-dance gyrations of their opponents, the Dazzles, led by Drew Droege and featuring Allan McLeod, in a mentally impaired turn that looks like Christopher Walken with a high-pitched manic laugh. Dance-bulge codpieces are like visual centerpieces adorning the actors, under Lindsay Hendrickson’s perfect direction. Brian Fountain and Jake Anthony wrote the music. Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hlywd.; Fri., 8 p.m.; thru April 25. (323) 908-8702.
LA MAGAZINE: REVIEW
Our appetite for the inspirational dance movie genre is insatiable, just as humanity never tires of the washed-up coach who takes over a ragtag sports team, leads it to victory (or edifying defeat), and thus gains redemption. Matt Besser, one of the original four of Upright Citizens Brigade, writes and directs Freak Dance: The Forbidden Dirty Boogaloo, a send up of the You Got Serveds and Step Ups that have fed our dreams. As Besser describes his show: "Overly sincere musical numbers describing the hard life of a ghetto street dancer."
Yes, musical theater and dance movies are often very stupid, and Besser does a sly job of skewering both, and Besser's turn as the Inspector Javert villain is genius. Drew Droege, one of L.A.'s funniest up-and-comers, plays an evil, silver-suited advocate of lap dances. The Bad News Bears dance troupe also brings the real pops and locks to the stage.
And, hey, dig those dance bulges. (Every Friday night at 8 at UCB Theatre, through May.)
—Michael
COMEDY DEATH RAY
May 20
SEATTLE
May 23 & 24
I am in the Sasquatch Festival on Saturday and maybe on Sunday too at the Comedy Tent.
