The Upright Citizens Brigade graced McKnight Hall on September 14, 2009 for a night of subtle innuendos and crazy laughs. CAB Director Leana Zona opened the event with a small list of CAB announcements and an intro for the Comedy Troupe. The Comedy Troupe hails from New York and consisted of three men and one woman. Some famous former members of this comedy troupe include Amy Poehler (SNL and “Baby Mama”), Neil Flynn (The Janitor on “Scrubs”), and Horatio Sanz (SNL). This shows that many stars have gotten their roots in this improvisational comedy troupe in some way or another.
As soon as the troupe got on stage, small giggles from the crowd turned into loud laughter as the show began. They explained that the show would be in two parts. The first part would be an interview of a volunteer, and then there would be a thirty-minute section playing out the information learned from the interviewer. They asked for volunteers, and when no hands rose, I raised mine.
As I approached the stage, I was greeted by the troupe as they asked me to take a seat. Each one started asking me general questions about where was I from, my classification, was I in a relationship or not and many other various questions. I laughed as they took everything I said and made a joke of it.
Then they asked me a question about my roommate. She just happened to be in the audience, so she came up as well. Their jokes were not outrageously lewd, but were funny because they made fun of me not being able to get into Communications Theory. They also made fun of UNC Charlotte’s school spirit, and how it is unacceptable to wear paraphernalia from anywhere else. Then they picked on my roommate’s hopes to be in human resources, which was even more entertaining.
Everything was totally unscripted and hilarious, which showed how good at improvisational comedy the troupe was. They did the same routine for the second half of the show, and interviewed a senior named Jay and a freshman named Elena. They joked about how both of them were highly prone to injuries, how Jay was homeschooled, and how Elena had a fascination with the restaurant Cookout, but hated the beach.
The crowd really enjoyed the show, and clapped loudly when they brought it to a close. I asked a sophomore named Trystan McNeil how he felt about the show. “It was funnier than I thought it would be at first. I liked how they all used whatever popped up in their heads and remembered what the interviewees said.”
He continued, “thanks to CAB, another successful show went down in history and I left with an aching chest from having laughed so much. Hopefully the Upright Citizens Brigade can grace us with their presence again.”
For more information on the Upright Citizens Brigade such as future touring dates, videos of old sketches, and their detailed history check out http://www.uprightcitizens.org/ or information on the Campus Activities Board and future events on campus visit cab.uncc.edu.
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