After being in the audience at Saturday Night Live, I looked into how performers got the opportunity to audition for SNL. It turns out that SNL finds many of there performers by scouting the various comedy schools such as Second City, Improv Olympics, or the Upright Citizens Brigade. You may remember the Upright Citizens Brigade TV show staring Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh who went on to open the UCB Training Center in 1996.
Over the course of 2 years, I commuted to New York City, nearly every Saturday or Sunday during the regular school year, I took the entire Improv and most of the Sketch Writing curriculum. I was lucky enough to have such amazing teachers as Phil Augusta Jackson, Kate Wood Riley, Corey Brown, Geoff Garlock, and Nicole Drespel. Here I learned how to perform long form improv and write sketches while performing many wacky characters and attempting many accents and dialects.
While I was studying, they recommended two books that would help with improv skills. The first is “Truth In Comedy” which describes how the long form Improv Style, “The Harold” came into being. The Second is “Art By Committee” which teaches some more advanced Improv practices and features a DVD with performances by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. By the time I completed my studies in Improv at UCB, they had released their official textbook, “The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.” I highly recommend all of these books in you are interested in improv, devised theatre, and collaboration. I even used a few of these as resources for my graduate thesis at Villanova.
During the pandemic, the school I attended in New York, closed. However, a new location has opened up as well as new online offerings. Go to UCBComedy.com for more information
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