Sneak Peek from Pantsuit

Photos from Pantsuit's upcoming UCB Comedy video, "Christian Twister," written by Stephanie Allynne, Scott Rodgers, and Angela Trimbur; directed by Stoney Sharp.

Zach Woods Promoted to Season Regular on The Office

This week, The Ausiello Files reported that UCB notable Zach Woods (The Stepfathers, TourCo) will be reprising his role as Gabe on the seventh season of The Office -- as a series regular!

Here's Zach in the UCB Comedy original, "Thin Walls:"

CNN: More Coverage for "BP Spills Coffee"

"BP Spills Coffee" -- the video that has garnered over 4.7 million views on YouTube (and counting) -- was prominently featured on CNN.com in an article about comedians mocking BP. (Read it!)

The article is not the first time CNN has covered the UCB Comedy sketch -- last Saturday, three members of the team behind "BP Spills Coffee" (Kate McKinnon, John Frusciante, and Erik Tanouye) were interviewed by CNN's Don Lemon on the air.

Erik Tanouye recounts the live interview:

I arrived before John and Kate, and I was placed in a dark room with no video monitor. Bright rectangular white lights shined on me. The producer connected me to an ear piece, but I could no hear anything through it. Luckily I asked her to hand me my iPhone before she left.

Then I sat in the darkness for 20 minutes. It felt a bit like an experiment in sensory depravation. Eventually, an intern showed up to check my ear piece. She thought it might be broken. I thought she was correct as I had not heard anything for the entire 20 minutes. But she said it was working fine, then left me alone again. Close to the end of hour, I finally heard some voices through my ear piece. I never saw what was happening on the air. I was asked to count to five, and then 10, and then 10 again, in order to check my levels. Just before we went on the air, I heard John and Kate discussing the commercials that were airing on CNN. I couldn't see them (the people or the commercials). There was some friendly banter with Don Lemon about the sponsors that I could not enjoy. Then Don Lemon teased our segment and told us all to wave. I did not wave.

Perhaps I am a jerk, but I had been sitting in a dark room with no human contact for a long time and as a result did not obey the voice in my ear. Apparently we were all on the air at that time, and as soon as we went to commercial, Don Lemon asked why I didn't wave.

After commercial, Don checked his cufflinks and began the interview. I think that John and Kate had a longer audio delay in their ears than I did, but at the same time, they could see what was on the air while I was still sitting in a dark room. So that might explain some of the cross-talking and audio delays in the interview.

We made it through the interview and I managed to plug both theaters, the website, and our classes, and felt pretty professional as a result. Eventually, I was released from my darkened chamber and I stumbled down a hallway, across a newsroom, and found John and Kate. We took a few pictures, then I headed to Astoria where I watched television with some friends, including Kevin Cragg, who played a BP executive in the video. He is the man who says "Don't worry, it's a small spill on a very large table."

UCB Comedy on "Inside Edition"

Check out last night's Inside Edition segment about "Crude Humor!" The segment features clips from "BP Spills Coffee" and an interview with UCB's John Frusciante about the video that has been "flooding the Internet."

"This is exactly what we as comedy writers and comics are supposed to do," says John.

"BP Spills Coffee" on Inside Edition: Tonight!

John Frusciante + a tabloid news show = appointment television -- tune in to watch him discuss "BP Spills Coffee" tonight at 6pm! Set those DVRs!

If you've been living under a rock, here is popular video:

UCB Comedy's "BP Spills Coffee" on TV

Look who's making the rounds on the cable news networks!

With over 2 million hits to date, UCBComedy.com's runaway success "BP Spills Coffee" was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC (watch the full segment) -- and a few people behind the video were even interviewed by CNN!

Kate McKinnon, Erik Tanouye, John Frusciante

Here's some behind-the-scenes photos of the gang getting ready for their segment:



Nice UCB t-shirt, John!

"BP Spills Coffee" Popularity Crashes Site

The video "BP Spills Coffee" is so popular, thousands of people tried to access the video simultaneously and temporarily crashed UCBComedy.com. The website is back in full effect, and the video is popping up on countless websites: Time, the front page of YouTube comedy, Andrew Sullivan, TalkingPointsMemo, and The Huffington Post, just to name a few.

John Frusciante, one of the writers of the video, notes it was retweeted by "Dave Coulier, star of Out of Control, Full House and Alanis Morissette's 'You Oughtta Know.'"



The team behind the video is thrilled at the response. "It truly was a collaborative idea. We came up with it in a Beneath Gristedes writers meeting. [Erik] Tanouye wrote the first draft and then he, Gavin Spieller, me and Eric Scott polished it," says John. "Pete [Schultz, director] and Brandon [Bassham, director] did a great job and so did the rest of the cast."

Stan Lee on UCB's Donald Glover's Spiderman Bid

The Internet has been buzzing about UCB staple Donald Glover's campaign to play Spiderman in the new franchise -- the Facebook group Donald Glover 4 Spiderman has close to 12,000 members at the time of this post.

Donald, who currently stars in NBC's Community and was previously a writer for 30 Rock, has been involved with UCBComedy.com since its inception with his sketch group, Derrick.

Recently, Spiderman creator STAN LEE weighed in on the Peter Parker frenzy:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Read the full MTV article about Stan Lee's thoughts on Donald.

Behind the Scenes: Overly Ambitious Ensemble Drama

The Brig's Overly Ambitious Ensemble Drama, written by Zack Phillips and directed by Adam Sacks, lived up to its title: filming took more than 15 hours, with over 35 different shots, 7 different shooting locations and 38 actors, resulting in a 1:34 tour de force.

Check out some of the production spreadsheets that this video required:



"Doing a shoot of that magnitude is kind of like planning a wedding," says Zach. "Tiny problems that normally wouldn’t be a big deal get magnified when you’re dealing with such a large group of people and multiple locations. If one shot takes longer than planned, you’re suddenly behind schedule with 10 or 20 actors."

But thanks to over 20-plus hours of pre-planning, The Brig wrapped early or on-time both days of shooting. Adds Zack, "Adam, the director, did a great job. We also picked locations that were close to each other but had diverse looks to them, so it’d look like we were all over the city. "

And, of course, a smooth shoot was ensured by a cast list that reads like a UCB talent directory. The video features Emily Axford, Keith Bethea, Dave Bluvband, Eddie Brawley, Corey Brown, Alex Charak, Matt Cutler, Shaun Diston, Morgan Evans, Don Fanelli, Kim Ferguson, Matt Fisher, Brandon Gardner, Jason Guerrero, Jon Gutierrez, Amy Heidt, Will Hines, Jordan Hirsch, Amanda Hirsch, Dan Hodapp, Rob Michael Hugel, Dru Johnston, Molly Lloyd, Tim Martin, Matt Mayer, Veronica Osorio, Josh Patten, Amber Petty, Zack Phillips, Ben Ragheb, Ben Rameaka, Adam Sacks, Jason Saenz, Matt Starr, Will Storie, Drew Tarvin, Jeff Wisniewski and Scott Yacyshyn.

UCB and TGS: Jon Gabrus

Listen up, comedy fans! "UCB and TGS" features some of UCBComedy.com's funniest writers and performers that play "TGS Writers" on the hit television show 30 Rock. You know, the people on the receiving end of Liz yelling "BLERG"?


"Working on 30 Rock is the only job that I have had where I get pissed if I have to miss a day," says UCB standout Jon Gabrus. "It's exciting to be even a minor part of such a huge, awesome, talented cast and crew. Everyone on that show is nice and awesome at their job -- it's a production like none other."

UCB audiences know Gabrus as a member of the UCBT weekend team The Law Firm and from his performances with the group Outlook of the Poet. His ongoing UCB show, Blackout Drunk, centers around terrible and true stories of things that have happened to him when he has been wasted -- like the time he ate a dead snake.

Reserve tickets

Gabrus eats much better fare on the 30 Rock set, with mixed results. "There is a lot of farting," says Gabrus. "We eat like kings from craft services, and then six guys sit in a small room for nine hours -- it gets a little weird."


Despite any gastrointestinal issues, Gabrus mentions that summer hiatus is making him sad, as he loves kicking back with the other "writers" when they are waiting to be called on set. "I got to know these dudes so much better over the course of the season. I need my Anthony Atamaniuk fix real bad."

Gabrus on UCBComedy.com: