UCB is very nice, but very small, and needs more chairs.
This weekend I was lucky enough to get to see Judd Apatow do standup comedy. He set up a show at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Hollywood and it was great. Oh and he brought a few friends. Jonah Hill was there. So was Aubrey Plaza, who I’d never seen. So was Seth Rogen. So was Kevin James. And so was Adam Sandler. It was pretty much a dream come true seeing all of those people together, and I even got to sit on stage with them. We didn’t have tickets, so we had to wait in a standby line. But luckily Teddy and Tiffany were cool enough to get there 4 hours early and put my name on the list. It was nerve racking, but we were 4-6 in line and the UCB people were cool enough to let us sit on the stage Indian style. Though I am a big guy, and was in pain much of the time, it was SO great anyway.
All of the actors/comedians are preparing for the upcoming movie FUNNY PEOPLE in which all of them play stand-ups, and they were working out a lot of material and getting comfortable with what plays. So we may see some of the following stuff in the movie next summer.
Apatow basically hosted the event, doing bits to open and intermittently throughout, and was definitely funny. Still one of my favorite jokes of his is how his wife wanted a great man, who is capable, and strong but ended up with “the guy who can fart holes through his underwear.” I’ve heard him say this one a few times now but it never gets old, I think because of the truth behind it. He really gives you the feeling that if you stand behind him, he could definitely make you feel his breeze if he wanted. He was great and fun, and agreed to listen to people pitch movies as a bit. Nobody was successful except the weird guy from Utah. It’ll never get made, but the rejection was super duper funny.
Jonah came on first, and was really cool and seemed like a nice guy. His act definitely works because he is a funny dude and likes to laugh, which is contagious, and had the whole crowd going with him. His act for sure was silly and the jokes were good, but by far the best parts were comments and ad libs that came out of his being nervous and unsure of his material.
Second out was Aubrey Plaza, who I’d honestly never heard of before, but who was really weird and great. I guess shes a UCB member from NY. Her act was basically based around her telling weird thoughts and laughing at how off her ideas were. She wasn’t just setup, joke, punchline. It was really different and, I thought, hilarious. Her closer was a study she had done called “CelebriTails” where she told us all about the tail a given celebrity would have if, of course, humans had tails. My two favorites were John Goodman who would have a thick, coarse beaver tail, and Natalie Portman who would have, not a tail, but a slick set of seal flippers to help her zip through the water and ice. What? This girl was weird in the best kind of way.
Third was Kevin James who was sooo super funny and perfect and talked a lot about being the fattest he’d ever been. He was really careful and deliberate with his delivery and really killed it. Thinking of his showering being just like washing a van has been making me laugh for the last 24 hours.
Then Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler is so crazy talented and confident. His delivery was slow, and he kind of held back from the audience making everyone want more, and kept us hanging on his every word. Each punchline was great and creative and a good mix between ‘immature’ Sandler and ‘I’m rich and famous and it’s awesome’ Sandler, and both worked exquisitely. He killed it for over 40 minutes and had everyone wanting more when he walked off.
Last, but not least was Rogen, who was funny. Most of his act was full of strong jokes and pretty good energy, but he was vocal about how unlucky he was to have to follow Adam Sandler and he had a point. I love Rogen’s movies and think the dude is hilarious but anyone following Sandler has their work cut out for them. And by this point, my sitting on the ground without a back rest was killing me, and honestly I just wanted to leave. But one of his final jokes really had me rolling and made me forget about how tired and in pain I was. I won’t re-tell the whole thing, but I’ll say it has to do with Will Smith, and Tom Cruise, and mushing heads of penises together. And Chinese babies. All in all, Seth was great and so was the rest of the cast.
I don’t know much about the movie, but if this night was any indication I’d say we’re all in for a treat come July.
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