TV Guide: Coming
up is the cast of Comedy Central's Upright Citizen's
Brigade. The UCB is
made up of Adair, who is the technical wizard, Antoine,
who is the organizer
to spread chaos, Colby, who is known for her temper and
Trotter, who is a
con artist. They're spreading their chaos and comedy
nationwide. Adair
has been credited with the dissemination of several key
rumors including that
John Wayne was gay, that Jamie Lee Curtis was a man
and that Antoine is
a cyborg. Antoine is behind the Watergate and Iran Scam
and invented Professional
Wrestling based off a dream he had. Colby has a
layer of seething
rage just over her warm center. She keeps her copy of Art of
War next to Where
the Sidewalk Ends. Colby is responsible for the Pamela
Lee sex tape. Lastly
there is Trotter who convinced the Academy to give Helen
Hunt the Oscar and
to get the FDA to approve Olestra. The UBC will be
joining us one at
a time. Up first is Amy Poehlel who plays Colby. Thanks for
coming.
Poehlel: Don't think and dress like the enemy!
De_nise101:
Colby sounds like she has her head screwed on straight. Good
for her.
Poehlel: Colby
is all business and a fierce warrior and encourages all young
ladies to do the same.
maxcandle77: Does Colby have any illicit interest in Little Donny?
Poehlel: (LOL!)
Only as a scientific experiment. Colby thinks sexuality is
distracting in that
it is important to get her work done. So she is interested in
little Donny only
as an anomoly.
divemaster_J: Sketch comedy or improv. Which is better?
Poehlel: It's
like apples and oranges. Both are great. Improv is wonderful
because there is a
certain energy about making up things on the spot that you
can't recreate. And
sketch comedy is wonderful because you can work on
something until you
get close to perfecting it.
swatki: How
does Colby do that blue hair thing? I want my girlfriend to be
Colby for Halloween.
Poehlel: (LOL!)
Colby's hair turned blue during one of her time travel missions.
It was a result of
excessive time travel.
Sir_James_Martin: Is it a new episode tonight?
Poehlel: There
is a new episode tonight at 10:30 ET. It will be every Monday
at 10:30 on Comedy
Central.
MechAnimal71:
Will the UCB be touring again anytime soon? We saw you in
San Francisco last
December and loved it!
Poehlel: Cool!
We hope to come back to SF another time this year. Yes,
when we're done with
our show, probably the fall. We'll being going around to
some select theaters
and colleges performing the new sketch show we do,
Spaghetti Jesus, which
we do in our theater in New York.
snzippfan: Are you also in Strangers with Candy?
Poehlel: No,
that's Amy Cedaris. She is also from Chicago. And she is also a
slight woman like
myself, and she is very funny.
swatki: Was the bucket that Spaghetti Jesus was in, the Bucket of Truth?
Poehlel: Spaghetti
Jesus is housed in a holy monstrance. But it may or may not
be the Bucket of Truth.
You'll find out.
VirMagnus: Do
you ever do skits live that have already been made into TV
shows? I ask because
I wanna see Spaghetti Jesus live and I don't know if I
can get down there
before the TV show airs.
Poehlel: The
show that we do now on stage we are making into one of our
episodes, that is
Spaghetti Jesus. And when we tour we do some old favorite
scenes that people
like.
apb86: Since
Andy Richter was on the show, can we expect an appearance by
Conan, or anyone else
from Late Night?
Poehlel: We
don't have Conan booked as of yet, but there will be some
special appearances.
You'll be able to see the Wu Tang Clan and that's all I'm
going to give away
right now.
holy_hell69:
Will there be more shows with the ugly peoples anonymous
group?
Poehlel: (LOL!)
Yes, we've opened chapters all over the country. For people
who are either ugly
or good-looking apes with great verbal skills.
dcsensai: Do
you think that your being on Comedy Central has helped you in
your cause to undermine
civilization?
Poehlel: Yes,
Comedy Central thinks we are a sketch show and as long as
they think that, we're
OK. They don't know that we are using their cable
channel to spread
our own gospel.
swatki: Amy, we love you, how tall are you, and what's your real hair color?
Poehlel: (LOL!)
I am 5 foot two. And my hair is kind of short, and it's blond,
and kind of looks
like Meg Ryan's hair. My face doesn't look like her, but my
hair does.
apb86: Favorite gum?
Poehlel: Big Red by
far! Big Red makes any situation OK. And if you're
drunk, Big Red takes
care of ya.
Marv_of_Sin_City:
I see some of you on Late Night with Conan O'Brian
quite often. How close
are you all to that show?
Poehlel: Very
close. Andy Richter is a good friend of ours. Conan has become
a big friend and supporter
of the show. We have a couple of close friends who
write on the show,
Brian Stack and Brian McCann. And Tommy Blocha. They
are all writers and
good friends.
Sir_James_Martin:
What episode was the most fun to do, or which do you
consider funniest?
Poehlel: My
personal favorite is the episode that has Duke Thompson and his
new brain seminar
and hyperminimalism. But I think they were all fun to do in
different ways. We
shoot everything on location so we're always in different
settings every day
doing really weird stuff so it's never boring.
apb86: How can I get my new brain?
Poehlel: (LOL!)
You can stop smoking the hash and stop doing the dishes in
the bathtub, for God's
sake.
VirMagnus: Do
you ever visit the UCB fan pages on the 'net (all four of
them)?
Poehlel: Yes,
we do. We really appreciate them, and we are all online. And I
can't tell you how
excited we all were when we saw them cropping up. Because
we know that people
who do that are really dedicated fans, and it makes us so
happy to know that
people are working to put up pages like that. So yes, we
see them, we think
they rock, and we love the people that do them.
maxcandle77: Any other heartthrobs for you besides Carl Sagan?
Poehlel: Ricky
Martin is Colby's favorite, this year. She also likes Robert
Duvall. And the author
Kurt Vonnegut memorabilia.
swatki: Is it
easier to get into character when you have the costumes and wigs
and sets of the TV
show, as opposed to on stage?
Poehlel: Yes.
Absolutely. Our makeup and hair people on this show are
amazing, and they
make us look so different every scene. It's a tremendous
help. We don't even
recognize each other when we are sitting around having
lunch. Often we just
keep going in our character's voices all day.
Oasis_dude_14: What are your favorites bands?
Poehlel: Yo
La Tengo. Shellac, Steve Albini did a theme song for our show. I
personally like Sleater
Kinney a lot. The Wu Tang Clan. Late Beatles. And
Superchunk.
maxcandle77: How was filming the 2nd season different from the 1st?
Poehlel: Second
season is a little easier. Because we have most of the same
crew back and we have
all gotten very close so it makes things easier that way.
It's a little different
because we are doing scenes that are a little bit newer to us.
The first season was
filled with scenes we had been doing for a long time. But
we are so thrilled
to be doing a second season that it takes a lot of the pressure
off of us. And — we
get recognized when we do pranks now sometimes which
is nice.
TV Guide: Thanks
for chatting Amy, up now is Matt Besser who plays
Adair.
Poehlel: Matt Besser, Adair, is on deck. Thank you!
apb86: Whos the real boss? Springsteen or Danza?
Besser: It's Danzig.
apb86: Predictions For Y2K?
Besser: Yeah,
we're not going to get that far. That's not a prediction that's
actually a fact.
swatki: How did you guys come up with your UCB names?
Besser: This
is actually true. My grandmother went to school of the Ozarks in
Arkansas. She went
to college when she was like 60 years old to get her
degree. And I got
her yearbook and took four professors right in a row, and
they were Antoine,
Trotter, Adair and Colby.
swatki: At the
Chicago Improv Fest., on stage you mentioned being from
Arkansas. Is that
true? If so, where exactly?
Besser: I am
from Little Rock. And yes I have met the President on two
occasions when he
was governor. And I went to Central High.
aurelius19: What do the stripes on your jackets mean?
Besser: Actually
they are filled with meaning. And you can't really know until
you are a UCB member.
It's protocol.
Sir_James_Martin:
Will there ever be a follow up episode? Like another
bong boy, or perhaps
how little donny is doing?
Besser: It's
quite possible that both those characters will return, not an entire
episode devoted to
them, but they will probably show up again. Bong boy has
possibly met the love
of his life.
Dr_A_Nonymous:
Are you going to ever sell any of the UCB shows on video,
maybe with added scenes?
Besser: Actually
we are going to. We have to edit chunks of scenes
sometimes, and we
are going to put the uncut scenes on the website on
Comedy Central. And
the video thing sounds like a good idea that you should
email to Comedy Central
over and over again.
swatki: What is your favorite prank you guys have done?
Besser: I really
like the, well, we took the Pitte brothers, to Vanilla Ice's first
show he did on his
new show. And we went backstage afterwards and had a
meeting with him and
tried to get him to open for us on our European tour. And
got him to sign a
Vanilla Ice 80's doll. And he was pretty perturbed about that.
And then we went to
his celebration after party which we were not invited to.
And finally got kicked
out by his manager.
JamesTLunatic: What episode did you like the best?
Besser: I guess
I like them all. Probably the Lady of the Lake episode,
because it caused
me so much pain physically.
ucbrigade: This may have already been asked, but where did you all meet?
Besser: Chicago. Improv Olympic.
zipp123_45:
Is the UBC like the secret group behind the government, like on
the X-Files? Do you
believe the truth is out there?
Besser: They
are pathetic pretenders. They are posers wanting to have the
power we possess.
And the truth is out there and we are making it.
maxcandle77:
Saw asscat200 where you were cupid. Will we see that in the
UCB show ever?
Besser: (LOL!) Yes, see it in five.
swatki: Who
is the tallest member of the UCB? (I won't ask who's the
shortest.)
Besser: I guess that Ian and I are both 6'2".
WernerVonWallenrod: Who are your favorite comedians/improvisationalists?
Besser: That
would have to be Andy Kaufman, and Kids in the Hall. And Mr.
Show.
WernerVonWallenrod:
Think you guys'll ever get on Win Ben Stein's Money
like the Daily Show
crew?
Besser: We can only dream.
Jaaaayyy: Do you have any chaos planned for the internet?
Besser: Check
out on our website what's already going on. Not the Comedy
Central website, but
our own www.uprightcitizens.org.
VirMagnus: How many episodes will there be this season?
Besser: Ten.
cdh1979: What do you think sets you apart from all the other sketch shows?
Besser: We have
the Wu Tang Clan on our show. That's it, We're pretty much
the same outside of
that.
Dr_A_Nonymous:
Are you ever going to sell UCB episodes on video or
finally get some more
merchandise?
Besser: We got
t-shirts on the Comedy Central site. And we are trying to
convince them to sell
our jetpacks. So you have to write in to ask for them.
JamesTLunatic: Do people notice you at all on the street?
Besser: Yes,
and they are immediately picked up in vans and taken to an
undisclosed location.
ucbrigade:What kinds of things can we do to contribute to the UCB?
Besser: That's
a great question. If you get on the lists as they're called on our
CC website, we occasionally
ask for help and chaos from our collective agents
out there in the field.
swatki: Your
Unabomber was hilarious. Do you have any favorite characters
that you've done?
Besser: No.
zipp123_45:
Have you always been Upright Citizens, or kinda, sorta upright?
Maybe even a bit shady?
Besser: How
can I answer this question as cleverly as it was put? I know what
you mean, we're going
to come kill you tonight.
swatki: What is the origin of the name UCB?
Trotter: We
used to do shows back in Chicago, we would do very jackass
sketches and at the
end we would say "Thank you we have been Citizens for
Political Justice,"
and then we came up with UCB and we decided to take it
seriously. Because
we had some shows where a secret organization had funded
the show, etc. and
eventually it began to dominate the personality of the show.
De_nise101: Trotter needs another lobotomy.
Trotter: (LOL!)
He does need one actually! He needs a corpus collassum
reattached to his
reticular arousal system. There is too much pain in the world, I
need to be lobotomized
— again!
Sir_James_Martin:
Will "the man" ever catch on to the general chaos caused
by the UCB, or is
the government no match for your technology?
Trotter: The
man works for the UCB unknowingly. We need the man to create
the shadow for us
to exist under.
apb86: Flock Of Seagulls or A-Ha?
Trotter: Flock
of Seagulls. Absolutely. Aurora Borealis comes in view. That
song was written by
the space program.
maxcandle77:
Trotter and Antoine have great chemistry. I think they are in
love. Any thoughts?
Trotter: Everyone
in the UCB is in love. We are married to the organization.
As far as gay/homosexual
ass love, no.
swatki: What is the deal with the various eyewear you guys wear?
Trotter: They have various purposes.
TV Guide: Now up is Ian who plays Antoine. Bye Matt.
Antoine: Hello
America! Embrace the chaos, I'm off to watch the first episode.
I hope you enjoy it!
Bye from all of us!
TV Guide:Thanks
for chatting with us all. UCB is on Comedy Central tonight
at 10:30 EST. Goodnight.