Salon.com > improv

Jonathan Winters dies at 87

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:16:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comedian Jonathan Winters, whose breakneck improvisations inspired Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many others, has died at age 87.

Longtime family friend Joe Petro III says the Ohio native died Thursday evening at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes.

Winters was a master of improvisational comedy, with a grab bag of eccentric personalities and facial expressions. Characters such as the dirty old lady Maude Frickert were based on people Winters knew growing up in Ohio.

In the mid-1950s, "The Jonathan Winters Show" pioneered the then-new videotape technology on to do stunts such as showing up as two characters on screen together.

He was introduced to millions of new fans in 1981 as the son of Williams' goofball alien in the final season of ABC's "Mork and Mindy."

Lena Dunham riffs on crazy cousins, ex-boyfriends and sci-fi fantasy dorm rooms

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:40:00 +0000

Providing a high-profile show for a small gathering at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York Sunday night, "Girls" creator Lena Dunham yesterday performed monologues as part of a benefit hosted for women's reproductive rights. "Daily Show" creator Lizz Winstead emceed the improv comedy performance, "A is for Asssscat 3000," at the Chelsea theater.

The "Asssscat" show, which runs every Sunday at UCB for $10, is organized into improvised comedy and monologues. The way the show works is that initially, someone in the audience will raise a one-word suggestion, which becomes a prompt for a monologue. After the monologist riffs (for about two minutes), her monologue then becomes the inspiration for a series of scenes improved by UCB performers. Together, they perform three to four sets during the night.

As last night's monologist, Dunham shared intimate stories about her experiences in college, a video game-addicted ex-boyfriend and her wild cousin, excerpts below:

On cousins, Dunham explains that she has a cousin who loves to party and used to live with her parents. He also worked on the set of "Girls":

Upright Citizens Brigade reestablishes its roots

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

The Upright Citizens Brigade, once an improv group and then a show on Comedy Central in 1998 with Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh, evolved into an improv and sketch theater based out of New York. It has expanded to a comedy empire of sorts, operating two theaters in New York, one in Los Angeles, a website for original content, a touring company and schools that have become a breeding ground for some of America's most well-known comedians like Ed Helms, Zach Woods and Ellie Kemper ("The Office") and Aziz Ansari ("Parks and Recreation").

Still, despite its reach, most of these spinoffs are not lucrative. In a bonus feature of Besser's "Improv 4 Humans" podcast released Tuesday night, co-founder Ian Roberts outlined the organization's finances, which had been "in the red" for many years. Roberts said that even now, "the theater as a business barely makes anything."