Salon.com > performers http://www.salon.com Thu, 23 May 2013 01:58:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Upright Citizens Brigade reestablishes its roots http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/upright_citizens_brigade_re_establishes_its_roots/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/30/upright_citizens_brigade_re_establishes_its_roots/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13184767 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."

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