Monkeydick is nine individuals trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre who execute their long-form improvised comedy skills on stage... for you, America!
History
Short version: Six students
met in classes at the UCB Theatre in 2000 and formed an improv practice
group. They first performed at a UCB Cagematch in February 1, 2001 and
did well enough that the theatre cast them as one of their house Harold
teams.
Long version:
Monkeydick was founded in about August of 2000 by Brian Berrebbi,
Pete Bosniak, John Gemberling, Will Hines, Rob Lathan,
and Mitch Magee. When the UCBT took us on, they added Ed
Herro and Sara Jacobs to the team. Ed left shortly therafter
and Jane Borden replaced him. In December of 2001, Curtis Gwinn
and Matt DeCoster replaced Jane and Sara. Andy Rocco joined
in November 2002. In May, Pete left. Then in August 2003, Brett Gelman
and Dyna Moe replaced Brian and Mitch.
Trivia
On the day of our first public performance, John turned 20 years old.
Billy Merritt coached us and in our first few shows we pioneered the "organic"
form (mostly "sound and movement" as we did it) in our openings
and transitions. This form of waving your arms and making grunts and incoherent
yelps has gone on to annoy a great many people, but it can be done very
well, and in our first shows, we did! Honest. People dug it.
When Curtis and Matt joined, we re-named ourselves The Call of the
Wolf for one show, during which the name was resoundingly and repeatedly
booed. We then switched to Janice for a few months, which was begrudgingly
tolerated, until we gave up and returned to Monkeydick. (Mitch
Magee coined the name Monkeydick to start with.)
Other names considered at one time or another: Screaming for Screams, Osgood-Schlatter, Steven, Mentertainment.
Time between Monkeydick being made an official Harold team and Brian
Berrebbi offering his services as a coach on an improv message board:
30 minutes.
Time after jaw surgery that Rob Lathan performed, bloodied and swollen,
with Monkeydick: 1 day.
Number of times a cell phone has rung on stage during a Monkeydick show:
1. Number of times that phone was answered: 1.
Number of mono scenes (one uninterrupted scene) in which all characters
were dead before the show was half over: 1.
"I love waching you guys. It's like watching people
improvise drunk..."
- Ian Roberts | Upright Citizens Brigade, Martin &
Orloff
