ASSSSCAT!!!

I've seen a lot of improv in my 26 years, but last night I got to see Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz, and Jack McBrayer perform in ASSSSCAT! For free! And at the UCB, the theater that Amy co-founded, and where I saw my 1st improv show. And let me tell you, it was a comedy-nerd's dream come true. I mean, I watched Amy and Horatio religiously the whole time they were on SNL. It was their cast that got me hooked on comedy, and that lead to the rest of everything that I've done. I'm pretty sure I pinched myself every other minute to make sure I wasn't making up this masterpiece in my head- but alas, and thankfully, I was not. I witnessed Amy do improv (along with a whole bunch of other brilliant improvisers) with mine own two eyes, and I am one ecstatic, eternally grateful gal!

It all started when Jeremy and I saw Alex's class show at 4pm (after a lunch of ice cream with some other great friends), and it turned into a mini-Philly-improv reunion of sorts (very mini, three Philly improvisers including me, haha), which led to pizza and standing in line for ASSSSCAT!! And we were numbers 27-30, so our odds were looking good. Of course we had about 2 hours to kill in line, so some song hole was played, American Pie was sung start to finish, there were many a phone sing a-longs (props to Kristen for doing a great Ke$ha impression), a photo shoot, some candy bashing, a lovely rendition of "Saturday Night's Alright" with a lisp, turning it into "Sawuday", some break dancing to ring tones...you know, all of that cool stuff, haha. When we got in there, we saw Jack McBrayer walk across the theater before the show, and I would've been super content with just him- but what happened next blew my mind- the stage lights dimmed, and Amy and Horatio walk out of the stage doors to explain the show and ask he audience questions, which prompted Horatio to reveal his hangover food (McGriddles) and how they made him feel like there was a vibrator behind his heart, Amy Poehler called some audience members liars- to make a long story short, it was awesome, and brilliant. Obviously. It was Amy and Horatio!

I could write for days about this show, so I'll try and condense it. As soon as everyone was on-stage, I couldn't help but think that I had to pay attention to everything, and could never forgot anything said. We saw Jack play the receptionist at a car wash where Amy's van dissappeared (at one point this scene resulted in a full-cast dance number to "Carwash" thanks to Horatio), Amy and Jack play Comcast phone receptionists who would switch places every few sentences while the other one took a break, a hitch-hiking scene where Amy was the hitchhiker who got in the car of a couple, one of whom was paranoid that she was a murderer, and there was Jack McBrayer in jail, and team of kid CIA agents who fought crime and were housed in a treehouse, Horatio played a character who peed himself when scared, the guest monologuist was the editor of the Onion, Joe Randazzo. There were so many more brilliant scenes, but I will spare you every detail in writing. Plus that was my first time seeing Chris Getthard do improv!! He is briliant!! The whole cast was and I wish I knew more names, but the scene work was flawless, and none of them missed a beat, and the transitions and edits were so smooth, and after the first act, the group I was with all high-fived each other cause we knew how freaking lucky we were to be in that room watching those people work their magic.

And what's even better was that the whole weekend was just as epic as all of that was! We got to go to the MoMa and see the Tim Burton exhibit (which was so cool), got to see some LAB Tennessee Williams readings and saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Bobby Cannavale there, went to Serendipity for a lunch of ice cream and frozen hot chocolate, ate dinner with Ali, Brent, and Amy, and had a lovely breakfast with Joy and Kev. It was exactly what a weekend should be!!