Day: March 22, 2011

Wondering when the Upright Citizens Brigade will go ahead and open that darned East Village location already? So are they. As the UCB's Alex Sidtis told EV Grieve last week: "We're eagerly awaiting clearance from the city to open and start booking shows." But they have to deal with city bureaucracy and community boards and neighbors who want to weigh in on all sorts of things. Including the UCB's tongue-in-cheek decision to name its ground-floor bar the "Hot Chicks Room." The new, second UCB location in NYC on Avenue A and East 3rd Street will host stand-up and sketch comedy, freeing up schedule space at its main Chelsea theater for more improv groups and other events. Here's a TV report from last week filed by WPIX, Ch. 11....

Coincidence? I think not. On Sunday, March 13, 2011, comedian Michael Ian Black sat down with me, Marc Maron and others for a special panel at SXSW called "Social Media and Comedy: F**k Yeah!" (photographed above by Carlos Miller). Among several topics, we discussed how comedians can use the Internet's social networks to further their careers. Black, for his part, revealed how he has used Twitter in the past to garner attention to himself. And eight days later, he did done gone and proved it again. Michael Ian Black wrote this yesterday on Twitter: "Decided to start a massive Twitter campaign to get @tacobell to hire me as their spokesman. First step: I need a hashtag." Since then, his campaign attracted attention from a wide array of people, including Jake Fogelnest and Meghan McCain, whom normally might not agree on much else. But they agree on MIB's bid to become the Taco Bell spokesperson. It's not as if it's a ridiculous idea. Black pitched Sierra Mist for years. He has spoken for Klondike bars and Pets.com. He told Vh1 how much he loved the 1980s. In less than 24 hours, he received this reply from Taco Bell: So what's next? A series of video pitches to President Barack Obama, obviously.   If you had attended our SXSW panel, you could have seen this coming. Or maybe you could have figured...