Un-Cabaret - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Un-Cabaret is a Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-based alternative comedy

Alternative comedy

Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...

organization that produces live, TV and multi-media projects, workshops and events.

History

Un-Cabaret originally started in 1990 when performance artist-turned comedian Beth Lapides

Beth Lapides

-Art:Lapides began her career as a visual and performance artist in New York. She continues to exhibit in group shows.-Un-Cabaret:By 1990 Lapides and her partner and husband Greg Miller had moved to Los Angeles. In 1993 they created Un-Cabaret, a live show that became an important venue for the...

started producing shows in 'alternative' venues like the Women's Building, then Highways Performance Space. The idea of the show was to be funny without doing an 'act' and use story-based stream-of-consciousness techniques rather than the set-up and punchline formula of mainstream standup.

In November 1993, Un-Cabaret moved to LunaPark, a new music club in West Hollywood. Every Sunday night for the next seven years, Beth gathered other refugees from the comedy clubs, including Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor. He is best known for portraying Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille and Thrasher from the Cartoon Network original series Robotomy.-Early life:Oswalt was born...

, Judy Toll

Judy Toll

Judy Toll was an American comedian, writer, and actress.- Career :Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Toll wrote for television programs including Sex and the City, Boy Meets World, Alright Already, and The Geena Davis Show...

, Taylor Negron

Taylor Negron

Brad Taylor Negron is an American writer, actor, and stand-up comedian.-Personal life:Negron was born in Glendale, California to Conrad Negron, Sr., former mayor of Indian Wells, California. He grew up in Pasadena, California. His cousin is singer Chuck Negron...

, Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk

Robert "Bob" Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr...

, Julia Sweeney

Julia Sweeney

Julia Anne Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for her autobiographical solo shows.-Personal life:...

, Bobcat Goldthwait

Bobcat Goldthwait

Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is commonly known for his energetic, ravenous stage personality, his dark, acerbic black comedy, and his gruff but high-pitched voice.- Early life :Goldthwait was born in Syracuse,...

, Terry Sweeney

Terry Sweeney

Terry Sweeney is an American writer, comedian and actor.-Saturday Night Live:Sweeney is best known for his appearances as a regular cast member of Saturday Night Live during that program's 1985-86 season....

, Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe is an author, an Emmy Award-winning television writer and a sometime standup comedienne.-Career:Markoe attended the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a B.A. in Art in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972...

, Janeane Garofalo

Janeane Garofalo

Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...

, David Cross

David Cross

David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...

, Laura Kightlinger

Laura Kightlinger

Laura Kightlinger is an American actress, comedian and writer. She may be best known for her role as Nurse Sheila on Will & Grace.-Early life:Kightlinger was born and raised in Jamestown, New York...

, Andy Kindler

Andy Kindler

Andy Kindler is an American stand-up comedian from New York City who now resides in Los Angeles.-Stand up:His material often covers the comedy industry itself, criticizing other comedians for being too predictable. One of his more notable criticisms was that of Dane Cook where he compared the...

, Dana Gould

Dana Gould

Dana John Gould is an American comedian and comedy writer born and raised in Hopedale, Massachusetts. His upbringing and his extended family lent themselves to his stand-up routine, which has been seen on HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central, among other places.-Career:After high school, he studied...

, Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin

Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin is an American actress, stand-up comedienne, television personality, New York Times best-selling author and an LGBT rights advocate. Griffin first gained recognition for appearances on two episodes of Seinfeld, and then for her supporting role on the NBC sitcom...

, Andy Dick

Andy Dick

Andrew R. "Andy" Dick is an American comedian, actor, musician and television/film producer. His first regular television role was on the short-lived but highly influential Ben Stiller Show. In the mid-1990s, he had a long-running stint on NBC's NewsRadio...

, Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...

, Michael Patrick King

Michael Patrick King

Michael Patrick King is an American director, writer and producer for television shows.-Life and career:King was born to an Irish American family in Scranton, Pennsylvania and was raised as a Roman Catholic...

, and others.

Traditional comedians dismissed Un-Cabaret for its lack of structure and formal technique, but the show drew a rabid cult following and influenced many other 'alternative comedy

Alternative comedy

' shows in Los Angeles, then New York and eventually throughout the country and Canada.

In 1997, Comedy Central produced an Un-Cabaret TV special featuring Beth Lapides

Beth Lapides

, Taylor Negron

Taylor Negron

, Dana Gould

Dana Gould

, Julia Sweeney

Julia Sweeney

Julia Anne Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for her autobiographical solo shows.-Personal life:...

, Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin

, Andy Dick

Andy Dick

and Scott Thompson

Scott Thompson

Scott Thompson is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.-Personal life:...

.

When LunaPark closed, Un-Cabaret moved to the HBO Workspace, then to M-Bar in Hollywood, continuing to produce personal narrative comedy with other non-traditional comedians like Sklar Brothers, Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt

, Greg Behrendt

Greg Behrendt

Gregory Behrendt is an American stand-up comedian and author. His work as a script consultant to the HBO sitcom Sex and the City, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, paved the way for co-authoring of the New York Times bestseller He's Just Not That into You , later adapted into a film by the same name...

, Jeff Garlin

Jeff Garlin

Jeffrey "Jeff" Garlin is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, voice artist, director, writer and author, best known for his role as Jeff Greene on the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm...

, Mike McDonald

Mike McDonald

Mike McDonald is a former professional American football player who played long snapper for nine seasons in the NFL. His youngest son plays football at the University of Notre Dame and is an inside linebacker....

, plus writers like Jerry Stahl

Jerry Stahl

Jerry Stahl is an American novelist and screenwriter, He is best known for his memoir of addiction Permanent Midnight. A film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role....

, Michael Patrick King

Michael Patrick King

, Larry Charles

Larry Charles

Larry Charles is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known as a staff writer for the American sitcom Seinfeld for its first 5 seasons, contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines...

, Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is well known for his work in comedy films, especially for films he has been involved with throughout the latter half of the 2000s. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the...

and others.

Training Program

Un-Cabaret founder Beth Lapides and her producer and partner Greg Miller teach personal narrative techniques for writers, performers and other humans in their 'free range comedy' workshop, The Comedian's Way. They teach privately in Los Angeles, have taught at UCLA Extension, Humber College, CalArts, Media Bistro and also create educational materials for aspiring comedy writers and performers.

Radio & Audio

Un-Cabaret has been featured on “This American Life”, “All Things Considered”, “Morning Edition” and “Marketplace” on NPR, plus over 100 episodes of "Radio Un-Cabaret" for Comedy World and Sirius Satellite Radio. Un-Cabaret also released several compilation CDs including "Freak Weather Feels Different", "The Un & Only", "The Good, the Bad and the Drugly" and "Play the Word (vol. 1 & 2)". Podcasts are now heard on Audible.com/uncabaret.

Television & Film

Comedy Central produced a special in 1997.
Directors Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) have been working on a documentary about Un-Cabaret for several years now.

Other projects

Un-Cabaret also runs a spoken-word comedy show, "Say the Word", which features original first-person stories from TV comedy writers including Cindy Chupack, Jay Kogen, Winnie Holzman, Alan Zweibel, Peter Mehlman and others.

Un-Cabaret also produced The Other Network, a festival of un-aired TV pilots introduced by their creators, including Robert Smigel

Robert Smigel

Robert Smigel is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.-Early life:...

, Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien

Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....