We haven't seen much of former Saturday Night Live star Horatio Sanz since Lorne Michaels & Co. gave him the axe in 2006. After laying his impressions of Rubeus Hagrid and Saddam Hussein to rest, Sanz dropped about 100 lbs and made some sporadic SNL cameos, returning to reprise his rendition of "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" with Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan and Chris Kattan when Fallon hosted last December. But it looks like Sanz is returning to his sketch comedy roots; he recently teamed up with Upright Citizens Brigade director Todd Bieber in creating a new web series on UCBComedy's YouTube channel. more ›

A letter bomb addressed to Deutsche bank CEO Dr. Josef Ackermann was found in the mailroom of the bank's Frankfurt headquarters this morning. The bomb did not detonate, and no one has claimed responsibility yet. (ABC reports that Ackerman "is one of Europe's most powerful bankers and is a key advisor in the European Union debt crisis to Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.") We hope you didn't have any big heist plans cooking this week, because now the NYPD is warning local banks to step up security. more ›

Even before the Upright Citizens Brigade opened up their new outpost in the East Village, the neighbors were complaining. First it was about the name—"Hot Chicks Room"—they gave their bar, then the red velvet curtains that reminded them of a brothel, and now that's it's opened, it's the noise. How generic. EV Grieve spotted this note outside of UCB, which is located at 3rd Street and Avenue A—it reads: more ›

Have the heathens at the UCB Theater taken down that Hot Chicks Room signage yet? You can breathe a sigh of relief, puritanical locals, and know that the East Village is now G-rated again! Well, almost. As you can see in this photo taken earlier today, the theater still has those salacious red curtains up, but it's probably only a matter of time before the area folk burn the place down. more ›

Earlier this month East Village locals rallied against the UCB Theater's Hot Chicks Room, a bar attached to their new comedy venue. The name was discarded, the sign was taken down, and the NIMBYs target heart rates went back to normal... until the red curtains came up. more ›

The Upright Citizens Brigade have been settling in to a new space on Avenue A at 3rd Street, and the welcoming committee has already forced them to take down some signage. Welcome to the East Village circa 2011! EV Grieve has had total coverage of the events, from CB3/SLA meeting to a petition going around to the eventual agreement to get rid of the sign all together. That sign, by the way, says "Hot Chicks Room"—which one local believes made it sound like a 1970s Times Square peep show (for comparison). more ›

Yesterday the battle-scarred Broadway mega-musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark debuted an elaborate new finale in which the titular character triumphantly flies out over the audience in an extended aerial maneuver. Shockingly, the stunt failed last night, and the actor in the Spidey suit was left dangling over the audience for a full minute. Then the lights came up and the show ended. (To the egress, suckers!) Fortunately, a group of Upright Citizen Brigade comedians were in the audience to skewer the whole debacle on Twitter. Here are their funniest japes: more ›

Protesters gathered at the New York Times building yesterday as part of a worldwide protest of BP, though from the looks of it not nearly as many showed up as they said they would on Facebook. Instead of the harassing another BP station owner, the protesters chose to rally outside the NYT building because the paper continued to run full-page BP ads in the wake of the oil spill. Organizer Lauren McGowan told NY1, "BP has spent $50 million on campaign ads for positive [public relations] and we feel that money really needs to be spent on protection." Join the club. more ›

Okay, so this isn't the real Dov Charney, but we're going to assume it's pretty close. The parody was written and directed by UCB's Todd Bieber—be sure to watch the whole video for whispered lexical gems like, "I want you to know that you can trust me, okay?" more ›

After starting out in New York performing for years at the UCB Theater, both as an improviser and a member of the popular sketch group Naked Babies, Rob Corddry first made a name for himself in 2002 when he was brought on The Daily Show as a correspondent. He left the show in 2006 to do sitcoms and films and has been working steadily ever since, most recently playing former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in Oliver Stone's W. Starting in December, Warner Brothers is launching Children's Hospital, a web series that he wrote, directed and stars in. Rob checked in to chat about the new series, doing The Daily Show in an election year and life in LA versus back here in New York. more ›

Saturday Night Live has a new cast member--Season 34's new addition is longtime UCB Theater performer Bobby Moynihan. (Many had expected the pick to be a female, due to Amy Poehler's departure.) The Huffington Post reports that Moynihan worked on "The Line," which has SNL cast members involved (watch episodes here), and with others from the SNL troupe at UCB. Also noted is that "one of Moynihan's best-known talents within the UCB community is his repertoire of black impressions- which, if they make it on air, may revive some old complaints about SNL." (Last season the show ended up using Fred Armisen, who is of Caucasian and Asian descent, to play Barack Obama.) more ›

Last year Bloomberg announced the "first-ever global multimedia communications campaign to promote New York City," with efforts to bring in more tourism through television, outdoor advertising, internet and everything in between. more ›

Saturday night viewers of NBC didn't get a new episode of Saturday Night Live, but 150 audience members at the UCB Theater did! Live and un-aired, the show was to help raise money for crew members affected by the strike. Amy Poehler, who organized the event, made this statement:"The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is a second home to a lot of these performers and writers. We are doing this to raise spirits, raise awareness, and... more ›

First amNewYork outs the secret bars around town, and now the NY Post is revealing the up-until-now secret shows happening soon at UCB. The casts of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, both taking part in the WGA strike (as the actors are also writers), are bringing their shows to the stage. Each will perform new episodes live, in the small 150-seat theater -- 30 Rock on Monday the 19th and Saturday Night Live on... more ›