Seth Simons

The long debate over the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre's policy of not paying talent reached its most feverish pitch in the winter of 2012 and 2013. A group of standup comics, including Nick Turner and Kurt Metzger, publicly blasted the for-profit theatre over its use of free labor,

Some news: UCBTLA Artistic Director Beth Appel is leaving the theater. Below is the email announcing her resignation, sent a little after midnight Thursday morning (PST). Appel has served as Artistic Director since 2016. Her resignation follows the recent departures of UCBTNY Managing Director Alex Sidtis, UCBTLA Director of Human

I have some good news. In the next month or so I will be relaunching this newsletter with more regular content, including a paid subscription tier. The good news is related to some bad news. A week ago I learned the copywriting job that's paid my bills for

And some news.

I read with great interest Miles Klee’s piece in MEL about the many problems with contemporary network late-night comedy (and The Daily Show). If you subscribe to this newsletter then I imagine you have already read the article, or read about the article, so I won’t rehash it

UCB East will shut its doors for the last time on February 9th. Many of its long-running shows have already given their final performances, victims of the inevitable programming cuts announced alongside the theater’s closure earlier this month. On February 15th, UCB will launch its new partnership with SubCulture,