TVSquad

I went to the UCB Theatre in New York on Sunday night to see their signature show, "ASSSSCAT." It was side-splittingly funny as usual; the group last night featured UCB founder and SNLer Amy Poehler, Jack McBrayer and John Lutz from 30 Rock, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel from Human Giant, among others, and the guest monologist was Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks). I had a fantastic time.

But I kind of wish I was at the theater about 20 hours before that, when the entire cast of SNL put on a makeshift version of their show, hosted by Michael Cera (we mentioned this show when it was announced last week). Fortunately, The New York Times was there, and they not only have an article about the event, but a nice slide show as well.

The show consisted of a combination of the troupe's favorite sketches plus ones that were rejected for time, humor, or content. In addition, Seth Meyers and Poehler did a raunchier version of "Weekend Update." Yo La Tengo was kind enough to be the musical guest. Proceeds from the show -- $20 per ticket, though the article states that they were being scalped on Craigslist for as much as $300 -- went to the staff members of SNL who are out of work for the duration of the writers' strike.

From the sound of it, it was about as uneven as any other episode of SNL, though I'm sure the theater venue and the fact that it wasn't on network TV allowed for some edgier humor. But what intrigued me about the description of the event was the energy in the crowd. It just seemed like a lovefest, with everyone having a relaxed good time. And from a people-watching perspective, the audience was top-notch, including SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, John Krasinski and some of the writers from The Office, Norah Jones and the aforementioned Samm Levine, among others. But I just think that the rarity of the event would have made being there special; even a makeshift version of SNL performed by the entire cast in front of such a small crowd is something that probably won't happen again, unless the writers' strike goes for another few months. We all hope that's not the case.

My fellow blogger Annie dug up another review of the show, by the Huffington Post's resident comedy "expert," Rachel Sklar.

Next up at the UCB: a show from the cast of 30 Rock, which will be performed tonight.

[via Pop Candy]