Zebro

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Zebro is a Boston sketch comedy group fondled in February of 2006. They are best known on the Internet for their sketch videos, which often find humor in sad subjects and characters. Their weekly live shows consist of short videos and sketches shown in a variety show format with walk on characters, audience plants, and a host (usually group fondler Elisha Yaffe).

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Zebro in Boston

Zebro was fondled in Boston February of 2006 by Elisha Yaffe, then a senior at Emerson College. While Emerson had many comedy troupes at the time, all of the sketch comedy performances took place on the school's campus.

Zebro booked the ImprovBoston theater, located in Inman Square (part of Cambridge, Massachusetts) for a weekly show. The plan was to put a bunch of funny people in one room and write a weekly variety show that would feature stand up, sketch comedy, and short videos. He invited a number of his friends to take part. At this point, Zebro was simply a weekly comedy show; Zebro the sketch comedy group did not exist yet.

On February 21, 2006, the first Zebro show took place at ImprovBoston. It was a tremendous success. The standing room only crowd enjoyed performances from The Walsh Brothers and Robby Roadsteamer as well as the first ever Zebro short video, entitled "Handercourse."

"Handercourse" was the first Zebro video put online. Soon more followed, many generating a number of views on the Internet. With the growing popularity of their videos and their entry into the Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival, Zebro slowly evolved into a sketch comedy group with a regular cast. While they maintained the original vision of hosting a laid back, anything goes weekly variety show with a number of guest performers, outside of their weekly show, Zebro began to form an identity as a sketch comedy group. They quickly gained notiriety for being one of the most popular groups in Boston and, in a short period of time, were highlighted the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and the Boston Metro.

After performing at the 2006 Montreal Sketch Festival and the 2006 Toronto Improv Festival with varying degrees of success, the group headed to New York City, where they were invited to host a show as part of the 2006 NYC Underground Festival. They performed in front of a sold out crowd and festival producer George Sarris called them the "best sketch group in Boston."[1]

In November of 2006, Zebro's video "Love Corner" quickly became a hit, being featured on both the front page of Youtube and Myspace. With the help of that video - described by salon.com as a paranormal corner where "love, death, and friendship commingle"[2] - Zebro has become one of the most popular groups on Youtube, listed as one of the most subscribed channels of all time.

[edit] Zebro in New York

With current members Ani Raya-Flores, Mike Purwin, Bob Walles, Matt James, Fred Young, Elisha Yaffe, and Bryan Condon living in New York, Zebro is working to produce a weekly live show in the city starting in March or April of 2007. According to the website of the People's Improv Theater, Zebro is starting a weekly show at their space on April 5, 2007[3].

[edit] Snakes on a Zebro

In March 2006, Zebro hosted a Snakes on a Plane music video contest as part of their weekly live show at ImprovBoston. Contestants were told to write and record original songs inspired by the movie and then make them into music videos. The top three videos were produced by Zebro, including the rap video "Snakes on an MP3" which has been featured on Extra, MTV, CNN, MTV, BBC, and MSNBC after being put on YouTube.[4] Another song entitled "100%: A Tribute to SoaP" is a claymation video dedicated to the film.[5]

[edit] Goo Goo Dolls Feud

On April 18, 2006 Zebro premiered a video entitled "Why Do People like the Goo Goo Dolls?" The video featured Elisha Yaffe and Michael Purwin interviewing their friend Jeremy Hardwick, a GGD fan. In the video, they critique Hardwick for his love of the band, asking him a variety of questions.

After its premiere, the video garnered backlash from a number of GGD fans, who often resorted to homophobic remarks that can be seen in the comment section of the original Youtube video.[6]

Despite the backlash from fans, Yaffe received an email from Mike Malinin, the drummer in the band, saying that he loved the video and he wanted to invite Zebro on tour to see if he could change their mind.[7] According to Yaffe's website, Zebro went to meet the band at a recent gig in Syracuse, New York and will be premiering a video documenting the trip in early January of 2007.[8]

Goo Goo Dolls fans have responded with their own Youtube videos, including one called "The Goo Goo Dolls Saved My Life".[9] Many Goo Goo Dolls fans have expressed anger towards Zebro for what they have said about the band. This is noted in Zebro's recap video of their trip to meet the band. In it, Zebro recounts the homophobic and insulting remarks directed towards Zebro by fans of the band.[10]

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.nycundergroundcomedy.com/
  2. ^ Puner, David. "Video Dog." 21 Dec. 2007. Salon.com. 28 Dec. 2007. http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/comedy/2006/12/21/love_corner/
  3. ^ http://www.thepit-nyc.com
  4. ^ http://oldtownfancy.wordpress.com/
  5. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=H1Jr23dDQMk
  6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsRXqoa5EB4
  7. ^ http://www.elishayaffe.com/2006/08/the_goo_goo_dolls_emailed_me.html
  8. ^ http://www.elishayaffe.com/2006/12/the_goo_goo_dolls_a_recap.html
  9. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFI9C0Z2BeY
  10. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTlBBbKGsN4
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