24. MATT BESSER

Matt Besser is one of the founding members of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade sketch group and theater. Together Besser, Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts helped revolutionize sketch comedy in the 1990s with their Comedy Central series and with the thousands of students that walk the halls of the UCB Theater each year, the UCB Four have become some of the most influential voices in modern comedy. I could have talked to Besser about the creation of “game philosophy”, his hilarious improv podcast Improv 4 Humans on Earwolf, his comedy special Besser Breaks The Record, the UCB Show Season 2 on Seeso, or his thoughts on the future of comedy. Instead of talking about any of that, we sat in silence for 25 minutes in his office in Los Angeles. Matt used that time to silently take me on a journey through his and his family’s shared history. It was both interesting and maybe the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced.