Last Call Cleveland

Last Call Cleveland is a sketch comedy troupe from Cleveland, Ohio featuring comedian and writer Mike Polk. They perform a mix of live and pre-recorded comedy.

Background

The members originally met when they were students at Kent State University, where they produced a late-night cable show that aired on the student-run campus network TV2. The show moved to Cleveland in 2001 to local broadcast cable station THE CAT (WAX 35 Cleveland and WAOH 29 Akron). The group started doing live sketch comedy at the shortly lived Second City Cleveland, where they remain a sketch group today. Although most of their performances have been in northeastern Ohio (primarily at Cabaret Dada, the Second City Cleveland theater and the House of Blues) they have also performed in Chicago at the Chicago Sketchfest, Washington, D.C. and in Los Angeles at the ImprovOlympic theater.

Awards and recognition

In 2005, the Cleveland Free Times named them "Cleveland's Best Performing Arts Group of 2005".

On September 6, 2006, their video about the cult web/Cleveland personality Marc the Norton Furniture Guy was featured on the Opie and Anthony website, as well as other videos.

The book Look At My Striped Shirt, edited by Mike Polk, features articles by some of Last Call's current and former members, as well as the "Look At My Striped Shirt" article which originally appeared on thephatphree.com, as written by Mike Polk.

On September 22, 2006, the sketch group had a not so flattering appearance on the Opie and Anthony radio show, where they were told to "die" after they performed a song.

In the October 2006 issue of Cleveland Magazine, they were named the city's "Best Comedy Group" ironically, the city's "only" comedy group.

Mike Polk and Jef Etters are responsible for the mock motivational rock group Falconheart, which has appeared at The House of Blues.

The group has over 40 videos of live and taped performances on YouTube.

In November 2008, Last Call Cleveland appeared at the 4th Annual Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, the largest independent comedy festival in Canada. The festival was founded by Julianne and Paul Snepsts of the comedy troupe Boiled Weiners and takes place over 6 days and three venues (including The Second City) in Toronto, Canada. In 2009, their second appearance at the festival, the troupe won the "Second City Best of the Fest Award."

The majority of the troupe's current and former members are also a part of Run-Away-Box Productions - and can be seen in the on-line series "Man in the Box" and "Greg's Office Tormentors."

In July 2011, LCC posted a video on YouTube showing the similarities between a sketch on Conan and a sketch the group performed in 2008. Fans have also posted videos which show similarities between LCC sketches and material from MadTV and Saturday Night Live.[1]

Notable members

Current

Former

Television show
  • (1998) The Twilight Show (TV-2)
  • (1999) Last Call (TV-2)
  • (2001) Last Call (CAT 29 & 35)
  • (2002) Last Call (Adelphia Cable, COX 45, Cable 9)
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gollark: No, I mean as palaiologos was subjected to its raw output for several minutes.
gollark: osmarks internet radio™ feedback?
gollark: It also means I can beam bee data directly into voice chats.
gollark: Or just between tracks.

References
  1. O'Neal, Sean. (2011-07-13). Conan O'Brien accused of stealing sketch from oft-copied Cleveland comedy troupe The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
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