Comedian Matt Walsh is a natural calming agent; he has a voice of chamomile and the eyes of a tired hound. These are the features of a man who has made a career out of playing fuddy-duddies, cops and deadpan dads. He’s that guy. You’ve seen him do it on Veep, or a random episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, creeping around a copy machine in Old School or performing a testicular exam in The Hangover. He’s given us a lifetime of these roles, providing a base of sanity from which any of his scene partners can propel.
As a co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade, Walsh is a quiet titan in the world of improvisational comedy. The group formed in Chicago in 1990 and moved to New York, where they invaded the improv scene and, in turn, the shape of modern comedy as we know it. Where Second City and Improv Olympic established improv as a viable medium, UCB expanded the reach of the movement into campuses, punk circles and indie communities. To this day, people talk about taking improv classes like they talk about doing yoga or joining a gym. Walsh was part of that.
He’s now a member of Bluebird Improv, an all-star group that also features comedy vets Marc Evan Jackson (The Good Place), Brad Morris (The Bear) and Joe Canale (Second City), who will all be making their way to Iowa City’s Englert Theatre on Oct. 2 and Des Moines’ Temple Theater on Oct. 3.
Little Village jumped on a call with Walsh to dish on improv tips, what it was like cleaning condoms out of a theater wall, and how his crew of entertainers entertain themselves on the road.
Every Bluebird show incorporates the audience in some way. How do you format this type of storytelling?
We go out into the audience and talk to individual people about their jobs, their lives, their strange vacation stories, something they’re looking forward to, secrets of marriage. We ask about the town. It’s whatever strikes us, and if something is interesting, we dig a little deeper.
Have you ever had an audience member catch feelings over a bit?
Not if we’re doing our jobs. We don’t make fun of them; we use their stories as information and then once we’ve gotten a few people interviewed, we then take the stage over for 20 minutes of inspired long-form improvisation … hopefully it’s goddamn funny. Usually it is.
Bluebird has toured all over the world. Can you talk about the impact of your style in other countries?
In London there’s a very strong long-form scene. Even in Spain there’s a smaller scene starting to grow, so what strikes me is that there’s this thing that grew out of Chicago and has now started populating all these cities around the world. And it’s really cool.
In a lot of countries people aren’t used to being asked to participate in the show, so in a way they feel like they’re being rude if you ask them a question and they answer. So they’re not used to being pulled through the fourth wall like that.
There’s a Bluebird Diner in Iowa City, famous for its omelettes. Are you guys planning some kind of cross-promotional cook-off? Or a Bluebird turf war?
We took our photo in front of it last time we were there! Then we actually ate there. It’s our namesake. We had to. And we had a lovely time. I feel like we were in the middle of some cold, sleet weather.
That’s when we need improv the most. Improv and gravy.
These are scary times. How do you think Veep’s Mike McLintock would be handling the second Trump administration?
That’s a great question. Weirdly, Mike was mostly honest. He did bend the truth for Selina, or obfuscate the truth. But to work for this guy, I think you constantly are lying. So I don’t know if Mike would make it.
Yeah. Like if Mike got left in Iran again, I don’t know if we’d ever see him again.
I think him and Gary would still be on the bar cart, just drinking to survive.
Going deeper into your stable of characters: how would Captain Lunatic from the Upright Citizens Brigade TV series handle all of these modern vices, with all these dispensaries and Draft Kings?
[Pause] Is anyone gonna know that you have a passion for a character from 30 years ago?
[Laughs] Hey! We have at least, like, five readers who remember UCB when it was on TV!
Oh, Lunatic would have a brain aneurysm just by seeing the legalization of marijuana and online gambling. He’d lose it completely.
Are there any plans for a UCB reunion tour or show?
No, but I’m working on a book that describes my journey inside the explosion of long-form improv that happened when we had the theater in New York. We had taken what we had learned in Chicago and expanded upon it, which was crazy in 1996.
The irony of the UCB movement is that the original theater hosted nudie shows, is that right?
It was. We found this old strip club but had to tear it all down and start fresh.
Paul Scheer told me you guys found used condoms in the walls.
The things we found in there were crazy and gross. And I actually lived above that theater for several years, on the top floor. So it was very much a part of my life. It was a tiny little space, but it’s where New York discovered us and the scene started to grow.
The legacy of what came out of that tiny little space is wild.
It slowly attracted really funny and intelligent people, many who have gone on to wonderful writing and television and movie stuff.
Donald Glover, Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang and many, many more. When can we expect the book?
It should be out by fall or winter of next year.
You came up in the Midwest. Are you guys stopping to see family between shows?
If we get time, we dig up a museum, even if it’s an obscure one. Just to see what kind of archives are being celebrated in any area around the world. And I think driving is interesting, just seeing America and what people are like out here.
Upcoming events:
The Englert Theatre and Little Village present: Bluebird Improv, Englert Theatre, Iowa City, Friday, Oct. 2, 7:30 p.m.
Bluebird Improv, Temple Theater, Des Moines, Saturday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s September 2026 issue.
