Comedy: Building the Brand

For people doing sketch comedy, there are generally two ways of starting out: Make pals in college and pursue your comedy dreams together or coagulate post-college in a comedy class. Our story begins when a rag-tag group of fast friends formed a sketch troupe called Buddy System after meeting in a writing workshop at The PIT. But like a bowl of Pinkberry in a women’s dorm, Buddy System came and went quickly. It is survived by its terrific core members, Jason Kalter and Jon Pack, who perform as the theatrical and mildly absurdist two-piece outfit, Rue Brutalia.

“It was just a weird twist on ‘Rule, Britannia!’, the British song,” says Jason Kalter, talking matter-of-factly to me about sea mariner shanties and about selecting his group’s name. “Something about the name sounded kinda edgy to us. It reminded us of the days when sketch comedy really had teeth. Jon and I both really liked the name, so it was our unanimous choice when we became a duo.”

Jason and Jon recently triumphed over a frenzied audience with a well-received set at their first SketchFest NYC. They weren’t always intent on doing stage shows though. Jon Pack notes that, “Rue Brutalia was initially intended as a Web series with new videos posted every two weeks and new live shows every two months.” The Web series-to-glory route is a difficult one to traverse today. Three years ago, if you popped out a funny video once a week, development deals were lavished upon you for your ability to churn early and often. The comedy video realm is so bloated now, performers need a multi-pronged plan of attack.

“It quickly became apparent that our live shows would be our bread and butter,” recounts Pack. “Since our first show on July 13th [2007], we’ve performed over 60 shows.” This statement made me think Jon and Jason share a Google Doc annotating each performance.

The group, whose sketches could be likened to early SNL or to situational Kids In the Hall romps, has a clear approach to their comedy. “Sketch comedy seems to walk a fine line between theater and stand-up comedy,” says Pack. “We’re joke writers at heart, but we have acting backgrounds, so our material works just as well in a theater as it does in a noisy bar.”

A few months ago, I had name-checked Rue Brutalia right here in this column as a group who will some day rule the roost with a recurring primetime weekend slot to themselves. The time is now, apparently with their Friday-night show at The PIT, Dirty Laundry, which was inspired by “past mistakes, embarrassing secrets and skeletons in the closet,” according to Kalter.

As sketch groups mature, there’s a tendency to intellectualize and add complexity to performances. Instead of foisting a handful of disconnected sketches on an audience, a more sophisticated group might experiment with themes, callbacks and common threads. Rue Brutalia is at that stage now. Both methods are fun, so long as the material is solid.

Summer plans for Rue Brutalia include traveling and brand building. “We’re going to the DC Comedy Fest and Austin’s Out of Bounds festival. We’ll also be re-launching RueBrutalia.com with a new design in late July. Fans can expect a bundle of new videos over the course of the summer, too.”

Rue Brutalia performs June 20 & 27 at The PIT, 154 W. 29th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-563-7488; 8, $8.