Whitest Kids U'Know
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The Whitest Kids U'Know is an American sketch comedy troupe based in New York City. The group consists of Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Timmy Williams, and Darren Trumeter, though other actors occasionally appear in their sketches. Some of their sketches can be downloaded from their official website [1]. They were accepted into the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2006 and won for "Best Sketch Group" by the Jury. They continue to do weekly shows at Pianos on Sunday nights at 8pm for free.
The Fuse network recently began airing a TV show of the same name starring the Whitest Kids U'Know on March 17, 2007. It now airs every Tuesday at 11:00pm on Fuse. Much of the content has been heavily edited, some skits even re-shot entirely, for television. Audible bleeps take place of vulgar obscenities.
Popular sketches include "Pizza Bagels" and "Pregnancy Test." Recently, their sketch "Hitler Rap" has received a great deal of distribution online.
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[edit] History
The Whitest Kids began in 2000 when Trevor Moore, a young comedian from Virginia, transferred to New York's School of Visual Arts film program. Having previously produced a locally popular sketch comedy television show back in Virginia, Trevor decided to start a comedy troupe with the eventual goal of replicating his earlier success on a national level.
After making the rounds at local New York City comedy clubs, he eventually met fellow SVA film student Sam Brown from Massachusetts and SVA Graphic Design student/actor Zach Cregger, also from Virginia. By chance, all three attended the school, and they also all lived in the same dormitory.
Much of The Whitest Kids' early history was spent as an officially sanctioned club at School of Visual Arts, which meant they had to accept, more or less, any SVA student that wanted to join. Timmy Williams also joined in late 2001 and was the only member at the time who didn't attend SVA. Unofficially, however, the core trio of Moore, Brown and Cregger tried to keep the group as lean as possible. At its peak, the group had ten members, however almost all sketches were written by one of these three.
For over two years, The Whitest Kids held near-monthly free shows at SVA's amphitheater, which would frequently fill to capacity. Finally, in 2003, as Moore approached graduation, the group separated officially from the school, and all but Moore, Brown, Cregger and Williams were removed from the troupe. Darren Trumeter, an actor and filmmaker who had worked previously with Cregger, was then added that same year.
Starting in 2003, the reinvented troupe started touring the various comedy venues in New York City, concluding in early 2005 with a well-attended show at Caroline's, the famous club in Times Square. The group still regularly performs at Pianos in the Lower East Side and Rififi's in the East Village.
[edit] Film and Television
The troupe recently finished shooting a 10-episode sketch comedy series for the Fuse network. The series was set to premiere on March 20, 2007, but the first episode actually debuted on March 17, 2007. New episodes air every Tuesday at 11:00pm.
[edit] Live Performances
The troupe's live performances nearly always include the display of several video sketches. The video sketches often stand out as being very cinematic in style, no doubt due to the members' extensive film background. Most of these sketches have been made available on their website, as well as on CollegeHumor, and Google Video.
The group's shows at Pianos often involve at least two "warm up" acts, performed by friends of the troupe, which are usually stand-up and occasionally musical in nature.
