Hollywood often portrays real estate brokers as a bit overzealous when it comes to pitching their properties. (Remember Annette Bening in “American Beauty”?)
That stereotype provides plenty of comic fodder for a new production playing this month at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Chelsea: “This Is Not a Sketch Show: A Sketch Show.”
In the show, Brandon Scott Jones stars as Andy Stevens, a slick New York City real estate agent trying to hoodwink unsuspecting home seekers.
The seeds for the plot were planted when playwrights Matt Moskovciak and Ben Stadler — regular writers for UCB’s sketch comedy teams — were doing their own apartment hunting in the city.
“I remember looking at places that were unfinished industrial places, with no plumbing or kitchen, and having a real estate agent tell me how great they [were],” recalled Moskovciak, who eventually settled on an apartment in Astoria, Queens.
In “Sketch Show,” Stevens tries to entice a young couple, played by Jon Gutierrez and Alison Bennett, to rent the (obviously unsuitable) UCB theatre as an apartment. One perk of the place, he tells them, is that they can watch comedy in their living room.
To prepare for his part as a cartoonishly eager salesman, Jones drew upon his experience working at a Maryland residential real estate office in high school.
“There were a lot of larger-than-life characters there,” he told The Real Deal.
Moskovciak said the production has been a success to date, with the most recent show sold out. In part, that’s because New York City’s notorious rental market makes it easy for the audience to relate, he said.
“I think the idea only rings true in a city like New York,” Moskovciak said, “because everyone has been in a crazy real estate situation.”