Outside `SNL,' Poehler stays edgy with improv

Poehler won't go into detail why the show was canceled. "It was too good," she deadpans over the phone. "Comedy Central couldn't keep it because the show was . . . making the other shows look bad."

Poehler's introduction to the world of improv and sketch comedy came at Boston College in a group called "My Mother's Flea Bag." She took that basic training to Chicago in 1993, where she studied at Second City and Improv Olympics with old pros such as Del Close, who later lent his voice to the opening scene of "The Upright Citizens Brigade."

"I was in an improv group in college and decided that's kind of what I wanted to keep doing," Poehler says.

Poehler joined the the Upright Citizens Brigade in 1996. Shortly after, the Chicago-based group moved to New York as part of the Comedy Central show. They've stayed together, working at their own Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, while collaborating on outside projects. The theater has taken on a life of its own, becoming a hot spot for improv and sketch shows, as well as a school for the next Upright Citizens generation.

It's also a place where Poehler can return to her roots. After shooting projects such as Barry Levinson's "Envy," with Ben Stiller and Jack Black, Poehler can perform with people she started with in Chicago. "Going and performing at the theater is kind of a relief," she says. "It's pretty easy to do something that fun with people that talented."

While Poehler would've preferred the Upright Citizens show had continued, she's happy it will have new life on the shelves.

"Now you can live in DVD land forever," she says. "People can watch it and program it once a week like it's still on TV, and everybody will still be happy."

A dummy works blue Those who think of ventriloquist acts as tame, harmless fun should stay away from Otto & George tonight at the Comedy Connection. To say that the man and dummy team is an "adult" act is to put it mildly. Otto Peterson, the act's live half, says his show changed when he went from being a teenage New York street performer to a struggling club comic. "Mostly, the dirty part came from trying to make other comics laugh, because they have such dark, jaded senses of humor," he says. "And when you go into the showcase clubs in New York, and you have a prop act -- like a puppet or a guitar, or anything like that -- the comics look down on you." Bard for the people Shakespearean purists may want to stay away from "Freestyle Shakespeare," presented tonight through Sunday at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway in Davis Square. Michael Anderson, who created, wrote, and stars in the show, a group of monologues with some sketches, wants to make the Bard live in the present, maintaining it doesn't happen often enough in professional productions. "Shakespeare gets ruined when it's just used as a vehicle for virtuoso acting," he says.

Around town Tonight, the Comedy Studio hosts a "costume optional" night of comedy with Tony V, Sandy Asai, Evan O'Television, Mary Beth Cowan, Erin Judge, Rob Reuter, Constantine von Hoffman, and Mike O'Neill. . . . ImprovBoston presents three shows of its "Musical Gorefest" tonight at the troupe's theater in Inman Square. You're promised "dancing, lots of jokes, and buckets of blood and gore." . . . Larry Lee Lewis, Bob Lazurus, Harry Corcell, and Jeremy Fabiano play Chops Lounge at the Howard Johnson's on Boylston Street tomorrow. . . . Jim Colliton and Greg Rodrigues play the Emerald Isle in Dorchester tomorrow.