In St. Louis, you won’t have to wait for Jimmy Fallon to take over The Tonight Show in February to see a new kind of late-night show.
This Saturday night, St. Louis Up Late, which bills itself as St. Louis’ only live comedy talk show, premieres. The show aims to follow in the same tradition and format as other late-night staples, helmed by Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Fallon.
“It’s molded in the same style as Letterman and Fallon, for sure,” says host Eric Christensen.
Christensen, 30, is an online video producer and comedian, as well as the creator, producer, and host of St. Louis Up Late. The Chicago native says a preview of the show in mid-October went smoothly, despite the majority of the cast and crewmembers having never done a sketch talk show.
“We wanted to give St. Louis a comedy show that was well-produced,” Christensen says. “You can go and see a good show at the Fox. But if you wanted to go see a regular, good comedy show in town, your options were slim to none.”
The host promises to remedy that problem with a show that will feature all of the standard late-night talk show accoutrements—interviews, musical guests, monologues—but with a larger focus on sketch-comedy elements.
“On Fallon, say, you’ll have one or two sketches,” Christensen explains. “But we wanted more of a focus on the comedy, with video, like sketches, and interaction with the audience.” Christensen says that besides late-night staples like The Tonight Show and The Late Show, the cast and crew draw inspiration from sketch-comedy icon Saturday Night Live.
St. Louis Up Late begins a seven-week run at Satori, a venue at 3003 Locust that's normally reserved for artist showcases. The venue affords the Up Late crew enough stage space to fit bands, as well as live sketches and segments that invite audience participation. This interactive element includes games and friendly competitions, such as an in-show spelling bee—in which the words are completely made up by the show’s writers.
“We’re also looking forward to highlighting some of the cool stuff going on in St. Louis," says Christensen, "like artists and other people making things happen."
This week’s guests include Strange Donuts owner Corey Smale and musical guest Yankee Racers. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door.
Future guests include St. Louis historian Michael Allen, the Arch Rival Roller Girls, and critically acclaimed rapper Tef Poe.
