See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Noah Hurowitz
Brooklyn Daily
Little Pete is not so little anymore.
Danny Tamberelli is best known as the co-star of beloved ’90s Nickelodeon show “The Adventures of Pete & Pete.” Now aged 32, the Park Sloper is part of a potty-mouthed sketch comedy group called ManBoobs, which is performing a live show at Union Hall on July 18.
Tamberelli formed the group with pals Jeremy Balon and Brendan O’Rourke in 2007, and the trio has been producing online videos and performing on stage ever since. The group is happy to admit that it initially drew many of its fans because of the “Pete & Pete” connection. The millennial hordes that have swarmed Brooklyn in the last decade grew up on the show’s irreverent humor, and Tamberelli said they try to indulge them with oblique references to the show.
“People show up for ‘Pete and Pete,’ but they also liked ‘All That,’ ” he said, referring to a Nickelodeon sketch show that was a sort of “Saturday Night Live” for tweens, and which Tamberelli starred in during the late ’90s.
Both Balon and O’Rourke have plenty of experience working behind the camera in the film industry — and Tamberelli obviously many years in front of it — but the group said it took a while to find its feet making short, funny videos for the web.
“We just had sketches that were too long, and we figured out how to condense stuff,” Tamberelli said. “We started off with sort of shock humor, but we’ve refined it a little bit. I think we try to be a little smarter with it.”
ManBoobs’ sketches have now been featured on big-name video sites such as College Humor and Funny or Die, and have scored guest cameos from the likes of Kenan Thompson from “Saturday Night Live,” actors Matt Bennett and Mark Saul, and, of course, Tamberelli’s “Pete & Pete” co-star Mike Maronna.
At the Union Hall show, the group — whose past sketches have covered topics such as drugs, pharmaceutical ads, and attention-starved child stars — will perform alongside local comedy troupe Murderfist and prolific underground Brooklyn comic Jo Firestone.
The ManBoobs members are keeping the exact contents of the show close to their chests, but they did promise zombies, advertising executives, music video parodies, and “lots of fighting on stage about who is the better comedian,” according to Balon.
They also promise that their humor is a little more sophisticated than their name might suggest.
“We were shooting a pilot a few years ago, brainstorming on title ideas and it just stuck,” said Balon. “It’s weird but we like to think the content matters more than the name.”
ManBoobs Comedy Live at Union Hall [702 Union Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Park Slope, (718) 638–4400, www.unionhallny.com], July 18 at 7:30 pm. $8 advance, $10 day of show.