ALEXANDER ZALBEN has written and performed in shows and festivals all over the United States as part of the sketch groups Elephant Larry and Madame Funnypants, and as Producer of the improvised video show, Neutrino Video Projects.
He has written for Modern Humorist, Jest Magazine, and is the co-creator of the comedy website X-Ball Online, which receives over 20,000 visitors per month. His one-act play, "All's Swell That Ends, Will," was performed at the Telluride Theatre Festival. He has worked at Playwrights Horizons, the Public Theatre, Jean Cocteau Repertory, Dramatists Play Service, and currently Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. He has taught sketch comedy at NYU, and The Calhoun School.
Besides Elephant Larry, Alex performs in the two person sketch comedy group, Madame Funnypants. Madame Funnypants is a sketch comedy duo based in New York City that Time Out New York called, "unconventional and inventive." They have also been called "kinetic," "hilarious" and "talented," among other complimentary adjectives.
They have been nominated for Best Comedic Duo at the Emerging Comics of New York Awards, and performed around the country as an official selection of: Chicago SketchFest (2003, 2004); Atlanta Improv Festival (2004); Miami Improv Festival (2003, 2004); The Above Kleptomania Improv Comedy Festival (2002); HA! Comedy Festival (2003); and the Big Red Comedy Festival (2003).
The group is an off-shoot of the popular Lower East Side based sketch group Three Jews and a Persian, which was called "Authentically original and unabashedly funny... reminiscent of some of the sophisticated nonsense of Monty Python or the Kids in the Hall!"
Alex is also the Producer of the original and ground-breaking video improv show, Neutrino Video Projects. The show has been performed all over the country by the improve group Neutrino, with co-productions currently running in Chicago, Seattle, and Washington D.C. The show was an official selection of the 2004 HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.
