Youth Venture

The First Aid Comedy Brigade aims to put laughter into the hearts of thousands of sick children around the nation.

The First Aid Comedy Brigade (FACB) is the first student-run movement to provide free comedy shows to children in hospitals around the nation. By marrying existing university comedy improvisation troupes with local children’s hospitals, the FACB plans to create hundreds of local chapters (Brigades), bringing laughter into the lives of thousands of children while cultivating a culture of helping others among college students around the country.
FACB was founded in February 2009 at New York University when Zach Lee formed a partnership with Dangerbox, the premier comedy improvisation group on campus. Zach then began to communicate with various children’s hospitals in New York City, coordinating shows in which Dangerbox would perform for the in-patient ward of the hospital. The first show, on March 12, 2009, was at the NYU Hospital for Children with Joint Disease, to be followed by shows at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore and the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at NY Presbyterian.
Working with Dangerbox, officially deemed the first “Brigade”, has allowed Zach and his team, consisting of Ariel Dubov and Eliza McNitt (both NYU students) to begin devising a precise comedic formula to ensure success each time a university comedy group performs for children in a hospital setting. Factors that play into this formula include an established identity (logo, T-shirts, backdrops), a particular set of comedy games devised for such a specialized environment, and an understanding of the most effective ways to interact with and involve the children.
Recipient of the NYU Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship / Youth Venture grant, the First Aid Comedy Brigade now has the financial ability to build its organization and put into place a long-term expansion plan. During the summer of 2009, Zach will officially kick off this process, coordinating with six other comedy improvisation groups at various universities and work with them to create the code by which every Brigade will abide. FACB’s plan is first to develop seven fully functioning Brigades (including the first Brigade at NYU), and have them operating successfully as independent chapters under the umbrella of the FACB. Zach estimates that this will take about a year of hands-on work, during which time the FACB team will book each Brigade at least three shows per semester, closely monitoring every performance as well as providing a professional stage backdrop and T-shirts for each of the seven groups. In this way, the FACB intends to have every aspect of its shows, its branding/identity, its relationship with the hospitals, and its operating procedures fully documented by May 2010 in order to kick off a national expansion campaign.
The FACB plans to recruit colleges around the nation by using the network of friends and colleagues that already exists between comedy groups at hundreds of universities. In addition to this established network, Zach and his team will travel to comedy improv festivals and spread the word to other improv groups about joining the movement and starting their own Brigade.
The FACB website (www.firstaidcomedybrigade.org) will be an important element in the recruitment and training process for new chapter Brigades. The site will also function as a specialized social network, providing each Brigade with a personalized homepage, allowing group members to swap stories, pictures, footage and ideas with brigades at other schools. Each hospital will also have a personalized page, which the children themselves can access, encouraging Brigade members to develop friendships with the children, creating a long-lasting and intimate impact on everyone involved. The site will also be a resource for hospitals and hospital administrators who want to find out more about the FACB and book a show for the children.