A Dreadlocked Fan's Notes

It is Sunday night and a long line has formed in front of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Mark Davis is up front, waiting to get his weekly fix of comedy while chatting up friends and busily knitting a winter hat. The hat is ruby red because Davis is a part-time pedicab driver.

"When the weather is bad," he explains, "people tend to hail more cabs from drivers in brighter colors." Likewise, nice weather translates into grays and darker hues.

Tonight the weather is in-between, so Davis is hedging his color-coded outfit: He is decked out in a dapper shirt, purple-checkered with one collar half up, and a stylish gray sport coat with old man elbow patches.

Davis is perhaps the biggest, and most recognizable, fan of the UCB, as well as a staple at its flagship show, ASSSSCAT.

"I come mostly for the community," he says. "At any given ASSSSCAT, I'll know 10 or 20 people here."

Davis, 21, is just one of several characters who frequent the UCB on a regular basis. "There's 'disc-man'," he points out. "He's always alone and he hasn't latched onto a clique. He's more of a solitary character."

"There's also 'mesh hat guy', who always sits on the floor. A few years ago he got rid of his hat and started coming in with a tweed hat and blazer. So that was like mesh hat guy's coming of age. Now he looks like a gentleman."

For his part, Davis is "dreadlocks guy," a cross between Zack de la Rocha and the UCB character "Bong Boy" (though he swears he doesn't smoke). Once inside the theater, however, he is as easy to spot for his unruly haircut as for his unruly heckling.

"To be honest, I don't realize I do it," he admits. At a recent show he hollered his approval when one of the cast members said they didn't own a tv, prompting a back-and-forth about his parents' tv and TiVo.

Not everyone, however, is smitten by Davis' antics. "He can be a little over-the-top," said one UCB regular.

Still, Davis's devotion is impressive: he's missed only a handful of ASSSSCATs in two years, and has never skimped out on supporting the theater.

"The second ASSSSCAT is free but the staff passes around a tip bucket-or 'bucket of truth.' If you see a good show and it's free, you should put in eight dollars because it will come back to you," he says. Once Davis dropped $7 in the bucket and later received a $75 tip while pedicabbing.

Does he see himself one day performing onstage? "I thought about becoming an intern," he says with a pause. "But maybe I was put on earth to enjoy comedy."