"Funniest Comedian MATT BESSER vs ILKA BESSIN"

Matthew Gregory Besser (born September 22, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, and writer, best known as one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998–2000. He currently hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans on the Earwolf podcasting network. Besser was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, to parents Diane and Sandy Besser. His father was Jewish, whereas his mother was Christian. Besser is an atheist. He is a quarter German and a quarter French from his mother's side. Besser's grandfather's cousin was Joe Besser of The Three Stooges. He was recruited to play soccer after starting on his high school team, but instead attended Amherst College with a major in American Studies. There, he started doing stand-up comedy and competed in a contest at UMass that was judged by Judd Apatow. After graduating, he briefly moved to Denver in an attempt to pursue stand-up, but quickly moved to Chicago. He worked various odd jobs, including stints as a substitute teacher, a host at Carnegie Deli and as a host at Dick's Last Resort. After seeing an improvisational comedy show at iO Theater featuring Dave Koechner, Tim Meadows and Chris Farley, Besser began taking classes there. His improv group Victim's Family (alongside Rick Roman, Adam McKay, Miles Stroth, and Ian Roberts), later renamed The Family (minus Roman, plus Neil Flynn, and Ali Farahnakian), was directed by Del Close, the first long-form group Del focused on. Besser is a founding member of Upright Citizens Brigade, which began as a sketch comedy group in Chicago in 1990. Original members included Ian Roberts, Ali Farahnakian, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, and Horatio Sanz. During that time, UCB were regular guests on stage at the New Variety hosted by the Chicago Improv comedy club. While working at the New Variety, Besser was cast and directed by New Variety founder and Artistic Director R. O’Donnell in the TV comedy/variety special Twisted, which aired on WFLD Fox 32 Chicago. Twisted also featured Besser in a series of improvised commercials directed by O’Donnell for McDonald's, Toyota, and Ameritech along with stand-up comic Michelle Garb. In 1996, the UCB relocated to New York City. Their sketch-comedy series Upright Citizens Brigade aired for three seasons on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. The cast consisted of Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh. It originally included a voice-over by Del Close. After its cancellation, Comedy Central released all three seasons on DVD.

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Ilka Bessin (born 18 November 1971) is a German comedian and actress, best known for her role as Cindy aus Marzahn (German for "Cindy from Marzahn"). Bessin was born in Luckenwalde, East Germany. After finishing school, Bessin studied culinary arts and later trained to be a hotel manager. She worked as a chef until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and Germany was reunified. Shortly after that, she was a bartender in a disco and later the chief clerk. In 1999, she changed careers and became an entertainment director and comedy performer on a cruise liner. It was there that she invented her most famous character "Cindy aus Marzahn". Marzahn is a blue collar section of East Berlin. In 2004, she won the final season of the ProSieben network's Quatsch Comedy Club stand-up show. With this win, her career as a comedian and actress began. In 2009, she was set in the role of the landlady Ilka in the Sat.1 comedy show Schillerstraße. In January 2010, she started her own comedy show, named Cindy aus Marzahn und die jungen Wilden ("Cindy from Marzahn and the Wild Youth"). In spring 2011, the third season started Nicht jeder Prinz kommt uff'm Pferd! ("Not Every Prince Comes on a Horse"). Followed by the Pink is Bjutiful 2013.

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