SHAWTANE BOWEN

The Astronomy Club

The Astronomy Club, a new Netflix sketch comedy show featuring the first all-Black house team at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in New York is receiving rave reviews and earning loyal audiences beyond the stage it first originated. The award-winning troupe features visiting faculty member and founding member Shawtane Bowen. Variety raved, “The premiere of Astronomy Club is so dense with fully-formed jokes, wry social commentaries, and wild left turns that you’d be forgiven for wondering if you accidentally dropped into the show’s second season rather than its first.” In December, The Boston Globe wrote,“The six episodes in this first season, each around 20 minutes, make for such addictive viewing that I had to resist bingeing them all at once. I wish there were more.” And in January, BuzzFeed’s review, titled, “Sorry, SNL, Astronomy Club Is Coming For Your Wig,” wrote, “Astronomy Club, which sits at an impressive 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, you’ll be laughing moments after you hit the play button.” Prior to streaming on Netflix, Bowen and the troupe had a smaller screen debut as a Comedy Central web series.