The Bastion was on hand at Martyr's Sunday night for the last big hurrah of the tenth annual Chicago Improv Festival, a great show headlined by hometown favorites Schadenfreude, who brought lots of talented friends along for the ride. Our photographer was delighted to report that she accidentally stepped on Seth Meyers' foot on the way to the little girls' room, which prompted much discussion on whether follow-up foot-steppings should be a key part of the evening. (This tactic was not implemented. We do have some self-control.) Schadenfreude put on a great party to wrap up the festival, including performances from Switchboard, and Pimprov doing a attitude-heavy tribute to Monty Python.

The opening night of the mainstage shows, Thursday night, included terrific performances at the Athenaeum from Pickups and Hiccups (featuring Seth Meyers), and the current cast of Boom Chicago, who had lots of pithy comedy comment to make on the modern puzzle of the fact that we're shutting each other out in public spaces with our iPods, and yet reaching out to each other in the online sphere of MySpace. A lucky (or unlucky) audience member was chosen to have his actual MySpace dissected onstage in a spoofy way that his college buddies will surely want to favorite on YouTube.

Contributor Jonathan Richman offers this report on the Friday, April 28 show at the Athenaeum: "At the Atheneum Theater on Friday, April 28, there was a big crowd and a broad range of improv styles gracing the CIF Mainstage.

Razowsky and Clifford — a short-form improv team that has become an L.A. mainstay — opened and covered everything from furniture to murder to nudity in the workplace. David Razowsky and Carrie Clifford received a huge ovation from the improv-smart crowd, making the duo feel at home in the city where they got their start."

Second up was Dasariski — a trio comprised of Robert Dassie, Rich Talarico, and Craig Cackowski — all veterans of the Chicago improv scene. They dropped some long-form improv on the crowd, delighting with forty-five minutes of mercenary work in China, complete with guns, romance and a good old-fashioned Panda slaughter."

Headlining was Chicago Improv Festival mainstays, Bassprov. The main characters Donny Weaver (Mark Sutton) and Earl Hinkle (Joe Bill) were joined by special guest Tim Kazurinsky — best known for his work on SNL and as a Police Academy star. The three bass-fishermen waxed poetic on American Idol, Iraq and, of course, John Cougar Mellencamp. Sadly, the group announced that this is their last year dropping by CIF, so you’ll have to go somewhere else for bait, Busch and comedy in the years to come."

Special contributor Bill Ross was on hand at Donny's Skybox at Second City on Saturday April 28 for another showcase, and shares these impressions: "The CIF host for the evening was Emily Dugan. First up was the Transactors, four women and two men from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They did an improv form they called 'Memory.' They took one suggestion, a vivid memory of a specific location from someone in the audience, and turned it into several scenes that flowed easily from one to the other. The suggestion in this case was a home swimming pool in Memphis, TN. The performers start each scene with a monologue consisting of a memory from one of the characters in the previous scene. The audience gets a chance to see what memory or event motivated that particular character. The performers moved seamlessly from scene to scene. The group adeptly moved back through each of the scenes in reverse order cleverly using callbacks and solving the scenes nicely. A strong performance with a group that plays well with each other."

The 8:00 show was Cross, Ross and Tubbs. They are from Los Angeles and perform at the Second City Theatre in Hollywood. It is comprised of three men with the last names of - surprise - Cross, Ross and Tubbs. They took one suggestion of 'factory' and did forty-five minutes of scenes. They allowed their characters to develop, giving each one well-defined accents and mannerisms. Their humor has a definite satirical bent taking on topics of unions, gun control, international conflicts and even the priesthood. Questions were answered for the audience such as: How does Nickelodeon find those hosts? and What is the downside of winning the lottery? or What would be the worst thing that could happen at a bachelor party?"

The 9:00 show was i.O.'s well-regarded The Reckoning. They were in top form, taking the suggestion of 'feet' and transforming it into a 'incestuous family relationship minus the family of course'. From there we were treated to the 'Naughty Police' and security guards who were a little to anxious to shoot first and ask questions, well, never. Overall the show had the usual hallmarks of a show by The Reckoning with great characters, quirky situations and insightful observations on human relationships."

And, for good measure, we got a parting shot from Carrie Clifford of Razowsky and Clifford, who had more than a little fun themselves performing at CIF: "Razowsky and Clifford had a fun show at The Atheneum on Friday night, followed by our LA co-horts, Dasariski, and then Bassprov! Such an amazing audience! The whole fest was a great experience. It's sort of like coming back to camp every year, running into old friends and meeting new ones! We love coming to Chicago to perform. Dave is from Chicago, and I used to live there, so we get to see lots of family and friends and make them see our show!"

I spent a lot of my free time devouring the epicurean fare I miss about Chicago: cinnamon buns at Ann Sathers, pad thai at Penny's Noodles, cupcakes and peanut butter Rice Krispie treats at Sweet Mandy B's, and a meal at the Wiener Circle! During my late night trip to the Wiener Circle I experienced something I had never witnessed before...the ordering of a chocolate shake! I was not the orderer, but I, along with fifteen or so on-lookers, were privy to something not found at many eating establishments without a pole! For those of you not familiar...the lights started blinking, the aluminum lids were banging, and one of the female employees whipped off her shirt, and bra-less, showed us a chocolate shake! Crazy!"

Photo by Krystle Gemnich.