Jeff Madden and friend (as part of "Monsters from the ID") put a Halloween spin on dating shows, a Frankenstein version of "Second Chance."
Chicago native Paul J. Baio with "Hippy Halloween":
CJ Sullivan and Brady Novak rip Chicago's Second Funniest Person (that would be Ken Barnard):
Jason Fever, John Springsteen, Emily Dorezas and Tony Blanco hamming it up at Chicago's very own WGN:
Promo short for a new show at Rififi in NYC, hosted by Chicago gals Joselyn Hughes and Brooke Van Poppelen, and featuring all Chicago-bred comedians. This Thursday night at 8 p.m. they'll host recent NYC transplant Kumail Nanjiani, Best Week Ever's Pete Holmes, and Second City's Deb Downing.
Grandma June's Sewing Circle in "Lincoln Park Ellis Island":
Mike Bridenstine joins the Whip It Out Comedy gang in L.A. with this video, wherein he coaxes people with thick accents into quoting their favorite movies:
Sports Action Team, "Katie's Energy Drink":
Robert Buscemi: "My Other Car Is A Motorcycle":
The Steve Delahoyde-directed "Guru,"starring Kumail and Robert Buscemi:
Last Friday, we joined the full house at the Lakeshore Theater for Blerds.com's monthly multimedia/stand-up showcase. With lingering fog from the night's previous show still wafting through the air, we got out our BYOflask and settled into the plush seats as host Prescott Tolk welcomed the audience with friendly nudging and his trademark grin. The show continued, with local alt phenoms Brady Novak and Nick Vatterott joining L.A. Blerds member Nate Craig and NYC Blerds member Mike Burns (both as himself and as Movie Star "Ain't No Fag" Tom Berenger). An editing snafu has put the debut of the webisode pilot, "Hung", on hiatus for the time being, so instead the short "Dungeons and Dragons", written by Jared Logan and directed by Steve Delahoyde, with Kumail Nanjiani and Robert Buscemi, was shown to uproarious approval. Mike Burns also brought a little tidbit with him, "The Adventures of Fat Superman", a film about wayward superheroes who get impossibly drunk and eat too much fried chicken, starring Eric Andre, Dan Curry, and Mike Burns, directed by Eric Egerton.
The next Blerds show at the Lakeshore (click for tix) will be November 17 at 8 p.m. In memoriam of the late Pat Brice, many special guests will be flying in to perform, including TJ Miller, Kyle Kinane, Shawn Cole, Jeff Klinger, and more. Brady Novak, CJ Sullivan, and Sean Flannery will also perform, and new videos by Jordan Vogt-Roberts featuring Pat will be shown (no pressure, but how we hope and pray for Air + Water Show to be completed by then, oh please oh please oh PLEASE). The Visitors Locker Room will also be presenting classic Brice moments in aural history, and as a long-time daily listener of the sports comedy Internet radio show, the Bastion can assure you these are moments you will want to cherish.
This is going to be a big one -- get your tickets sooner rather than later. We have our money on a sell out.
The next five nights, all across Chicago, you can catch spooktacular Halloween comedy. Knock yourselves out! Here's the rundown:
Tonight at 9:30 at the Beat Kitchen is Chicago Underground Comedy's Halloween show, with performers in costume, special spooky jokes, and enough chocolate to put you into a diabetic coma.
Wednesday night's Edge Comedy Big Fancy Open Mic at 8:30 at the Chicago Center For the Performing Arts is also Halloween-y in theme. Producer Dave Odd has decreed that "All comics performing must be in costume, and perform as that character."
Bastion pal "The Sound of Young America," described as "a public radio show about things that are awesome," is putting on a free show tomorrow night at 8:00 pm at Second City. The show will feature performances and interviews with members of The Second City Touring Company, Schadenfreude, Team Submarine and Hannibal, and an in-depth interview with legendary music producer Steve Albini. Okay, this show isn't Halloween-y themed, but it's happening on Halloween.
The Lincoln Lodge's Thursday and Friday shows (both at 9:00 pm) will feature lots of gore and terror. And some of the comedians will be performing as zombies, too! ::rimshot::
Friday and Saturday at 10:00 pm, head to The Annoyance Theater for Splatter Theater. They promise "A white stage, lots of blood, lots of gore, and lots of deaths."
Hannibal Buress is the "Funniest Person in Chicago," if a roomful of comedy fans at the Lakeshore Theater and Time Out Chicago are to be believed. According to TOC, Lakeshore Theater owner Chris Ritter told Hannibal: "You’ve been on the Lakeshore stage more than any other performer, and it’s obvious why that is."
Second place finisher Ken Barnard shared these thoughts with The Bastion: "The Funniest Person in Chicago contest was a great showcase of local comedic talent here in the Windy City. It was wonderful to see such a varied group of comics all represent our city so well. As a contestant, it was a pleasure to have the chance to perform for both the judges - some of the more influential forces in the Chicago comedy scene – and a great Lakeshore audience. I was very pleased with my second place finish, which included dough, a DVD of 'There’s Something About Mary,' and some loose candy. The cool thing about coming in second is that when Hannibal is out of town, I’ll be the funniest person in Chicago."
Third place contender Dan Telfer shared these post-show thoughts on his blog: "...holy shit what a fun show to do. Giant, enthusiastic crowds are a tough commodity to come by, and I just tried to squeeze out every drop of enthusiasm I had for them. I think it paid off. And I couldn't have taken third place to two more insanely talented people, with my pal Ken Barnard in 2nd and one-foot-in-New-York-already Hannibal Buress taking 1st. In fact there were so many badass finalists I had not counted on finishing in the top 3 at all, so I am beyond gratified this morning. Plus 3rd place got $100, and I was never told beforehand money was involved, so that was a nice freaking surprise."
Fellow Blewt-ian Steve Gadlin sat on the judging panel, and wrote about the experience briefly in his blog: "Last night I sat on the judging panel for Time Out Chicago's "Chicago's Funniest Person" competition. I was up there with Beth Kligerman, talent scout for Second City, Steve Heisler, comedy editor for Time Out Chicago, and Chris Ritter, owner of the Lake Shore Theater. Time Out hooked us up pretty well! We had hip and expensive bottles of water that looked like science projects, and a Time Out bag of goodies. I felt like I was a presenter at the Oscars. Well, maybe the Golden Globes."
It was a fun night of stand-up in a cool new venue, for sure, but the question of contests still remains: are they necessary? Good fun? Or are they divisive and mean-spirited? A good way to make some extra dough (when possible)? Do some people flat out refuse to participate in them? Are all shows and events essentially contests? Any thoughts on this?
"A fast-paced musical-comedy-political-sex-farce," Will and Bill, previews for which The Bastion caught a few months back, is feeling ambitious and looking for backers. Check out this clip, a highlight reel that offers a hint of the dickalicious hilarity involved in the story of a President, his Willie (yes, an actual singing, dancing character in the play), and a cute brunette in a blue dress. Remember when Presidential blowjobs were the most worrisome things on our political collective consciousness? Seems kind of quaint now, doesn't it? Sigh.
Chemically Imbalanced Comedy recently blogged about being at the New York Underground Comedy Festival, where there are something like 30 shows running at any given time. CIC's Angie McMahon and Pimprov's Marz Timms (pictured at left) got a little worn out keeping up the pace, but got some laughs on anyway.
Have you heard about Jokes Across America, based in Evanston? Apparently it's a combination comedy site, online blog of two friends' bike trek across America, and fodder for a forthcoming book "Why Did the Bicycle Cross the Country?"
Blerds will be at the Lakeshore tonight at 10:30. Prescott Tolk will host, and performers include Nick Vatterot, Mike Burns (visiting from New York), Brady Novak, and Nate Craig (visiting from Los Angeles). The show will feature new original videos, including the premiere of Hung, a pilot episode about the deliberations of the world's worst sequestered jury. You may remember that show was developed by the Blerds gang as a project for Warner Brothers 2.0. Blerds will also be at the Comedy Festival in Las Vegas in November, as part of the Broadband Theater offerings.
Speaking of the Lakeshore, don't forget, hop the El to 3175 N. Broadway this Sunday at 7 to vote for the "Funniest Person in Chicago" contest.
"The Rocky Horror Show" is one of the few pieces of musical theatre that ventures into the territory of pornography... which is just fine with us. The Bastion caught "Rocky Horror" at the Mercury Theatre on its opening night and had a sexy sweaty funny time.
For those of you out there who are only familiar with the film version of the show, "The Rocky Horror Show" is the adapted stage musical. When the Bastion saw the show, half the audience were movie devotees who showed up in costume, and while they were certainly rowdy and enthusiastic, it seemed as though even the non-superfans got a kick out of the show.
The cast was terrific, led by the absolutely delightful Scott Alan Jones as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Jones holds absolutely nothing back and is a hilariously engaging performer. Molly Callinan and Robert Felbinger were wonderfully creepy and charismatic in their roles as the incestuous brother-sister team Magenta and Riff Raff, and Amy Armstrong was a scene stealer in the duo of roles that she filled. The stage design is a little awkward (the theatre also houses "The Men and their Music", a much different show than Rocky Horror) but the cast dances up a storm in spite of the cumbersome set. Not sure whether it's the work of the choreographer or the director, but some really clever mic work goes on in passing around the hand-held microphones for soloists. There was some slick hand-offs (some phallic ones too!) that made the microphones work as part of the show instead of as a distraction.
"The Rocky Horror Show" is playing at the Mercury Theatre (3745 N. Southport) until December 2nd. The performance schedule for The Rocky Horror Show is Mondays at 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 11:00 p.m., Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range in price from $30 to $42.50 and are available by calling the Mercury Theatre box office at 773.325.1700. Comedy aficionados, the tickets may be a little pricier than your average stand-up or improv show, but in addition to a night at the theatre, you get to see a truly amazing set of breasts (the folks seated around us couldn't stop talking about them) and a whole troop of glistening scantily clad writhing bodies. Well worth the ticket price.
As promised, The Bastion's exclusive chat with Impress These Apes Season 2 winner Kristen Studard, who rapped, danced, storytold, Annette Bening'ed, and perved her way into our hearts. God bless you, K-Stud!
First of all, Kristen, thanks for saving the future of humanity, what with your apes-crushing talent and all. Seriously, thanks. What are you going to do with the giant cash prize?
You're welcome. I'm going to Australia for three weeks in February, so I put the money away for that trip. $250 US Dollars is equal to $281.71 Australian Dollars. So I'm really looking to grow my money in a foreign market.
What's your background in comedy here in our fair city, and were you a fan of the first Apes shows before auditioning for season two?
I moved to Chicago to study improv in October of 2004 and have completed the training center at iO and the Second City Conservatory and just started classes at The Annoyance. I currently play on the Harold team Roadster and in the improvised movie Our Feature Presentation at iO. I'm a former member of the now defunct Missfits (Playground team) and Documentary South (DSI). I've been in a few sketch shows in Donny's Skybox, most notably in three shows written by The Geekouts. We performed our greatest hits show "The Bestest Stuff" to Chicago Sketchfest 2007.
I was a big fan of the first season of Impress These Apes. I thought it was such a cool idea for a show and a great challenge for the performers. Also, I danced with the Chicago Sashay Company during the finale at the Lakeshore Theatre. (You may recognize the CSC from our pre-show performances at Don't Spit The Water. We're the ones wearing the track jackets.) I knew after seeing all those great performances that I definitely wanted to audition for the next season.
How much work goes into being an Apes contestant?
A lot. I am now very familiar with the aisle layout of Jo-Ann Fabrics. More that anything, the hardest part about Apes is feeling like you should always be working on it since you only have a week.
Which talent was your favorite to perform?
Week 4: Stand-up with a puppet. It was a lot of work making the puppet and I had no idea how my act would go over, but it was really fun to perform. Someone told me after the show that week, "I've never seen someone sexually harass themself." I'll take that as a compliment.
Any hot insider gossip? Any behind-the-scenes flirtation we should report on?
Well, I think it's pretty clear that Hollywood Ape and Jenny Staben forged a very special relationship throughout the competition. Also, Brady Novak and I are on our way to becoming best friends. Jarrad Apperson is not a natural redhead.
Did you really referee a cereal eating contest at work? If so, how can we get your job?
Yes, you can see footage here. Click "Watch The Video". We had a pumpkin carving contest last Friday. No video footage of that, but it's safe to say that I lucked out in the job department.
That moment in week five, where you directly addressed your estranged dad, was very touching. Can you tell us a little about the fact that he looked for you online and found Apes clips, and that you responded to him online in an Apes clip?
I got a lot of positive response to that week's challenge and I'm really glad that people were touched by it. At first it felt a little invasive that he was able to see videos of me when we hadn't talked in so long, but it was great that I was able to acknowledge that I had received the email in the Week 5 challenge without actively reaching out. Perfect for my passive aggression.
How are you going to fill the void in your life now that Thursdays are free on your calendar?
I'm working on finding a venue for a staged reading of a Seinfeld spec script that Steve O'Brien wrote when he was 12. I'm absolutely serious. This will happen.
A re-post of Kristen's week eight winning talent effort, a performance which renders adjectives trite and metaphors flat and useless:
"Dandruff on the City of Big Shoulders": Grandma June's Sewing Circle
This is Chicago comedy.
It's shocking, really. Any show that opens with such a beautifully choreographed sketch/dance number just as an introduction to the cast is surely fighting an uphill battle. Really, how can they top an opener which involves such careful rehearsal?
Oh, they'll simply introduce musical accompaniment. And clever lyrics. And muppets. Fucking muppets, people. While it may harm the rep of the group to point out that some of the material is extremely Chicago-centric (Hipster/Trixie sing-off in a Shark/Jet style may not directly translate to outsiders) there are entire sketches that make a Chicagoan scream, "Yes, sweet merciful Daley, yes!"
What we're really trying to say is yes, the CTA sucks, and yes, The Bean is beautiful, and yes, we enjoy well-written, well-rehearsed, well-executed comedy that plays to our intelligence and interests. Do you?
"Dandruff on the City of Big Shoulders," by Grandma June's Sewing Circle, directed by Sketchfest executive producer Brian Posen. Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. until Nov. 17th at the Apollo Theater Studio Stage, 2540 N Lincoln Ave.
Have you ever seen two girls perform a sketch/video/improv comedy show? And have it actually turn out really, really entertaining?
Scratch that. We promised them an entirely different introduction.
IF YOU LIKE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, YOU'LL LOVE THIS SHOW.
But seriously, what starts with a freaky-deaky dance number, has high energy, well-rehearsed sketches, a dash of improv, and a handful of videos? "Oh What, This Ol' Show?" Wait, that's the answer, even though it's phrased as a question. Sure, the title is a cop-out as opposed to "Hot Sexy Dancing Mamas (as pictured) Make You Laugh and Think and Maybe Even Giggle at Fart Jokes!!1[sic]!" But that title is too long, even if it sums up the show better.
The point is, these ladies (aka $$The Money Kids$$) put on a damn fine show. Check it out, and you will most certainly enjoy it.
...AND IF NOT, FUCK YOU (they told us to say that, too).
How did these two wacky girls come together for this project? Lauren gave us a little background: "Candy and I met on the Playground team, The MISSfits. We decided to pair up and start the Money Kids in November of 2006, and we performed at Grafitti at the Playground a lot, as well as at the Spot, and we had a great one-off at iO in June. Our main goal is to make tons of people laugh -- in the future we'd love to travel to sketchfests and hopefully just keep progressing forward. We've had a steady rise in the quality of things we're doing -- from random Spot shows to now our own run at the Skybox -- so we don't want to take any steps backwards."
Oh What, This Ol' Show?
Fridays at 10:30 p.m. through Nov. 9 Donny's Skybox, 1608 N. Wells
And now, a succinct wrap-up of Impress These Apes season two, followed by a chat with grand champion Kristen Studard! (Yeah, it's been a few weeks since the finale. We've been busy.)
Season two was good. Funny things happened. Following is a video recap of the entire season.
Apes 2 Finale Intro video:
Amanda Rountree had a complicated, poignant (and hilarious) relationship with the entire city of Chicago:
Brady Novak, Jeff Madden and friends did this bit of film, which caught our fancy:
Fuzzy Gerdes rocked a banana suit accompanied by a musical mashup that begs banana jokes:
And then Kristen Studard did...this, got what may have been the season's only standing ovation, and won the entire competition:
The "Funniest Person in Chicago" contest finalists have been announced. A panel including Time Out Chicago's most qualified comedy judges, a chicken, a nun, and three bus drivers watched through all of the video entries and chose six semi-finalists who will perform at a special event at the Lakeshore Theater Sunday, October 28 at 7 pm. Show up, fork out $5, and VOTE for your favorite. Yeah, that's right, the audience chooses the winner.
Remember, the winner gets a whole heap of prizes and opportunities, including comedy mentoring and workshops from Paul Provenza and the UCB crew, one year of representation with Ambassador Talent, The Mark Sinclair Funniest Person in Chicago Trophy, and a chance to headline their own show at the Lakeshore. So if one of these comics is a friend of yours, and you don't show up to help them win, don't say we didn't warn you.
The finalists, and their submitted videos:
Dan Telfer:
Ken Barnard:
Jena Friedman:
Hannibal Buress:
Gary Atkins:
(Michael Palascak's video submission is not embeddable, but can be seen here, or check out the following link:)
New York-based Chicago native stand-up comic John Mulaney will be performing at Chicago Underground Comedy at 9:00 pm this Tuesday, October 23 before being a special guest when the Comedians of Comedy rolls through Chicago November 1.
He's also touring with national headliners (including Mike Birbiglia at Chicago's Lakeshore Theater), and performing on Comedy Central's "I Love the 30's," and VH1's "Best Week Ever."
Mulaney was interviewed in September by The Apiary, where he discussed being on Conan O'Brien twice (clips below), and joining the writing staff for Michael Ian Black's upcoming pilot while still being in his 20's. I guess when you start doing sketch at the age of seven, you're a seasoned pro much earlier than most.
From the Apiary interview:
What was doing Conan like?
It was the best thing in the world. That show has loomed so large in my mind since I was 13 that to appear on it was pretty unbelievable. When I did it in February I got to the studio too late to see anyone before the show, so the first time I met Conan O'Brien was when he walked over at the end of my set. It was absolutely surreal.
iO's Baz has put the Chicago comedy world on alert, the "McNuggets rap" from iO kids made the jump from "online clip" to "actual McDonald's commercial" and right back to your computer, where it's becoming an "internet sensation."
Hundreds of people are shooting and submitting their own versions of the happy fast food rapping clip. Are we watching a cultural phenomenon explode? And to think, you've had drunk post-game or post-show Quarter Pounders at the very restaurant they're standing in front of.
The Bastion was on hand (okay, it was a few weeks ago, sometimes we get busy with work) for the Lincoln Lodge's Season Eight opening party, replete with the introduction to, and heartfelt acceptance speeches from, each of the new castmembers: Cameron Esposito, Carrie Callahan, CJ Toledano, and Jeb Cadwell.
Ken Barnard and Allison Leber were also on hand to officiate, and field questions from the press, including some guy with a shoddy microphone, who alternately claimed to be from "Men on Men" magazine and a few other unlikely titles.
Steve O. Harvey (pictured) slipped smoothly into his emcee role and the evening was punctuated with stage performances and "man on the street" prankery. Head to the Lodge tonight at 9 to see Esposito, Toledano, Leber, Jared Logan, and Chicago Underground Comedy co-creator Tony Sam, who has packed his bags and is heading for California for glitz, glamor, and a comedy gig or two.
Our brother site in L.A., The Coming, had an interview with him, and we did, too! The UCB's Matt Besser speaks up on fun and games with the UCB at Chicago's Lakeshore Theater, the ins and outs of public prankery, when it's time to move from Chicago to New York, and the joys of working as a totally unauthorized call center counselor.
I thought I’d start out by asking you about the relationship with UCB and the Lakeshore. It involves you guys having a permanent home here, and of course you were here on September 11th and did shows, and you’re bringing in your favorite acts from your theaters on the coast and doing shows regularly. Could you tell me how the relationship got started and the plans for the future?
Wow, it sounds like you know more than I do. No, you pretty much said it. I mean, it started with Paul Provenza –you know who he is—he performs at the theater in LA on occasion, and he’s buddies with the guys at the Lakeshore, and he just thought it’d be a nice match, and it seems like a good match. I mean, we’re basically just sending in our best shows, so they might be unknown people but most of the shows have been up and running for a while in either NY or LA.
So, how does it get decided which of those shows come here to perform?
I think it’s pretty easy. I mean, it’s just the best shows, and the best shows are usually shows that have been around the longest, so they’re just kind of obvious choices, but the artistic director of each theater work in conjunction with our tour director. It’s pretty much how it goes.
You were recently at the Lakeshore performing "Magical Sack of Dump," which is bits of stuff you’ve done for the last several years. Can you tell me about that show?
I did a lot of one-man shows when I lived in Chicago, and I do about one every couple of years since then, too, and since I haven’t done it in Chicago, a one-man show since I left in ’96, I kind of instead of wanting to do a one one-man show, I kind of was like catching up with an old friend and showing them what I’ve been doing, and even though most of the people probably weren’t around back in ’96, I will do stuff from those shows back in the early 90’s and stuff that I’ve been doing this year at our theater in LA.
What do you like most about that format, the one-man show?
I guess I like doing all kinds of comedy, and I improvise a lot with a big group of people and it’s just cool to do it in another format, and I don’t really do stand-up, per se, so a one-man show is a good way to do all of your single character kind of bits.
I remember reading about your show "May I Help You, Dumbass?" , which I just think is awesome, so basically your phone would ring and people thought they were calling a help center for—was it AOL or something like that?
Actually, a tech support place for a bunch of different companies, [Kmart] and all sorts of big corporations.
And you would just take the phone calls…
I was tech support.
You would take the phone calls and mess with people and obviously had fun with it and got a show out if it. Did you ever consider changing your number or did you kind of enjoy messing with people?
No, that would be admitting defeat and, you know, that way they win, though I can’t let Kmart defeat me—that would be pathetic. What I did do is I told them what was wrong, and the problem was that they didn’t put an area code before their number, and I called up the place and told them that, and they didn’t do it, so…
So, technically they were making the mistake.
Yes, it was their fault.
So, they kind of had it coming.
Yes, and that company is out of business now.
You don’t feel any responsibility for that do you?
I feel [totally responsible].
I’m going to start in with the questions that our readers were contributing. Dan Telfer asks, “Where do you find it’s harder to do public performance art and prank stuff on the street—Chicago, NY, and LA—where are the people and cops most, and least, game for that kind of stuff?”
Well, when we did it in Chicago, it was more hiding a camera versus a hidden camera. We didn’t have that tiny camera technology, so people really weren’t used to those things happening, so we got the best reactions back then, because pranking people wasn’t a common thing. They weren’t looking for it.
When we moved to NY, still prank shows weren’t that big a deal at that point, but New Yorkers are used to just weirdos in general, like all the time, whether it’s a real crazy person or someone who just wants attention, there’s always something weird going on, so sometimes we would do pranks and not get much of a reaction, because it was NY. That’s why we started to move our pranks, when we learned that lesson, to New Jersey. We’d go to smaller towns in Jersey to do most of our pranks, so we really didn’t do many pranks in NY besides the Today Show and stuff. Well, we did some stuff in Washington Square, but more of it was in Jersey.
In LA, I haven’t really done much here at all, but it’s illegal in California to have a hidden camera, so you don’t see many LA pranks. I mean, my prank show, Cross Balls, is kind of a different kind of trap. It’s not going up to people—they’re walking into your traps.
Did you ever have any issues with cops or with people interfering with things you were trying to do?
Well, in Chicago a lot, and that’s what made it a lot of fun, but they broke up a half a dozen of our shows for one reason or another, because we used to bring the audience out into the street a lot of times in our show, do some kind of scene in the street, whether it was starting a riot—like, one time in Wicker Park, we were doing a show called Virtual Reality, and we told the audience that they were going on a virtual riot, and we took them outside with Tiki torches and, unfortunately, cap guns, which looked like real guns, and we went out and stopped traffic on North Ave and Damen, and of course that brought the police—torches and guns—and Horatio go taken away in a cop car that night, as he screamed, “Fight the power!”
There’s another legendary prank that these younger improvisers hear about—Adam McKay staged a public suicide in Chicago. Were you around for that?
Yeah, that was that same show.
I heard that passersby and "the public" were really blasé about it. He took out ads and all that kind of crazy stuff, and still nobody tried to stop him?
Yes. [Laugh] That is true. That was part of the same Virtual Reality show, and the audience was told that they’d get to watch a virtual suicide. We did do ads and fliers for weeks before the show, and he went up on the building across the street from -- do you guys still have Orbis there? Well, this theater on North anyway. He went up to the top of this six story building, we had a megaphone, and he started shouting down, “You can’t stop me, you can’t stop me!” and then he jumped off the building and hit a sign and a top of a car -- of course, it was a mannequin -- but it’s funny how people reacted to things like that.
Another show we were smashing a TV in the street, another show we were putting fireworks in a kid’s mouth and lighting it, and it’s funny the things that people don’t stop you from doing.
Studio CDR on the Franklin Strip at UCB:
A question from Paul Robinson asks about deciding when it's time to move to New York or LA. Do you think for some of the people here that are thinking, “Am I ready yet? Should I wait a year?” It’s important to be really firm in what you’re doing and have enough experience and a game plan and enough good stuff to show—is that kind of the advice you’d have for people at that stage?
Well, no, that would imply that you can’t grow in LA or NY either, and there’s a lot of people who begin here—I don’t know. It’s where you’re at and how happy you are. If I was living in Chicago and I had a theater where I got to go up a lot and do whatever I wanted to, why move to LA or NY if you think you can grow there in Chicago.
You have to grow somewhere, you have to get your act together, so to speak, somewhere, whether it’s LA, NY, or Chicago, or Atlanta or Austin, or whatever. It’s wherever you’re most comfortable getting it together. I think it’s easier to get it together in LA or NY now than it was back when I was in Chicago.
Another thing that we’re seeing here, for various reasons, is that people here, because they can go out to the coasts to do various shows but still live here, and because they can get their content out online, they can kind of make professional momentum…Maybe that’s more possible with people lately.
Totally.
We have a question from Dyan Flores. She asks, “Now that the UCB is becoming somewhat of an institution with the theaters, training centers…have you guys thought about any other arenas you’d like to enter—a production company or theme park?”
Yes, and that’s always been in our plan. The real plan is for UCB to be our own television network—we want to buy out the CW. Right now we don’t have the funds. Until then, we’re going to start up UCBComedy.com, probably next month, definitely by November, and we consider that our new third stage for the performers, because it won’t be an open YouTube kind of thing, but it will be for our performers, basically, to make videos for. Where that goes to—hopefully selling DVDs and making TV shows.
So, if you did get to the point of having your own network, it would be developing and producing original TV shows and all that stuff?
Yeah, I think that’s where it’s headed.
Here’s a question from 'Dandy' that might be a joke, and feel free to make fun of me if I fell for this, but someone says, “Rumor has it when you walk into a UCB theater in NY, you take the performers off the wall, watch the shows, and cross off the faces of the ones you don’t want performing on your stage. Do you really do that?”
Finally, a good question. I know where this comes from. What we’d used to do was we’d take the performers, you know, every show you’d take the performer’s photo off the wall, and if they had a bad show, you’d use White Out and White Out their face, and then we’d put a letter grade on their face, an A to F letter grade on how good an improviser they are.
That’s the old days, and now what we have is we can do it all online just with their photo, so we don’t allow bad improvisers on our stage to begin with.
It’s very efficient now, we just have pretty much an equation, you know, weight, and height, and reach, wing span, and the photo most of all—that’s about seventy-five percent of the equation, how good they look in the photo—and that’s why you can look at this and see that UCB performers are better-looking than other improvisers. We know, everybody knows that, usually, the better looking you are, the funnier you are.
There’s totally a correlation. One of our questions from our readers refers to the UCB as a large corporate institution. Do you see yourselves that way?
[Laugh] We are definitely for profit. Are we a large corporate institution? I think we’ll be an institution the day that I don’t know a majority of the performers, but I feel like right now, I know a majority of the them, so I still think that we’re an ensemble. That’s the way I like to think of ourselves. We do have a lot of classes, but what’s the question?
JH asks: "As iO and UCB have become large corporate institutions that teach their own form of Harold, do you feel the artistic risk has been taken out of the form to comply with a go-by-the-syllabus style of performing to make it easier for students?"
This is in regards to The Harold?
Yeah, or just the way that the teaching is done given that it’s through an institution, does it refine it too much or make it like an ABC...
Right. Harold is what it is. A Harold is a Harold. It’s like saying you’re doing a new style of flip where you don’t flip all the way around, you just flip halfway and then you roll over to your side. It’s like, well, you can go ahead and do that, but that’s not a flip. A flip you have to come all the way around.
So, the Harold, it just is what it is—it’s three beats of three different scenes, they heighten and explore as they go along, you have two group scenes, and hopefully the third beats find a way to tie together somehow. So, anyone that teaches The Harold teaches that. That’s what a Harold is. If you can pull that off and pull that off well, that’s very impressive. I’m not really sure that I’ve seen anything more impressive than that. Maybe other forms are equally impressive, but I haven’t really seen more impressive than pulling off a Harold, so the way we believe is, if you can pull off a Harold than you can do anything. You have your whole life to go be artistic.
When you’re in school and you’re learning, you need to learn the basics. You need to learn how to fine line draw before painting abstractly. It’s easy to paint abstractly, there’s no discipline to it, and it’s completely subjective. So, my improv group, The Family, we at one point in doing a Harold, we’re bored with it, and we started doing what we call The Spineless Harold where you didn’t necessarily come back to a scene if it didn’t work, and we flourished doing that, and it might have been considered more artistic how we were able to explore, but it was also easier, and when we pulled it off, it might have been funnier, but maybe not more impressive. But I think we were able to do that and do that with ease, because we had started doing it the right way to begin with. So to me, you learn how to draw a circle, which is what a Harold is, perfectly first, and once you know how to do that, you can draw anything. So, that’s our philosophy.
As far as defining technique and syllabus -- when I was a student in Chicago before the iO, I did just about every school in town, and everybody was all over the place in terms of teaching philosophies. People would use the same words but mean completely different things, so they’re say things like “finding The Game” or “relationship” or “theme.” There’s all these words that everybody uses, but they mean completely different things. That was never really acknowledged, so it just confuses people when they go from school to school. “My last teacher said this, but it’s totally contradictory,” and it’s because it is contradictory. People have to realize that you have to choose the philosophy that works for you best, but you can’t think that every philosophy is on the same page, because they’re not. There’s different styles of improvising.
Okay, another question from one of our readers, Todd Rice, an improv question I hope I don't screw up. "Do you find that there’s an overemphasis in some cases to finding The Game of the scene to the detriment of the reality of the characters?"
In our philosophy—you know, it’s all subjective—you should always be finding The Game, but you should also always be grounded in reality, but it’s not the fault of The Game that you might not be grounded in reality. If you’re heightening and exploring, then you’re hopefully, as you’re exploring, you’re grounding The Game, and that makes sense to improvisers probably, but a lot of people say this phrase heighten and explore, and they’re really not thinking about the “and explore,” they’re thinking just heighten as if it means the same thing, but it doesn’t. Exploring is kind of going sideways where heightening is going up, and if you just keep heightening without exploring, exploring is usually adding a logic to your scene, saying this absurd thing, whether it’s a character or a premise, is heightening. If you just heighten without any logic, it just seems silly and wacky, and who likes that scene? If you explore, and explain, and give a philosophy to the scene then you’ll accept the absurd heightening, it won’t just seem wacky and silly. It seems like a good sketch, which is our goal, to improvise a scene that’s worthy of being written up into a sketch—that’s the easiest way of saying that the goal of a UCB improv scene is, not to be a play, but to be a sketch.
Do you have any ideas about the ongoing conversations about improv working or not working on TV, and if something gets lost between the live element and television?
Well, let me ask you this: is live stand-up better than stand-up on TV?
Yeah.
But, by how much? You still enjoy watching a DVD of stand up, right? So, it loses some, but how much? I think it’s a negligible amount. I mean, you could say the same about live music versus on a CD, too, so it’s always great to be five feet away, and it’s always great to see something live. You can’t argue that, but I think it’s lame to say that’s the only way that you can enjoy improv. Yes, shitty improv is not fun to watch on TV, but good improv, where the improv scenes are worthy of being written up into a sketch, that’s worthy of watching, I think.
I think it’s funny, unless people really need costumes and props, and that can add to certain scenes, but other scenes it’s just like, you know, whatever. Who cares we’ve built a restaurant set? Being in that black box with two chairs—I imagined the restaurant, I didn’t need the restaurant set and the waitress apron and whatever. So, I don’t know, I don’t really agree with that, and what sucks about being on TV is when you have to censor yourself, and if you’re doing long form and you have a flow going, breaking it up with commercials, that’s what sucks about being on TV. When we did our AsssCat on Bravo, which is why we just recently filmed our own DVD of AsssCat where we’re able to do it in our theater versus in a studio and without commercial breaks, and just do it how you really do it, so if you’re censoring yourself because you’re on TV, I think that’s always less than, but if it’s a good scene, it’s a good scene. The days of the excitement of watching two people create a scene and their delight and commitment—we’re done with those days. It needs to be funny, too, now, and it’s not like Who’s Line Is It Anyway? where you’re playing a parlor game, you’re creating a sketch, so if it’s funny, I don’t know why it shouldn’t be funny on television as well.
What’s an average week for you? Where do you have to focus and spend most of your time?
Well, we have a lot of great people running the various facets of the UCB, so it just depends on what the latest project is. Right now, one of my day-to-day focus is getting this UCBComedy.com launched. Six month ago it was working on the AsssCat DVD, and we all have our own careers going, too, so we try to juggle that.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
As a comedian? Finding that one person in the audience that really hates you and focusing on them, and by the end of the show making them at least smile for the right reason, and using all the money that I make to help victims of Katrina.
About this one-man show…
I know it's $15. A lot of people think I’m only worth $11-$12, but I swear I’m going to bring—it’s going to be worth $16. At least. It’ll be worth $19. For $16, you’ll get a $19 show, and if you’re not a fan or you barely know my work, it’ll be a $16 show, even if you don’t know anything about me, it will be worth at least $16. I heard there’s been a lot of big comedians in there, like not taking full advantage of what the Lakeshore has to offer, like their light show. I hear Greg Giraldo was there, and he barely used the lighting at all, like he just had one set his whole show. I’m gonna completely—the light show’s gonna be amazing. I will say this, it will be better than any other comedian that’s been there so far.
Will you be using more dry ice than any other comedian?
I come with fog machines. I don’t know what vaudeville act’s been using dry ice. We have heavy duty, top of the line fog machines for my show, and I show porn—what other comedian shows porn during their set?
Is there free pizza, too?
No, I’m not begging people. I’m not giving shit away. I’m not begging people to come to my show, I’m just saying I have from $16 to $19 worth of a show, depending on how much you already like me. That’s my guarantee.
The Bastion got a chance to have a little tete-a-tete with stand-up comedian Bill Cruz recently, who can frequently be seen throughout the greater Chicagoland area, performing material that explores his heritage and sexuality, politics, and football, to name just a few topics. He will be opening for Sandra Valls this Sunday, 8 p.m., at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green St.
Can you give everyone the brief bio: Who is Bill Cruz? Where does he come from? Why is he here? Where does he stay and play?
Bill Cruz is a guy who was born and raised a die hard Bronco fan on the southwest side of Denver, Colorado. I was (and still am) a dork, who was into acting as a kid, and went on to graduate with a theater degree from the University of Colorado. I originally moved to Chicago in ’99 to pursue a career in theater, and it's now 2007 and I do stand-up. Currently, I am residing at the AFCWEST House, which is a basement apartment in Lincoln Park that has been inherited from numerous outstanding Chicago comics such as CJ Sullivan (VLR), Brady Novak (Lincoln Lodge), Sean Cole (insanely funny), and Tommy Mayo (just insane). I am currently co-habitating with “Unbookables” heavy hitter, and Oakland Raiders fan, Brian Petrofka. I spend a lot of time at home playing poker, and squeezing as much value out of my Netflix account.
You just turned 31 recently, and we're coming into 2008. What are your plans for this coming year, both professionally and personally?
Well, personally: I just quit smoking. It’ll be four weeks on Sunday, so I guess taking a little better care of myself is in order.
Professionally: I am taking a sabbatical from The Lincoln Lodge this year to be a little selfish and work on my act, doing as much writing as I can, and build up the resume. You were the Lincoln Lodge's booker for two years. What is the process to get a performing slot on their stage, and what methods did you employ to find talent in the city?
Yeah, I booked the room for two years, which has been a great learning experience. It was really a collaborative effort, as Lodge members would often recommend comics they had worked with, and I would try to see them in a non-open mic setting. The basic tenant was if you were funny, professional, and had a presence that was conducive with the Lodge “feel,” then you got a booking. I would also venture out on my own to see as many showcase shows as I could. If I would hear a name come up, over and over, in normal conversation, I would check them out too. You know, gotta keep up with the buzz. I would also watch a lot of YouTube clips and submitted DVDs. You perform at many Mikey O events as well as many alt Northside rooms. Can you describe the differences and similarities of the two?
Well, the biggest difference is production quality. Mikey-O has an abundant gift and skill for promotion, production, and networking. His ability to produce talent-heavy shows, and then to market those shows to a specific audience is outstanding.
Now obviously numerous rooms do not have the resources available to them as Mikey-O, but that doesn’t mean they are bad shows. The Lodge is an obvious example, as well as Seth Thomas’s Fourth Fridays show at Town Hall Pub. It is consistently an unbelievably good show.
You are an openly gay stand-up comedian. Can you share some of your best and worst nights performing stand-up with regards to this issue?
Well, the worst has to be hosting at Zanies on a Wednesday, where half the audience was comprised of nine businessmen from Texas in Chicago for a business conference. I opened with some Texas bashing jokes (which obviously went over real well), and then when I went into my material about being gay, and an audible “No Shit” could be heard from the front row. Yikes!
One of the best was closing a show in a small town in central Michigan at a place called the “Hunt ‘N Shack”, with Ken Barnard and Gene Renfroe. This town had two streets, and one stop sign. I thought I was not going to be welcome in this small town USA. Turns out it was one of my best sets to date. Everyone was there just to have a good time, and they treated me majestically. What else is going on man? It's been awhile.
Other than that, just enjoying the Chicago comedy scene, and loving every minute of it. I am so hopeful for all the comics heading out of town, and also hopeful to see how the scene here in Chicago will continually evolve. And I always smile big when I hear rumors still, about how I’m not really gay, that I’m just using it for my act. And believe me, I love proving those rumors wrong!
Dave Odd, Tom Simmons, and Steve Hofstetter will be on hand tonight at 8 pm at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts to launch the Blue Stater Comedy Tour, "The Blue Collar Tour for People Who Can Read".
Performers promise that "The Blue Stater Comedy Tour is guaranteed to take on and tackle all the subjects that are on the minds of the well read people who are wondering what the hell happened to our country, and rile and ruffle the feathers of all those who don't think there is a problem."
Special guest John Behan will be there, as well as host Prescott Tolk. Odd and company plan to take the show on the road in '08, but you can catch them now, giving the current administration a little hell for the recent mess we're finding ourselves in. Larry the Cable Guy, presumably, is not invited.
Tom Simmons Live at Gotham:
Blue Stater Comedy Tour, Chicago Center for the Performing Arts,
777 N. Green Street, Chicago, 312-733-6000
Saturday before last saw the opening of "Wii the People" at Donny's Skybox at Second City, and The Bastion was fortunate enough to be there.
"Wii the People" is the latest revue from the Second City Outreach and Diversity Ensemble, Brownco. On the whole, it's a well-paced, funny (at times hilarious) concoction of sketches and improv put off by a fun and entirely likable group. From the opening musical piece, "Ambiguously Ethnic", to the closing improv, based on the life of an audience member, the laughs were abundant. Topics ranged from Iraqi comedy clubs to a poetry slam to a handyman with a cure for all problems, interspersed with a number of songs with scene changes punctuated by well-chosen hip-hop excerpts.
Standout sketches include a string of horribly politically incorrect racial jokes designed to make the audience simultaneously laugh and squirm, a game of Win, Lose, or Draw from hell, and a fantastic Abbot-and-Costello-esque discussion of the border fence.
On the whole, this was an entirely enjoyable way to spend an hour, and certainly worth the $12 ticket price. The only suggestions we'd have for the production is for the performers to project a little more -- at times the musical accompaniment too easily dominated. But we're sure this is just an opening night glitch.
"Wii The People" (and, yes, there's an obligatory string of Wii puns) runs every Saturday at 9:00 PM in Donny's Skybox until December 8. Tickets can be purchased here. It's performed by Mike Abdelsayed, Frankie Benavides, Elana Elyce, Sherman Edwards, Jamella Sheelo, and Ariel Coleman-Turner. It's directed by John Hildreth, with music direction by Matt Griffo.
Bastion pal "The Sound of Young America," described as "a public radio show about things that are awesome," is putting on 
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The "Funniest Person in Chicago" contest 
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The Bastion was on hand (okay, it was a few weeks ago, sometimes we get busy with work) for the 
Our brother site in L.A., 
Dave Odd, Tom Simmons, and Steve Hofstetter will be on hand tonight at 8 pm at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts to launch the 
Saturday before last saw the opening of "Wii the People" at Donny's Skybox at Second City, and The Bastion was fortunate enough to be there.