(Or: How to Spend Another Thursday Night Alone!)

After eating dinner alone, reading in a bookstore alone, and drinking at the diner alone, we hope this review is about something good enough to take our minds off of how pathetically alone we are. Tonight it's a... shit, a one man show? Nick Vatterott's "No Outlet"?

Great, he opened with a joke about wedding rings; this'll be a long night of dwelling on failed relationshi... wait, did he just switch scenes with a clever segue? Is this an entirely new character? Is Nick Vatterott keeping the audience engaged without trite, direct communication? Is he ridiculously high energy (as pictured)?

Oh deary me, this show is hilarious! Why, we were laughing so hard at the lazy man's guide to Riverdance (pro tip: only dance from the waist up) that we scarcely had time to dwell on our own lack of dancing skills and how that may be impacting our relationships! His interpretation of the letter Y being a promiscuous tramp (not unlike our last friend with benefits), is uproarious! He's switching characters more often than we switch significant others (and that is incredibly often!)! I hope SNL hears about this Nick Vatterott, because this breadth of characters is simply unmatched. What's this? The most hilarious pantomime of being locked out of a car, mugged, stripped, and forced to hula hoop we've ever seen? Dear sir, you are too much.

Indeed this show was adequately distracting from our sad little...wait, I recognize this scene! He's calling back that thing from earlier! Wait, the entire show was a cleverly prepared, subtly segued callback! Had we not been obsessing over the supposed reasons why that floozy didn't come to the show tonight (who seriously has a migraine
all day?), we probably would have caught even more of this mile-a-minute, beautifully crafted, perfectly executed show.

Alas, the lights are down and we must retire to our humble abodes...Oh, Nick Vatterott, don't thank the audience for coming, thank YOU for putting on a fantastic show. Oh, you sincerely are thankful and what to buy us drinks? You, sir, are a king among men. Anyone who has the opportunity to see your show (Thursdays at 9:00pm from September 27th through October 18th at the iO Theater, 3541 N Clark St., Chicago) would be a fool to pass it up.

- Chris Singel