Last night, North Side/North Shore Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky sat down with Stephen Colbert to discuss her participation in the House Hunger Caucus' Food Stamp Challenge. After accidentally introducing her as Jane (and insisting on calling her such for the rest of the evening, not wanting to admit an error), Colbert dished out his usual satire, suggesting that the food stamp allotment be decreased to $2 to combat obesity. Although she had some difficulty getting......

Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black...

As discussed previously, former Chicago restaurateur and presumably current maker-of-sweet-love-down-by-the-fire Isaac Hayes left the cast of South Park in a blaze of self-righteous glory. [SIDEBAR: there are those who think that, in light of his recent stroke, someone else is making his comments for him. Could it be ………….. XENU?!] At any rate, last night the South Park boys threw together a brand-new episode to give Chef a proper sendoff, a sendoff that had nothing......

Governor Blagojevich will appear in a segment about emergency contraception on The Daily Show tonight. The segment was originally scheduled to run on Tuesday night. So if you stayed up past your bedtime to watch earlier this week, don't blame us. Last year Blago signed a bill requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception even if they feel doing so goes against the beliefs. The bill angered several pharmacists, including State Representative Ron......

Note: Part 1 of this series is here. The Chicago Sketchfest brings some of the country’s finest comic troupes to town this weekend and next. Fitting really, since a mid-January Chicago vacation requires a hearty sense of humor. Yesterday, Chicagoist profiled a few up-and-comers but we didn’t want to leave out the veteran performers, the very backbone of the festival itself, and the uniquely wacky groups, the pickled liver of the festival itself. Many of......

Railing against winter depression, working hard for the belly laughs, imbibing enough to make their Second City forbearers proud, legions of talented performers and commendable administrators take over Theatre Building Chicago tonight through January 15 for the 5th Annual Chicago Sketchfest. Squeezing ninety troupes over eight nights, the festival boasts one of the most impressive lineups outside Aspen. They’re savvy enough to host tonight’s League of Chicago Theaters’ Theater Thursday event, featuring pre-show beer and......

Set your TiVo or tune into The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight at 10 PM on Comedy Central to catch Stewart interview Senator Barack Obama. The Daily Show first asked the busy Obama to be on the show over a year ago, but this will be his first appearance. This morning it looked like Obama would miss the appearance in New York, as he wanted to stay in Washington to take part in......

Michael Showalter - Comedian, Actor...

With all the sad events this past week, Chicagoist needs a good laugh. This weekend, get your fill of giggles at Laughing Out Loud, a two-night event featuring gay and lesbian comedians in support of the Human Rights Campaign. Tomorrow night comedian Vicki Shaw opens for the "often flamboyant and irreverant actor/stand-up comic" ANT, who was interviewed in January's issue of Instinct Magazine. We recently listened to Ant's new CD, "Follow My Ass" and couldn't......

For a brief moment, Chicagoist contemplated not going to the Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings show on Friday night (beer-fueled inertia is a powerful force). Thank God we rose to the occasion as our collective mind was freed with our ass following right behind. Then we woke up this morning (thanks for the day off, Messrs. Presidents!) and flipped on Comedy Central for our Daily Show fix and found ourselves smack dab in the......

Because we Americans don't spend enough time sealed-off from one another in our caves, a number of companies have developed technology that will allow you to watch TV on your cell phone. Apparently the technology has been available in South Korea for years and now Verizon is getting on board here in the States and will launch the cellular TV service VCAST on February 1st. A number of companies unveiled their plans for cellular TV......

Snoop Dogg's friend & spirital advisor Biship Don "Magic" Juan is opening an "exotic bakery" in Chicago and Comedy Central will be filming it all. The pimp has signed up for a new reality show and is interviewing bakers to turn his new business into a hip-hop hotspot. Don Juan says they'll be all about "making different kinds of exotic cakes, doughnuts and things like that. We're going to have some pimp doughnuts and playa......

Did everyone catch Conan O'Brien last night? The Cone Zone is on vacation, so it was a rerun. But the second comedy sketch, after first guest and former Second City member Tina Fey - that's a lot of firsts and seconds there - had a particular relevance and hilarity to Chicagoans. It involved a couple from the Chicago 'burbs – one of them being Conan writer Kevin Dorff, a cast member alongside Fey at......