Results tagged “conano”

This is EXACTLY what we needed to see given today's incredibly depressing weather.

After seeing their viewer numbers plummet over the last few weeks, the major networks forced their late night talent back on the air last night. David Letterman took the high road, working out a deal with his writers so they could return with him, but keep in mind that he owns the production company that puts out his program. We suspect neither Conan O'Brien or Jay Leno are too jazzed to return without their writers, but since their shows are owned by the networks, they don't have the same kind of leverage.

Once a Second City performer, always a Second City performer...right? Rachel Dratch and Tim Meadows, both mainstage alumns, will be at the Chicago History Museum tonight for a panel about improv. Kevin Dorff, another Second City performer and now an on-strike writer for Conan O'Brien, moderates, and there will be real live sketch and improv to boot. Tickets are $12 ($10 for members) and the show starts at 6:30. We can't believe we missed last...

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with...

30 Rock's Jack McBrayer

Seattlest saw a house party get senselessly attacked with a shotgun and end in seven dead. A local senator is debated and their version of the big dig is investigated. To truly get to the bottom of it they interview the writer Jonathan Raban. Bostonist has its first birthday party and investigates how to attach more gambling dollars to the Red Sox. Benjamin Franklin is celebrated and Johnny Damon is not. Image by Ethan Bagley...

Good news for Late Night fans: Conan O’Brien will be string dancing his way into town to broadcast his show for the week of May 9-12. The show has visited locations such as Toronto, Los Angeles and, most recently, Finland, but this will be the first Chicago broadcast. And it’s about friggin’ time.

Hate festivals, but want to see some of the bands anyway? A few of the bands playing Intonation Festival this weekend will also be playing at other venues around town. So click around and see if anything is of interest. First up, Four Tet will be doing an in-store at Reckless Records at 3161 N. Broadway on Friday at 5:30 pm. Free. The Go! Team will be at the Double Door on Friday night with...

Start hording those ImprovOlympic mugs, shirts, and ticket stubs, ‘cause “ImprovOlympic” is no more. The 24-year old company that gave us large blocks of the Saturday Night Live cast, much of the talent behind Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and “that dopey guy” from Scrubs has changed its name to I.O. Theater. In a story you’d expect to find in The Onion, I.O. Owner and Director Charna Halpern received a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee ordering her to drop “Olympic” from the company name lest someone actually think the Wrigleyville club was qualifying people for Beijing ’08. Back in its formative years, the club was embroiled in a dispute with a stand-up comedy club owner claiming to have copyrighted “improv.” And since the club's been competition-free for decades, they've merely lost a bit of marketing cache.

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 Second City � instructing Conan how to get to their house with complicated directions. The joke, about navigating Chicagoland highways and local streets (with real-life shout-outs) was pretty much lost on the New York audience, but Chicagoist had a good laugh at its expense. Catch the rerun at 5 on Comedy Central today. And for plenty more Chicago-exclusive jokes, see Doors Open on the Right at Second City.