Results tagged “saturdaynight”

Many would say Chicago tops the list of America’s funniest cities, so it’s fitting that our town created an awards show exclusively to honor Chicago comics. The Second Annual Chicago Comedy Awards, a three-day extravaganza taking place this weekend, sets the stage for local comedians to, well, celebrate themselves.

After weeks of speculation among dozens of people, last night's edition of Saturday Night Live revealed their choice to play Barack Obama for potentially the next four years -- Chicago's Fred Armisen. While the sketch was a somewhat amusing take on the press infatuation with Obama, if Illinois' favorite son locks up the nomination Armisen needs to work on his impersonation. It makes Will Forte's GWB look Will Farrell-esque in quality.

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What do you get when you combine an elaborate set design, rock and roll magicians, acoustic custom poetry, and a melange of feel-good local bands? A whole lotta awesome, that's what.

Kanye just completely ganked his second performance on Saturday Night Live. He started "freestyling" on "Everything I Am," and boy was it not pretty. Time to start trolling for video. Thoughts?

The best excuse to see TV stars sans makeup, The Tenth Annual Chicago Improv Festival continues through Sunday at The Athenaeum, Park West, and sites all over the north side. (Yes, south siders, they do hate you, get over it…) Chicagoist attended the opening show Monday night at the Cultural Center, featuring the only three performers dedicated (or crazy) enough to perform at all 10 festivals: Joe Bill, Susan Messing, and Mark Sutton. They brought...

We’ll admit it, we haven’t watched "Saturday Night Live" in … well … let’s just say that the last time we watched "SNL" we thought it was about time for Kevin Nealon to finish up.

See enough sketch comedy and you’re bound to experience a head shaking, teeth gritting night when you’re questioning why you abandoned the warm, comforting glow of your Magnavox. At last weekend’s Chicago Sketchfest, we eavesdropped on a few patrons in that predicament, discussing what they’d like to see abolished in sketch comedy: "Casting a woman in your group for the sole purpose of being 'the girlfriend', 'the spouse', or the object of lust." "Mistaking 'zany'...

Sure, a comedy festival provides exposure and an excuse to get out of town for a weekend. But as the Sixth Annual Chicago Sketchfest gets underway, we’ve learned that comedy troupes also come here to nourish their inner fanboy (or girl) and to network. We contacted three veteran troupes to see how they make the most of these weekends.

We’ve done a little improv in our day, and we know just how challenging it can be to chock-full of humor and energy for an hour or two. But being the improv giants they are, Second City will be hosting a 24-hour marathon of comedy and music beginning this evening at 7 p.m. as part of their benefit event, “The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa.” Tickets are $10 for the entire day...

Chicagoist has been around the comedy world long enough to know a few things. We know that when one of your players drinks ten beers before a show, that’s a bad sign. We know that when you get kicked off a team at one place, there’s always somewhere else to go. We know every conceivable idea has been put on stage in one way or another, and that sometimes, the gimmicks upstage the funny. That’s...

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made...

Its concept isn't much of a stretch: Fey plays Liz Lemon, head writer of a late-night comedy sketch show (!) called “The Girlie Show.” Everything is going just fine until a new network VP (Alec Baldwin) is brought in to vamp up ratings. Idea #1 is to bring loose-cannon star Tracy Morgan, err Jordan, onto the show since he appeals to the missing demographic of “males between 18 and 49.” And Dratch plays a cat wrangler.

Five Second City theaters around the country, including Chicago, will now serve as a comedy testing ground for NBC/Universal TV as part of a two-year deal. NBC writers will be allowed to visit any Second City theater to see performances of scripts they have in development or watch as characters they’ve created get workshopped for the best way to deliver a funny catchphrase that everyone will be sick of in six months. NBC will also...

The wait is over folks. The final cast for “Saturday Night Live” has been announced. There were a few surprises (Chris Parnell is gone? Seriously? He was just getting good), along with Horatio Sans (no surprise there). Horatio is a friend of Chicagoist, a damn funny guy, and has one of the dirtiest minds we’ve ever known, but sometimes, the kid just laughs too much at his own jokes. We hope he comes home though; Chicago hasn’t been the same without him.

A new poll conducted by Scarborough Research shows that the White Sox are rapidly gaining popularity in Chicago -- even approaching the Cubs. If the trend continues, the Sox may even pass up the Cubs in popularity very soon.

We’ve gotten used to Roger Ebert’s medical problems by now so when he went in for his latest round of surgery, we figured he’d be back up and around in no time. Much like the T-1000*, nothing seems to keep him down for long, short of dipping him in molten steel.

Here at the Chicagoist offices we’re counting down the days to Ash Wednesday and one of our favorite times of the year- pointing out all the hungover Catholics with dirty foreheads and shag carpeting for tongues eating pepper and egg sandwiches. This weekend finds a literal smorgasbord of events leading up to Fat Tuesday itself: - Starting Friday Carnivale (702 W. Fulton) will feature a Mardi Gras–themed menu featuring dishes like Moqueqa --seafood stew with...

Remember the old Saturday Night Live “Superfans” sketches where they pondered who would win in a fight between say, Mike Ditka and the 1992 Chicago Bulls? The city saw a real-life version of that matchup yesterday when it was Ditka vs. The Entire Chicago City Council on the proposed smoking ban. True to form, Ditka, a longtime fan of cigars, pulled out three of the signature moves in his unstoppable fighting style:

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.

Who knew that an unassuming ensemble show in the University of Chicago's Reynolds Club would spawn the most celebrated improv community in the world? On July 5, 1955, the Compass Players performed an improvisational revue skewering the day's headlines, the intensely serious nature of U of C students, and irresponsible spouses. Future celebrities on stage that night included Roger Bowen of M*A*S*H fame and Hollywood Golden Girls Elaine May (who envisioned Gene Hackman in drag for The Birdcage) and Barbara Harris. The talent behind Compass would launch Second City, which would feed prime time sitcoms, Saturday Night Live and countless movies.

Chicagoist's foodies are rarely surprised when they hear about restaurant expansion, especially when that restaurant is a popular brand with proven success.

Sometimes, if you can see your way past all the celebrity fluff puff, Terry Armour’s Sunday Tribune column has some honest-to-God news in it. Yesterday he mentioned the efforts to increase the visibility of Chicago’s multicultural film community, which has been a long time coming. Chicago has had a rich history of Black films made in and around the city. Armour’s column mentions the upcoming Roll, Bounce; Hoop Dreams; Soul Food; and love jones (which...

If you didn't get enough R&B superstar stalking in with R. Kelly's appearance on the Chicago River, then you'll soon have your chance with Usher. The singer is in talks to star in and executive produce a movie called "Step In the Name of Love". The movie has been billed as the "urban Saturday Night Fever" and is a period piece about the Step dancing movement�a Chicago derivative of swing dancing. Uh.. The Urban Saturday Night Fever? Sounds like a winner.

Most people think of as a New York movie, but it kicks off in Chicagoist's own back yard: the University of Chicago campus. You can't pull your car up to the gate from the opening scene anymore, and they're driving the wrong way on Lake Shore, but still.

After 6 years, Jimmy Fallon announced that he is leaving Saturday Night Live. Although NBC hoped that he would renew his contract, Jimmy had made it clear that he wanted to move on, so his departure was not a surprise. Chicagoist, being the dork nerds that we are, especailly liked Jimmy's portrayal of Nick Burns, the unfriendly computer tech guy. Of course we also loved him on Weekend Update. We wonder who will now sit at the newsdesk next to Tina Fey. It may be selfish, but we would love to see one of our Second City comedians get the position.