Results tagged “sketchcomedy”

Local sketch comedy troupes GayCo and Schadenfreude are teaming up for a new political comedy show, This Country's F$cked. The show, done in conjunction with Crossroads Funds, will feature plenty of the comedy you've come to enjoy from these two fine troupes as well as appearances by other local performers including: Bassprov, Susan Messing, Ken Barnard, Mike and Duane, Blue Ribbon Glee Club, Mark Bazer, Jet & Holly, Matthew Hollis and the Power of Cheer, Claudia Wallace and Yuri Lane. The show will play tribute to the carnival sideshow that has been the 2008 Elections season and will feature plenty of stand-up, sketches, music, and maybe some unicorn sex (if you're lucky). The show hits the Lakeshore Theater for four exclusive shows over the next two Saturday nights (8 p.m. and 11 p.m. each night). There'll be an after-party featuring DJ Jesse De La Pena after the final show of the run (11 p.m. on the 25th).

Friday’s late night crowd at Gorilla Tango Theater is raucous and loud, with some patrons sloshed to the point of major distraction. But complaining about a drunken scene at sketch comedy revue Boozelegger’s Ball is like complaining about excessive violence in There Will Be Blood. The title alone should clue you in.

Local filmmaker Steve Delahoyde and sketch comedy team Schadenfreude make a series of short films together called . The first one in that series is called "Boxes."

Nerdy white guys still dominate sketch comedy and SketchFest. Debate all you want whether women’s under-representation comes from a lack of funny or surplus of sensibility, we were relieved Saturday to see groups looking more like, and inspired by, real life.

25th Century Heroes

As a rule, SketchFest organizers don't meddle with the artistic product. But last night we couldn’t help wondering if the troupes were ordered to do pet humor. In three of the four shows we saw Friday, performers became felines for laughs. For the other, a monologist drank like a gerbil. Team Submarine and Brick even used the same “distracted by a laser pointer” gag. A minor complaint, as Friday night treated us to plenty of original material.

The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival kicked off last night and continues through January 13, a smörgåsbord of comedy stylings from 99 troupes from across the U.S. and Canada. Intrepid performers leave the comfort of California and Texas, brave delays at O’Hare, and risk negative comments on their MySpace pages—all to entertain you. Organizers estimate 10,000 of you attended last year’s event and, with fest favorites like Elephant Larry, Canadian Content, Cool Table, and Big News returning, this year’s crowds will likely be just as huge.

pH Productions hit our radar when they started pHlooding the Hottix page with their uniquely titled late-night shows, like pHamily and pHrenzy pHucked. Then came their emails, replete with creative pHonetics: “Hi pHans… pHrenz-o-ween is coming!”

30 Rock's Scott Adsit

It doesn't seem fair when talented up-and-coming theater companies struggle to attract time-starved critics focused on more established institutions and touring shows. Recently, we’ve been part of the problem, reviewing the same productions covered by virtually every other media outlet in town. So now we ask you: what have we been missing?

Anheuser-Busch is taking heat for an ad they ran during Super Bowl XLI. For laughs, the 30-second spot glorifies interracial and intergenerational violence, not to mention violence against cute women, Asian American food service workers, and pretty much everyone. But the real issue is that ad agency DDB Chicago may have stolen the idea from NYC sketch comedy troupe Whitest Kids U’Know, who smack each other around in their video The New Thing. The Bud...

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into...

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.

Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black

As its name suggests, Theater on the Lake combines two of our favorite Chicago attractions. There’s nothing quite like seeing a fantastic show after an evening lakefront stroll. But there’s also nothing quite like wondering what the hell you just saw while darting through puddles and thunderstorms to get back to the bus. Thankfully, most of our memories attached to the shed at Fullerton and LSD belong to that first category. And this year’s lineup...

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...

Now that Santa’s returned to the North Pole and Hanukkah Harry has commenced his rounds, it’s time to focus on New Year’s Eve. Maybe you’ve already ponied up your $100 or more to celebrate that sharp new desk calendar. Or maybe you’ve sworn off Saturday night as an overblown, overhyped, overpriced holiday. If you’re in that second category, consider spending 2005’s final hours at the theater, a more reasonably priced alternative where you leave the...

Last week the Chicago Theatre announced they would expand their beautiful old selves by building a new underground black box theater on the historic site. Owner-operator TheaterWorks endeavors to bring more intimate works to one of the Loop’s most recognizable landmarks, further elevating the downtown theater district and drawing more attention to their talented neighbors. What’s not to like?

Chicago is funny. Everyone knows that. We've got Second City, the Improv Olympic, and we lay claim to Dan Aykroyd, Alan Alda, Tina Fey, Dan Castellaneta, Bill Murray as well as many other famous comedians and writers. To commemorate our funniness, head over to the 8th Annual Chicago Improv Festival. It starts tomorrow and has guest performers from SNL, MADtv, The Daily Show and Anchorman, to name a few. In all, there will be about...

With apologies to Noah Baumbach: Chicagoist is too nostalgic, we admit it. This week’s European and Irish film fests had us nostalgic for last October, which was similarly chockablock full of fests. Then yesterday Maia Entertainment announced May 7th as the date for the 2nd Annual Chicago “Really” Short Film Fest at the Abbey Pub, which made us nostalgic for a Guinness we had last night. Once we came out of our misty water-colored...

The fourth annual Chicago Sketchfest is happening now – and by that we mean tonight through Sunday – at the Theatre Building Chicago on West Belmont. The “largest sketch comedy festival in the country” promises “83 groups, over 100 shows and 600 funny people,” most of which & whom you’ve probably already missed, since the festival kicked off over a week ago.

Tomorrow night Claire Zulkey will be hosting a night of Chicago's funniest performers and writers at the Hideout. Titled, "Funny Ha-Ha" the night features sketch comedy from Schadenfreude, a short film from Steve Delahoyde, and readings from The Morning News' Kevin Guilfoile, The Onion AV Club's Nathan Rabin, RedEye's Mark Bazer, and more.

As Chicagoist wrote earlier, we'd ideally like to send out the summer in style tonight with Guys and Dolls. But if keeps on raining outside, we've got back-up plans for you (and us). Now, as we all know, Chicago is the comedy capital of the world. There's no better evidence of that fact than our annual Sketchfest, the nation�s largest sketch comedy festival. This past January, videographer Blake Hollon captured all the best moments onstage and behind the scenes. The footage has been compiled into a documentary about Sketchfest entitled, um, Sketchfest: The Documentary. And wouldn't you know it, they're having the premiere screening tonight as a really, really early preview party for the 2005 fest. In addition to the movie, the website also promises "free appetizers, beer, raffle prizes, and more." Excellent. The laughs start at 7:30 at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont. Tickets cost $15 in advance or $20 at the door.