INTERVIEW: The Talent Behind Public House Theatre, Chicago's Newest Comedy Venue

By Staff in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 11, 2013 4:45PM

By: Matt Byrne

The Public House Theatre, owned by the former occupants of the upstairs theater space in Lakeview’s Fizz Bar, quietly opened its doors last month and is slowly rolling out more high quality, audience-friendly sketch revues from some of the city's most talented and unique independent sketch troupes. The newly renovated venue features two performance spaces: The Pub Theatre, their main stage complete with audience-friendly tiered seating, and the intimate black box House Theatre.

Chicagoist spoke with the folks behind the theater about their pro-performer philosophy and hopes for the future. Meet producers Chris Geiger, Sherra Lasley, and Kevin Reader, as well as venue owner Byron Hatfield, writer of Bye Bye Liver, a nationally successful drinking-themed sketch show, which has become the lifeblood of the theater.

The Public House Theatre is at 3914 N. Clark St. Phone: 1-800-650-6449. The box office is open Tuesdays through Saturdays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

CHICAGOIST: What sort of goals did you have in mind when opening up the theater?

Byron Hatfield: We want a place to treat sketch like theater. We want our performers to feel important. The whole idea about this place is that we don't have a training center, we don't have any other income source than our shows. I want to take the best people who do sketch in the city and help them produce shows in a place with people that are going to succeed.

There are 9.3 million people in Chicago. I think there's enough to actually support comedy. When we sit down to work with a group, we say, "more than anything, we want to help you find your audience. There's an audience for your show." There are these amazing groups out there that are doing shows for the same handful of friends all the time. We want to provide a home that is sustainable…

Chris Geiger: and that cares!

Sherra Lasley: There are so many people in this comedy community, and there are so many of them who have the gut instinct to put up this very well-done, polished, marketed show. But, because the scene has taught us that it's not worth it to invest that sort of time, money, and energy, we've all been trained from years of putting up shows at random theaters that charge a huge rental fee for a show to be put up to just a handful of people.

It's cool to be in a place now where we all have that gut instinct and we're telling people that this instinct is correct, and help them to accomplish that without sucking money out of their pockets.

Kevin Reader: We all have bigger goals and aspirations. We'd like to change the game in the city. For me, I want to inspire people to do the best work they are capable of doing. Really invest in something that they believe in. Write your ideas down, craft them, edit them, dream big. Try something you wouldn't normally do.

C: Bye Bye Liver is the unofficial flagship show for the theater, what's the story behind that show's explosion in popularity?

BH: I wrote Bye Bye Liver in 2006 for an initial three week run at Gorilla Tango Theatre and it totally blew up. We eventually wound up at Fizz Bar, where it ran for three years. We spent that time squirreling away money, and soon started expanding. The first expansion was to Minneapolis, and soon grew into Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and beyond. At the heart of this, we've made horrible, risky decisions that have really paid off, because we've included some really talented people.

C: Since you're able to call the shots, running your own theater, are there any dream shows or themes you've been able to embrace? What upcoming shows are you the most excited about?

KR: I started a group called the Nerdologues. We had a discussion like this a long time ago. Trying to figure out the "why" of it all. We wrote down two guiding principles: Bring Nerds together, make Nerds laugh. I really enjoy that applying that concept more broadly: bring people together, make people laugh.

BH: Sundays are Nerd Sundays, one Sunday of the month is Nerdologues, one is Your Stories, which is presented by Nerdologues and sort of like nerd AA, we have a monthly Sunday game night where we're playing classic board games and demoing new games, and then we have Plan 9 Nerdlesque, who also got their start at Gorilla Tango.

We've also got, on the first Wednesday of the month, Share A Show, where three solo sketch performers are matched together, each doing 20 minutes.

SL: Having a 20-minute goal is a really good, positive goal for these performers to set. You get to work towards something polished and well crafted and promote it alongside two other incredibly talented people.

KR: Honestly, any show or group that comes into our building, I'm excited about. But, specifically, I always geek out about shows that, as an audience member, you are a part of or you affect. Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind is a great example of that in this city. We have some people working on an interactive show that is sort moves like a Haunted House but is more about a crime scene. I also love ridiculous in-your-face-stupid-dumb-aggressive-off-the-wall-what-was-that-huh? types of shows. I used to work really hard with some cool people in a group called The Other Other Guys. One person from that group, Brian McGovern, is working really hard to put up shows with great concepts. It's titled DRUGSEX Incorporated. I never really know what they are going to do month-to-month, but I know I'm always going to love it. I know that they are working on a Cheers show that is only comprised of opening sequences from the show.

Without feeling too shameless, the Nerdologues have been teaming up with some excellent groups and organizations around the city to foster a more heartfelt Nerd community. We're teaming up with the Chicago Nerd Social Club and a ton of AMAZING people/groups to throw a party during C2E2. I'm super excited about that. That's Friday, April 26.

C: So you've certainly embraced a sort of "something for everyone" approach, what's the common thread that connects all these groups and shows?

KR: I think I can sum it up to quality over quantity. We all want people to say no to their Netflix queue and go out to see live theater. And, we want them walking away saying, "Damn, that was funny. I'm definitely going back." The more we approach that, the better off we are.

SL: There are a lot of comedy lovers out there who have no aspiration to perform, and those are some of my favorite people. People who actively seek out this stuff.

BH: I want to build a place for those people, where rather than sitting on the couch on a Wednesday night, they can think "I don't know what's going on there tonight, but I bet there's gonna be something good, and there's gonna be cheap beer."

CG: Or on a Friday or Saturday night, you can see two or three shows back to back and they'll all be killer. You can come in here and see a triple feature of sketch, love it, and get real drunk for real cheap.