Do This: See Exquisite Corpse At The Annoyance

By Matt Byrne in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 25, 2013 6:00PM

"Exquisite Corpse" is an intensely tangential sketch comedy show from the Chicago-based comedy collective Claymore Productions. With this series of interrelated scenes of "pure, uncut sketch," Claymore and company have come up with one of the most surreal and memorably weird comedy shows you'll see this summer. The historically subversive Annoyance Theater is a perfect home for this idea-stuffed gut buster, which repeatedly and lovingly pulls the rug out from underneath the audience, with a handful of fourth wall-breaking gags that aim to both please and challenge.

The extended cast, which effectively expands Claymore's bleakly bizarre universe, features a number of favorites from the Chicago underground sketch and improv scene, including the perpetually put-upon Paul Jurewicz and two-man sketch duo Be Good Boys (Mike Brunlieb and Andrew Tisher), who dexterously toy with the reality of the entire show. To explain much more would be to spoil the fun -- hoof it up to Uptown to catch this nugget of silliness while there's still time.

Exquisite Corpse runs Sundays at 8 p.m. through August 18th at the Annoyance Theater, 3541 N. Clark St. Tickets on sale now.