Last Minute Plans: NYTVF's Chicago Comedy Pilot Selections At The Music Box

By Matt Byrne in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 15, 2013 6:20PM

Exquisite Corpse

Chicago has been making an increasingly strong showing at the New York Television Festival, a weeklong celebration of independently produced TV programming that helps the most talented up-and-coming writers, directors, and filmmakers find development deals with networks. This year, a total of seven of the 53 pilots screened for festivalgoers, critics, and executives, were created by Chicagoans, third only to the dominant industry towns of New York and LA.

Tonight, The Music Box hosts a one-night-only screening of the six comedy pilots selected for competition in the NYTVF. Featured titles include a surrealist sketch comedy show from local sketch collective Claymore Productions called Exquisite Corpse , the hilarious ensemble sitcom Family Heirloom, The Laces, a Kids in the Hall-indebted sketch show from a group of local improvisors, the deliberately low-tech love letter to B-level sci-fi Hank Frisco: Galaxy Defender, Date of the Month Club, a short collection of vignettes featuring countless faces from Second City, and The Startup, a pitch-perfect workplace comedy that perfectly captures the absurdity of tech startup culture.

As Chicago's comedy and filmmaking scenes develop, the technology required to produce high-quality, television-ready work becomes more readily available. It's never been easier for Chicago's many deserving creative types to do great work that gets noticed by big time Hollywood types, so you'd do well to check out this screening before many of those involved get whisked off to Lipstick City.

The NYTVF's Chicago Comedy Pilot Selections will be screened tonight, Tuesday Oct. 15, at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. 9:30pm, $5.