Performing Arts Search
Brew-Ha-Ha Tuesdays
Open run: Tue 6 PM (sign-up at 11 PM)Stand-Up
Comedian Casey Brown hosts movies, games, and open mike comedy. $5
In a World . . .
Open run: Tue 9:30 PMImprov/Sketch
T.J. Jagodowski, Rebecca Sohn, and others perform comic characters and situations based on audience suggestions. $8
Nu-Nights
Open run: First Tuesday of the month, 6 PMTheater & Performance
Theatrical events by the NUFAN Ensemble.
One Group Mind
Open run: Tue 7:30 PMImprov/Sketch
One Group Mind's showcase team, Tricky Mickey, headlines this improv show. $10
TNT (Tuesday Night Thing)
Open run: Tue 9:30 PMImprov/Sketch
What we've got here are two six-member teams led by improv-world elder statesmen: the illustrious TJ Jagodowski performs with one, the redoubtable Noah Gregoropoulos with the other. Each team gets about 30 minutes in which to build a long-form improvisation. On the night I visited, things got interesting only when Jagodowski or Gregoropoulos stepped up to save his teammates from themselves. Jagodowski was especially impressive, quietly, casually supplying the focus, humor, well-wrought twists, and strong characters that nobody else seemed able to manage. Except for him, it was pretty much all drift. There was precious little development because there was precious little careful listening going on. —Tony Adler $8
Felt
Open run: Wed 8 PMImprov/Sketch
There's just something about cussing puppets--and this improvised puppet show by the Atticus Finch ensemble suggests bitter, rejected prototypes of Elmo, Chewbacca, McGruff the Crime Dog, and Crank Yankers/Muppets characters ganging up in a dark alley off Sesame Street. But the troupe's nine members exceed the old, easy laugh of vulgar-talking innocents: after tutorials from professional puppeteers and a few months of practice, they display sophisticated physical control as they wield the puppets from behind the curtains of a bilevel ministage. Seamlessly creating gestures and quick takes (hilariously deadpan on the perfectly blank cartoonish faces), they also smoothly execute difficult maneuvers like sliding a quarter across a bar or crossing the stage via motorized scooter. Sharp timing and self-mockery point to the performers' long experience together, though the motley mob of puppets takes center stage: Felt is improv cut from new cloth. --Ryan Hubbard
$5
I Saw You
Open run: Wed 8 PM,Theater & Performance
Bruised Orange Theater Company's I Saw You is a charming theatrical interpretation of "I Saw You," "Matches," and "X-Matches" listings from the Reader. Performed in bars, each show features a rotating cast of three actors presenting ads published in the past year, the yearnings of their anonymous characters echoing the banter, flirting, and stares of the patrons. The material is naturally funny--"I backed up your toilet something fierce," "Do you like to churn butter?"--but the actors avoid the trap of easy "sexy" voices and imaginatively embellish the text with a wide range of accents and consistently surprising attitudes (shy to monstrous, robotic monotone to smarmy). —Ryan Hubbard
$5
The Magic Cabaret
Open run: Wed 8 PM,
773-404-7336Theater & Performance, Halloween
P.T. Murphy and David Parr's show continues to "take the 'ic' out of magic." Classic bits involving card tricks and swallowed needles blend with anecdotes about Chicago's history as a magic capital and Murphy and Parr's own youthful obsessions with the craft. The two deliver a bombast-free evening of chamber illusions, bantering easily with each other and the audience in a spare and intimate setting. A chilling interlude invoking H.H. Holmes, the serial killer immortalized as the "devil in the White City," reminds us that no amount of prestidigitation can reveal the motivations of monsters. --Kerry Reid $20, no one under 13 years old admitted
Best Musical!
Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.Improv/Sketch
At the top of this highly entertaining show from Porchlight Music Theatre, cast members ad-lib five songs based on titles suggested by the audience. Then we vote for our favorite, and the winner serves as the foundation for a wholly improvised, hour-long musical comedy. On the night I saw the show, the winning number, "When Todd Met Michael," inspired Nativity My Way, an LGBT retelling of Christ's birth involving a carpenter and the burly gym owner he miraculously impregnates. It was hilarious, blasphemous, and heartwarming in equal measure. The charming, whip-smart cast are accompanied on piano by the show's creator and musical director, Matthew Loren Cohen, who churns out one catchy tune after another. —Zac Thompson
$10-$15
Flock Yourself
Ongoing: Wed 8 PMStand-Up
An stand-up comedy/open mike hybrid, with veterans and amateurs performing.
Give Me Five
Open run: Wed 10 PMImprov/Sketch
Five-minute performances by stand-up and sketch comics. $5
Magic Chicago
Open run: first Wednesday of the month, 7:30 PM, 773-984-3817Theater & Performance
Magic by Robert Charles and Benjamin Barnes, along with special guests. $20
Nineteen-Forty Fun
Open run: Wed 8 PMImprov/Sketch
The Chemically Imbalanced Comedy house team performs a sketch show that takes place in 1941. $5
