Improv/Sketch Search
Best Musical!
Through 5/23: Wed 7:30 PMImprov/Sketch
A full musical comedy is improvised with audience suggestions. $15
773-327-5252The Meshuganas
Sat., May 25, 7:30 p.m.Improv/Sketch
Hollie and Steve Himmelman perform. Hollie tells stories about her neuroses—from an early age, she "compulsively" sorted her crayons by color and sharpness—while Steve shares his perspective on everyday events. $22
Fake Believe
Through 5/25: Saturdays, 9:30 PMImprov/Sketch
A sketch show that blends reality with all manner of fantasy, from fairy tales, to video games, to Harry Potter. $10-$15
Breast in Show
Through 5/26: Sun 7:30 PMImprov/Sketch
GayCo Productions presents an all-woman sketch comedy show. $15
The Comedy Rock Show
Through 5/28: Tue 8 PMImprov/Sketch
Comedy music performed in a wide array of genres. $7
Hump Night
Through 5/29: Wed 7:30 and 10:30 PMImprov/Sketch
Kevin Mullaney hosts this improv-based variety show, which features local comedians and musicians. pay what you want
The Improvised Sondheim Project
Through 5/31: Fri 10:30 PMImprov/Sketch
Last spring, five Second City faculty members inaugurated a troupe devoted to Stephen Sondheim. The mission? To dream up Sondheimesque musicals on the spot. One year later, the gambit has paid off. Their tribute trades a stable plot for riffs on characters and themes; their lyrics testify to their knack for internal rhyming. "Birthday" was the audience suggestion on the night I attended. The opening fanfare rapidly devolved into a cacophony of voices. After the prologue wrapped, the players introduced the show's central cog, Geraldine, a fresh-eyed high school dropout from Ohio who's trying her luck on Broadway. In Sondheim style, there's an absurd conceit: she intends to make it on the street, not onstage, handing out flyers—a job with more potential for rejection than a Broadway career. —Jena Cutie $15
The Onion Live
Through 6/5: 7:15 PMImprov/Sketch
A sketch revue produced by the popular news satire.
$15
Sex, aka Wiener and Boobs
Through 6/8: Thu-Sat 8 PMImprov/Sketch
Written by three alums of the memorably bizarre TV sketch show The State, this antic 1998 farce gets its first Chicago staging from Chemically Imbalanced Comedy. Equal parts sharp self-awareness and broad buffoonery, it feels like something that could have been written yesterday—at least under Angie McMahon's whip-smart direction. The story, such as it is, concerns a Teaneck, New Jersey, sheriff's battle to rid his town of the evil Tad Theaterman, who controls a local empire of hookers and gigolos and is known for what he calls his "asshole ways." But the show's real strength is its unrelenting train of gags, and McMahon mainlines them with a wide bore. It's a powerful combination of intentionally dumb material and eagle-eyed comedic execution. —Keith Griffith $15
Craft Beer and Relationchips
Through 6/8: Sat 9:30 PMImprov/Sketch
When I last visited the Wrigleyville stage that hosts this simpleminded Butch LaRue sketch comedy, it was for a silent performance of handmade wooden puppets. Ownership has since changed hands, and the joint now sells buckets of Bud Lite and fireball shooters in the lobby, where I saw one patron toting a beer funnel. The new vibe matches the show. Tim Soszko directs his ensemble in an assault of brief sketches, which tend to stretch a single joke like taffy across an unpleasant minute or two. Broad stereotypes and blow job jokes abound in scenes that illuminate the common experiences of the young professional: time-share presentations (they suck), quarterly review meetings (suck), relationship disputes over the remote (suck). The house was packed on opening night. —Keith Griffith $15
4 Days Late: #SHOW
Through 6/15: Saturdays, 10 PMImprov/Sketch
Includes improv with a few dance moves, following the overarching theme of technology. $15
The Original Improv Gladiators
Through 6/15: Fri-Sat 8 PMImprov/Sketch
An improv competition featuring featuring local groups. $15
Go Hug Yourself
Through 6/22: Sat 10:30 PMImprov/Sketch
A sketch revue that explores the pitfalls of "dating, work, marriage, and life in Chicago." $10-$15
The Most Important Week Ever
Through 6/22: Saturdays, 7:30 PMImprov/Sketch
Performers use each week's news headlines to create a satirical sketch show. $8-13
Chicagoland and Fish Nuts
Open run: Tue 8 PMImprov/Sketch
At the start of each show an all-star ensemble creates a tableau onstage, then asks after a blackout, "Where in Chicago did that take place?" "Soccer practice" was the response the night I was there, and after an hour the improvisers--intensely alert and feisty--had crafted a veritable community, complete with idiosyncratic characters, unpredictable backstory, and tragicomic intrigue. Veteran T.J. Jagodowski, recognizable from a series of Sonic commercials he's done with quick-witted cast member Peter Grosz, played a thick-accented German coach. Abruptly launching a new scene by charging to the front of the stage, he squatted and gestured as he yelled at his coed youth team, "I will yank on your nuts like the Hunchback of Notre Dame working a bell!" --Ryan Hubbard $8
