Events Search – Recommended
First Monday
Open run: the first Mon of each month, 12:15 PMClassical
Abandon your regular lunchtime smoke break, nap, or illicit tryst for something a bit classier. Join the Chicago Chamber Musicans as they present First Monday, a monthly lunch-hour concert series. This month features cafe music by Astor Piazzolla and Paul Schoenfield. —Jamie Keiles
Cook County Social Club
Open run: Tue 8 PMImprov/Sketch
These four performers are as brazenly committed to improv's "affirm everything" mantra as any I've seen. Their dark, flamboyant comic sensibilities clearly aligned, they orchestrate black-comedy vignettes tethered to richly odd characters. But what most impressed me was how fluidly and creatively they transitioned between scenes, usually dangerous improv moments. The Frank Hayes 4 opens. --Ryan Hubbard
$12
The Reckoning
Open run: Tue 10:30 PMImprov/Sketch
Six years ago members of some disbanding groups hooked up to form the Reckoning, whose ten performers have now been together longer than any other group at iO. These players always stand out when they appear in other ensembles, and together, as masters of iO's signature form, the Harold, they're remarkably consistent at giving audiences something to laugh at and students something to study. Bits and jokes are cleverly brought back; scenes shift smoothly or jarringly depending on what works with the action; performers who aren't center stage often remain in character. But despite all the hard listening and cooperation, they do call each other out on odd responses. When someone playing an insecure man asked the woman playing his girlfriend/wife, "Why'd you look away at that light when you said that?" he called attention to a pregnant unconscious gesture, which gave her an opportunity to riff on his meta-comment. On Thursdays they do long-form improv, and on Tuesdays they let loose, experimenting with forms and styles. Past Tuesday shows have included stage versions of films and stand-up sets by each player. --Ryan Hubbard
$5-$12
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 7:30 PM,
773-404-7336Theater & Performance, Halloween
Now in its fourth year, 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
Diggin Dusties
Fourth Wednesday of every month, 8 p.m.-2 a.m.Other Stuff
If their aim was to capitalize on burned-out Record Store Day shoppers, Dusty Groove and Maria's have timed the launch of their "Diggin' Dusties" series perfectly. Peruse DG's new releases in the comfort of your own drunkenness days after wrestling that greedy asshole for the last Lana Del Rey single. —Asher Klein
Dinner With the Elams
Open run: Thu 8 PMImprov/Sketch
It takes a great deal of good chemistry for an improv group to click—without it, funny riffs go hanging and good scenes are cut short. Dinner With the Elams has an unfair advantage in that department, as three of the performers are siblings and the other two are marrying into the family: joining Erica, Brett, and Scott Elam in the experienced team are Brett's fiancee, Jet Eveleth (artistic director of the Chicago Improv Festival), and Scott's fiancee, Lisa Burton. It's an enticing hook and makes for plenty of ribbing, like on the night I went, when Erica started off the show by having Scott tell how he lost his virginity. But it doesn't devolve into awkward teasing and gross-out humor, and only once did siblings threaten to kiss. Instead, the family builds scenes unselfishly, working as a really poised and awfully hilarious unit to bring out the best in each other. If their Thursday night show is this good, the family reunion must be formidable. —Asher Klein $12
Million Dollar Quartet
Open run: Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 5 and 8 PM, Sun 3:30 and 6:30 PMTheater & Performance
Re-creating a legendary 1956 jam session involving Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, this crowd-pleaser is basically a vehicle for crackling renditions of classic tunes, including "Blue Suede Shoes," "That's All Right," and "Great Balls of Fire." The show's emotional center is Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, a man caught between competing personal and business pressures. —Albert Williams $25-$70
Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!
Open run: Thu 7:30 PM 312-948-4600Theater & Performance
Chicago Public Radio's satirical twist on the classic quiz show is taped before a live audience. Host Peter Sagal and crew mine news stories for quiz questions, with different panelists from the worlds of literature and entertainment and audience members participating each week. Politics supply the jokes du jour, but what happens off microphone is often funnier. —Ryan Hubbard $24.75
Story Club
Open run: Thu 8 PM 773-929-3680Spoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes
An open mike for storytellers.
Free
Maggie and Coco Save the World
Open run: the last Fri of each month, 8 PM,Theater & Performance
Given the cultural ascent of really good TV, it's surprising that there aren't more efforts, like this one, to adapt the serial structure to the stage. In Coriolis Theater's live "pilot" episode, angry 99-percenter Coco returns to Chicago from a six-month stint with Occupy Wall Street—to the surprise of her roommate Maggie, who's more inclined to occupy the couch and watch American Idol. There's little plot or action, but these 50 minutes do the one thing a pilot must: establish interesting characters you want to see again. Grayson Vreeland's cast is already more realistically diverse and relatable than the white-bread lineups you find on most young-adult urban sitcoms. If the show's writers develop compelling story lines for them, they might earn the repeat following that Coriolis is banking on. —Keith Griffith $10-$15
The Magic Parlour
Open run: Fri 8 and 10:30 PMTheater & Performance
This 60-minute, late-night magic show is exactly what it should be: funny, lively, intimate, and utterly baffling. House Theatre of Chicago member Dennis Watkins blends quick-witted improv and physical comedy with freewheeling patter as he performs classic illusions. Though his sleight-of-hand is impossibly subtle, it was the mind reading tricks that seemed to have drawn several inquisitive skeptics back for another look on the night I attended. A curio-shop intimacy and cash bar encourage audience participation, and Watkins, with his Eagle Scout looks, clearly takes a mischievous pleasure in the unexpected. Just let your cell phone go off during the show and see what kind of fun he has. --Keith Griffith $75
Shame That Tune
Open run: the second Fri of each month, 6:30 PMImprov/Sketch
A comedy-music game show where contestants tell a funny anecdote which is then set to music.
$5
