Performing Arts Next 30 Days
Michael Palascak
6/18-6/23: Tue-Thu 8:30 PM, Fri 8:30 and 10:30 PM, Sat 7, 9, and 11:15 PM, Sun 8:30 PMStand-Up
Of all the Chicago stand-up comics who've emigrated to the coasts in recent years, Michael Palascak has yet to achieve the sort of mainstream success of someone like Hannibal Buress or John Mulaney. It doesn't have anything to do with his material. Palascak has perhaps spent more time on the road (and thus in relative obscurity) than other Chicago ex-pats, honing his act in venues across the country. As such, he's become the ideal club comic: someone who works in admittedly innocuous, PG-13 territory yet retains a strong command of both his craft and persona. With his observational style, Palascak doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but onstage he seems genuinely perplexed by the sort of minutiae of everyday life. Jokes about bed-and-breakfasts ("It's like a hotel . . . but in someone's house"), Facebook, Starbucks—generally the kind of stuff that would sound trivial coming from a lesser comic—are bolstered by his inquisitive, Mike Birbiglia-esque manner of delivery. His charisma doesn't hurt; neither does his affability. In a lot of ways, he represents the ideal antidote to the sort of unbridled cynicism that pervades much of contemporary stand-up. Yes, Louis C.K.'s misanthropy is brilliant and compelling, but a guy like Palascak, whose emotional scars run as deep as quarterbacking his high school football team to a winless season ("We even lost some practices that year"), helps us to remember the escapist value of comedy. —Drew Hunt $25 plus two-drink minimum
The Second City's Improv All-Stars
Mondays, 8 PMImprov/Sketch
The Second City's top performers present their interactive improv every week, directed by Mick Napier. $16
REACH
Second Sunday of every month, 7 p.m.Improv/Sketch
Each monthly REACH — "Risky, Eclectic Artists Comedy Hour" — features performances themed around sex, race, violence, and LGBT issues. $13
What the Tour Guide Didn't Tell You: A Chicago Revue
Open run: Tue 8 PM, Sat-Sun 4 PMImprov/Sketch
There's more to Chicago than Italian beef and the Magnificent Mile, as illustrated by this sketch show. $28
Second City: Let Them Eat Chaos
Open run: Tue-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PMImprov/Sketch
Second City's wacko lineage can be traced all the way back to the beginning, when, as Professor Walther von der Vogelweide, Severn Darden spun out triumphantly eccentric lectures on subjects like the intellectual capacities of fish. By 1971, his bizarre had metamorphosed into John Belushi's berserk, and there's been room for a loose cannon or two in Second City troupes ever since. The clearest recent heir to Darden's padded throne was Tim Robinson, who had no compunction about manipulating audience volunteers as if he were a demonic eight-year-old playing with his sister's Barbie doll collection. But Robinson moved on to SNL last fall, and his nearest rivals for wacko supremacy—Tim Baltz of the strange dances and Asian-American-girl-cum-big-black-mama Mary Sohn—are gone, too. Continue reading >> $22-$27
We're All in This Room Together
Open run: Tue-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PMImprov/Sketch
Second City's 36th Revue. $23-$28
Second City E.T.C.
Open run: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PM, also Tue 8/2-8/30 and Wed 7/6-8/31, 8 PM,
312-337-3992Improv/Sketch
Second City E.T.C.'s 35th revue, Sky's the Limit (Weather Permitting), is directed by Matt Hovde. $22-$27
