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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
Uptown Poetry Slam
Sundays, 7 p.m.Spoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes
Featuring open mike, special guests, and end-of-the-night competition. $6
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
Second City
Open run: Tue-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 11 PM, Sun 7 PMImprov/Sketch
The members of Second City's latest main-stage sextet clearly enjoy improvising. Their new show, Who Do We Think We Are?, offers them lots of time to riff, both with one another and with the audience. Even ostensibly set sketches have an open-ended quality; several consist of little more conceptually than a location (a Bridgeport bar, say) or a premise (a Luvabulls reunion). Sounds dangerous and exciting, sure—but it can just as easily be dangerous in the sense that it encourages some players to fall back on pat responses or get lost. Mary Sohn, for instance, has a standard character—picture a cross between a drill sergeant and a loud auntie—that she does and does and does here. And for all his talent, Edgar Blackmon seems to skim along this time around, never quite making a memorable connection. It doesn't help that his de rigueur Obama bit expresses nothing so much as a failure of imagination. The only ensemble members who really thrive under these circumstances are Katie Rich, with her ability to maintain a cool center as a counterpoint to the ambient hysteria, and Tim Baltz, a great physical comedian possessed of a sweet combination: solid instincts and fearlessness. —Tony Adler $22-$27
Doggy Happy Hour
Wed 5-9 PMOther Stuff
A happy hour for dog owners with dog-related boutiques, vendors, shelters, and other businesses.
El Stories
Open run: Sat 11 PM,Theater & Performance
Waltzing Mechanics founders Zack Florent and Keely Leonard accompanied Englishman Adham Fisher last April, as he attempted to win a Guinness mention by circumlocomoting all 144 CTA el stations in record time. Their account of his quest runs like a local train on the express track, but it's the only disappointment in this bawdy, 60-minute collection of verbatim commuter stories. The other 16 quick-hit bits highlight the zaniest and sweetest moments in public transit, providing a reminder that no one knows how to enjoy an awful train ride more than Chicagoans. —Asher Klein $15
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
Story Club
Open run: Thu 8 PM 773-929-3680Spoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes
An open mike for storytellers.
Free
The Show Below
Open run: Fri-Sat 9 PMImprov/Sketch, Stand-Up
Improv and stand-up comedy by Travis Tack, Eric Rutherford, and Leah Eva.
ComedySportz Theatre
Open run: Thu 8 PM, Fri 8 and 10 PM, Sat 6, 8, and 10 PMImprov/Sketch
Part of a national chain of comedy clubs, this company is known for quick improv games (think Whose Line Is It Anyway?), but it also stages long-form improv. LCD screens and sophisticated lighting and sound systems amplify the sports-style improv of the company's eponymous production, ComedySportz. There's a snobbery in the Chicago improv community that looks up at the "art" of the long form, with its emphasis on story and characters, and down on the "entertainment" of the short, with its emphasis on games and punch lines. ComedySportz falls emphatically in the entertainment camp; its bottom line is laughter, and it gets plenty of it. The show is structured as a competition between two teams performing multiple games that require audience participation. A referee ensures that the players--a rotating roster from a company of about 50--work clean or they finish the game with a brown bag over their heads. The formula is practically foolproof: players may flash their quick wits in winning responses, but they're even funnier when they fail. In one game a team had to devise a pick-up line, each member contributing a word. Moving rapidly from player to player, the line developed: "Tonight-I'll-tango-with-your-face." Probably wouldn't work at a bar, but at ComedySportz it killed. --Ryan Hubbard
$19
Asylum Sundays
Open run: Sun 7 PM 708-932-0652Spoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes, Open Mikes and Jams
Poetry and performances with live band accompaniment by Verzatile. Includes networking.
$10
The Improvised Shakespeare Company
Open run: Fri 8 PMImprov/Sketch
Seven strapping men in swashbuckler shirts improvise a two-act Shakespearean play based on a title suggested by the audience. At the show I saw, "The Taming of the Jew" inspired the Bard's usual themes (religion, family, betrayal) and plot devices (murders, disguises, fortunes gained/lost) as well as an uncomfortably funny circumcision. Director-performer Blaine Swen, a veteran of long-form Shakespearean improv who swears they don't conspire during the intermission, has assembled a vigorous ensemble of actors and proven improvisers. Their experience doing Shakespeare flowers in the language: they relish iambic dialogue, execute perfectly timed asides, occasionally utter rhyming couplets (some hilariously forced: "Let us be quick-sa, and get to the bar mitzvah!"), and drop parodic phrases ("scurvenous knave," "midfortnight report") and well-placed anachronisms (the bar mitzvah had a DJ). Even the ending echoed the real plays: story lines resolved tidily--and uproariously. (RH)
$14
The Funny Story Show
Open run: third Fri of each month, 7:30 PMSpoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes
Six local comics tell autobiographical anecdotes. $5
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