Saved Events
Tonight It's Live
Open run: Sat 11 PMTheater & Performance
For someone mourning the lack of live studio audiences in Chicago since Oprah's departure, this late-night talk show provided welcome relief. And drinks, not Kleenex, were free flowing. On the night I attended, host Tom Bambara interviewed members (human and canine) of the Dog Saving Network and graphic designer Kevin Scarbrough. The dogs' cuteness factor was high, but Bambara's distaste for slobber and witty banter were equally amusing. Then he introduced "more tame but equally as hairy" Scarbrough, who reminisced about drunken tattoos and crazy clients like Big Ass Dog pet food. Andi Woody was charming as Bambara's less-flustered cohost, and musical accompanist James Manno coolly played the sunglasses-wearing Paul Shaffer to Bambara's Letterman. —Marissa Oberlander
773-244-2980El Stories
Open run: Sat 11 PM,Theater & Performance
The latest iteration of the Waltzing Mechanics' long-running homage to the Chicago Transit Authority tries to encapsulate comedy, tragedy, and the triumph of the spirit in vignettes that play out in an onstage train car. It inhibits itself in one important way: the "el stories," based on interviews, are told verbatim—and I found the likes, ums, and buts distracting (and perhaps a troubling metastatement on how language has devolved). Linguistics aside, nothing in Chicago is more relatable than the el, and some standout bits resonated with a universal truth: the drunk bro's inappropriate advances, the sick passenger making everyone else wish they could teleport to safety, and the impromptu late-night sing-along. —Marissa Oberlander $15
The Hot Karl
Open run: Sat midnightImprov/Sketch
Every Saturday at midnight, The Hot Karl folks start their gig by announcing that they're going to create the foulest, most disgusting fully improvised show in Chicago. Then they do it. The group's name comes from a sex act that involves pooping on your partner, and when I recently saw the show, the MC set the tone by asking for audience suggestions while riffing on the subject of fisting. The long-form improv that followed involved anal and oral sex, breast grabbing, and lots of dick jokes (hardly surprising since six of the eight performers were men). The material was very funny and very blue--much bluer than when I last caught The Hot Karl in 2002. The odd thing is that the grosser the players got, the more expertly they improvised: they were all in tune with one another, they never stumbled, and they treated the other performers' ideas with a respect only the best, most trusting troupes manage. Even an obvious accident, when one person initiated a montage sequence just when the scene was taking off in a different direction, was called back several times. Just as impressive are the rich, uncliched characters, deftly created almost as asides as the performers make their way to the next smirking reference to a muff or johnson. --Jack Helbig
$10
