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The Chicago Reader

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Arts & Culture, Ghost Light Feb 12, 2021
ComedySportz moves out of its Belmont Avenue venue

But the comedy games continue online; plus Raven announces a new-play development commission.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Ghost Light, Ghost Light, ComedySportz, Jason Geis, Renee Ross, iO, Second City, Raven Theatre, Tyla Abercrumbie, Stephen Johnson

City Life, Public Service Announcement Aug 7, 2020
Is your lovin’ worth two transfers?

What our listings coordinator is musing about this week
- By Salem Collo-Julin
- Tags: Public Service Announcement, long distance, relationships, love, neighborhoods, CTA, bus, livestream, Dee Alexander, Twitter, Rebuild Foundation, Chicago Architectural Center, Empty Bottle, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, iO, el, CTA, COVID-19

Arts & Culture, Comedy Aug 4, 2020
iO past, present, and nonfuture

Remembering the comedy theater’s humble beginnings and reflecting on its dramatic end
- By Jack Helbig
- Tags: Comedy, iO Theater, iO, ImprovOlympic, Charna Halpern, Del Close, Upright Citizens Brigade, comedy, improv

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Apr 29, 2020
Improvising at a distance

Instructors adapt to online comedy and improv courses.
- By Kerry Reid
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Abby Wagner, Annoyance, ComedySportz, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dave Maher, Improv, iO, Jimmy Carrane, Online classes, Second City

Arts & Culture, Comedy Apr 29, 2020
Remembering Michael McCarthy

Tributes from actors, comedians, and friends of the Chicago comedy legend.
- By Sheri Flanders
- Tags: Comedy, Michael Clayton McCarthy, Second City, iO, Saturday Night Live, improv, Monday Night Live, POV

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Jan 23, 2020
Gina DeLuca walks the live lit line between funny and tragic

Her new monthly showcase at Duke of Perth creates a community for newbies and vets alike.
- By Jack Helbig
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Winter Theater and Dance, Gina DeLuca, Duke of Perth, Tartle at the Duke, Sarah Ashley, David Sedaris, P.G. Wodehouse, Tina Fey, iO, Second City

Arts & Culture, Fall Theater and Dance Sep 13, 2019
Bare-knuckled theatrics

For 41 years, the Chicago Theatre Softball League has meant summertime camaraderie for the city's troupes.
- By John Lisbon Wood
- Tags: Fall Theater and Dance, Chicago Theatre Softball League, Writers Theatre, Strawdog, iO, Blue Man Group

Arts & Culture, Comedy Jun 5, 2019
Shannon Noll uses comedy to defy expectations and define themself

Comedian Shannon Noll is using their new webseries and photo project to subvert expectations of gender and sexuality.
- By Brianna Wellen
- Tags: Comedy, Shannon Noll, Just Call Me Ripley, Corner Gulch, comedy, stand-up, improv, webseries, photography, top surgery, nonbinary, coming out, gender dysphoria, Cassie Ahiers, Columbia College, Droppin’ $cience, Trash Baby Does a Solo Show, iO, Kaitlin Larson, Lauren Walker, Matt Brown, Gary Pascal, Karly Bergmann, pixelation, Becca Brown, Max Thomas, Abby McEnany, Michael McCarty, Second City, Jon Wes

Blogs, Bleader Oct 5, 2018
Indivisible Chicago’s Blue Wave Rave uses improv to mobilize political action

"Improv actors are like the best canvassers ever!"
- By Julia Hale
- Tags: Politics, Theater, Comedy, Arts, politics, theater, improv, comedy, arts, culture, Second City, Annoyance Theatre, iO, Indivisible Chicago, canvassing

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Review Jun 22, 2018
The two improv teams in Oh Hell Yeah demonstrate that timing is everything

In less time, Wet Bus covers more ground than Alterboyz.
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Performing Arts Review, Oh Hell Yeah, iO, Alterboyz, Wet Bus, improv comedy

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature May 9, 2018
In CDC in 4-D, the Comedy Dance Collective indulges its oral fixation

It’s a show better consumed in a state of inebriation.
- By Irene Hsiao
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Comedy Dance Collective, CDC in 4D, iO, Sigmund Freud, Carisa Barreca, Megan Leahey, Teresa Leahey, Sarah Barnhardt

Blogs, Bleader Mar 8, 2018
Video
Before Peele met Key or wanted to Get Out, he was onstage in Chicago

And his show, Two White Guys, which he performed with Rebecca Drysdale at ImprovOlympic, was pretty good.
- By Aimee Levitt
- Tags: Arts, Comedy, Film, Jordan Peele, Get Out, Rebecca Drysdale, Two White Guys, ImprovOlympic, iO, sketch comedy, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jan 22, 2018
Academy Awards Nominations Panel at Siskel Film Center, and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week

Daisies hosts a fermentation dinner, Eve L. Ewing at Read/Write Library, and more goings-on January 22-25
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Arts, Do This, virgin daiquiri, io, lauraengelstein, seminary co-op bookstore, russia in flames, frementation dinner, daisies, eve ewing, read write library, american writers museum, kitty, empty bottle, luca cimarusti, ricky eat acid, miami garden club, lady bird, greta gerwig

Arts & Culture, Worst of Chicago Dec 20, 2017
Why improv is neither funny nor entertaining, according to a stand-up comedian

The form’s greatest sin is encouraging the mediocre.
- By Peter-john Byrnes
- Tags: Worst of Chicago, Improv, improvisational theater, Scientology, cult, Second City, iO, Del Close, Lyric Opera, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, E.T.C. stage

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature Oct 12, 2017
Choir Boy, Foxfinder, and 12 more stage shows to see now

A play by Moonlight author Tarell Alvin McCraney and a paranoiac drama by British playwright Dawn Hall are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Blue/Orange, Runcible Theatre Company, Joe Penhall, National Theatre of Great Britian, Owen Hickle Edwards, Stephen Fedo, Nathaniel Andrew, Idi Amin Dada, Uganda, National Health Service, Andrew Root, Royal George Theatre Center, Raven Theatre, Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Brother/Sister Plays, Moonlight, Choir Boy, Michael Menendian, Christopher W. Jones, Breon Arzell, Frederick Harris, The Crucible, Steppenwolf for Young Adults, Arthur Miller, Arnel Sancianco, Jonathan Berry, Wallace Shawn, Evening at the Talk House, A Red Orchid Theatre, HB Ward, Shade Murray, Foxfinder, Dawn King, Interrobang Theatre, Alexandra Fisher, David Anthony Marshall, Jack Olin, Margaret Knapp, The Invisible Hand, Ayad Akhtar, Steep Theatre, Joel Reitsma, Audrey Francis, Lady Faust, Sharai Bohannon, Sophie Duntley, Christopher Marlowe, Faust, Torey Byrne, The Making of an American Folk Hero, Martin Zimmerman, Kelly Howe, The Other Theatre Company, The Man-Beast, First Folio Theatre, Joseph Zettelmaier, Hayley Rice, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Aaron Christensen, Lyric Opera, Rigoletto, Verdi, Victor Hugo, Ryan Opera Center, Quinn Kelsey, Mathew Polenzani, Michael Yeargen, Marco Armiliato, Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw, Marylynne Anderson-Cooper, Poetic Forum Collective, Christabel Donkor, de Chirico, UniverSoul Circus, Cedric Walker, Bone Breakers, Reutan Collective, Wasteland Hero, Kyle Encinas, Nicky Jasper, Kate Lass, Bobby Hoffman, Kim Fukawa, Witi, an Interactive Show, Matthew Hoelter, iO

Blogs, Bleader Sep 25, 2017
The premiere of The Opposition With Jordan Klepper, and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week

Wicker Park Bucktown Fall Dinner Crawl, the Chicago Architecture Biennial's "Sight Six," and more happenings from September 25-28
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Arts, Do This, klepper, opposition with jordan klepper, pre-vinylette society, women sign painters, the bat live, iO, panic at the honky tonk, annoyance theatre, chicago architecture biennial, chicago cultural society, comedy central, books on the chopping block, chicago public library

Film, Small Screen Sep 21, 2017
How Chicago comedy prepared Jordan Klepper for Comedy Central

The former Chicago improviser and Daily Show correspondent adds “yes, and” to “no, but” for his new Comedy Central show The Opposition With Jordan Klepper.
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Small Screen, Jordan Klepper, interview, Comedy Central, The Opposition With Jordan Klepper, Daily Show, The Late Night Late Show, iO, Alex Jones, Steve Waltien, Laura Grey, Tim Baltz, Chelsea Devantez, Asher Perlman

Blogs, Bleader Sep 15, 2017
Expo Chicago at Navy Pier, and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend

Frank Lloyd Wright building tours and more happenings September 15-17
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Arts, Do This, frank lloyd wright, racine, stephen hawking, drinking and writing, expo chicago, inside you, iO, brian rogers, ravenswood art walk, navy pier, Nejla Yatkin, jefferson park, chicago architecture biennial, chicago cultural center

Blogs, Bleader Sep 1, 2017
Best Labor Day weekend things to do in Chicago

Taste of Polonia, Great American Lobster Fest, and more holiday weekend happenings from September 1-4
- By Steve Heisler
- Tags: Arts, Do This, great american lobster fest, navy pier, herold, io, taste of polonia, wet cash, dark tower comics, prakriti, sing and stomp, beat kitchen, 24-hour fest, berger park cultural center, labor day, congressional church of jefferson park, dance, lobster, barnyard, honky tonk, crustaceans, annual mushroom show, chicago botanical garden

Music, In Rotation Jul 19, 2017
Video
Jenna Lyle of Parlour Tapes on a cowboy prophet with a didgeridoo

Plus: Techno artist Eric Fernandez on a tropical mix from Korean DJ Odd J, the Reader’s Peter Margasak on wild rearrangements of Moravian folk, and more
- By Peter Margasak
- Tags: In Rotation, Chiyoko Szlavnics, During a Lifetime, Konus Quartett, Apartment House, minimalism, Honest John, International Breakthrough, Klaus Ellerhusen Holm, Erik Nylander, Ole-Henrik Moe, Dálava, The Book of Transfigurations, Julia Ulehla, Aram Bajakian, Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff, Moravian, folk, Jiri, Jenna Lyle, Arts Club of Chicago, Parlour Tapes, Bryant Smith, Electrodide, iO, Ayahuasca Baby, didgeridoo, cowboy, Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill, Surabaya Johnny, Dev Hynes, Blood Orange, Eric Fernandez, Lena Willikens, Resident Advisor, RA.421 podcast, techno, Rezzett, Goodness, London, Odd J, Sanpo Disco, Sanpo Disco mix, Melbourne, Video

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature May 10, 2017
We're Gonna Die, the Comedy Dance Collective, and 11 more new stage shows

A rock concert/play by Young Jean Lee and an iO revue inspired by dance-class trauma are among this week's best bets.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Other Treasured Stories, Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, Cannonball, Ryan Burkett, Public House Theatre, Carrier, Chicago Slam Works, Dru Smith, The Comedy Dance Collective, Molly Todd Madison, Dylan Brody, Dylan Brody's Driving Hollywood, Arlene Malinowski, A Little Bit Not Normal, Up Close & Personal, Victory Gardens, Paradise Blue, Dominique Morrisseau, Detroit, Paradise Valley, Al'Jaleel McGhee, Ron OJ Parson, Ronald L. Conner, Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, She Loves Me, Elizabeth Telford, Aaron Thielen, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Joe Masseroff, Milós László, Alex Goodrich, Parfumerie, 20 Percent Theatre, Rachel Bykowski, Bryce Saxon, Tight End, Spooky Dookie, iO, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: An IMAX Experience, Claire McFadden, Maureen Monahan, We're Gonna Die, Young Jean Lee, Haven Theatre, Isa Arciengas, Josh Sobel, What Rhymes With America, Theatre Above the Law, Dan Sauer, Alicia Ciuffini, Olivia Nicholson, Brittany Vogel, Melissa James Gibson, Brian Quinones, Chay Yew, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?

Blogs, Bleader Sep 12, 2016
Adam Green's Aladdin, the Reader's Cocktail Challenge, and more things to do in Chicago this week

The Fifth Star Awards, "Every Building in Baghdad," and more happenings from September 12-15.
- By Sara Cohen
- Tags: Arts, Do This, All Alone Together, iO, Kelly McGuigan, James Dugan, Brittany Bookbinder, Adam Green, Adam Green's Aladdin, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Natalie Moore, Slurring Bee Tournament of Champions, Working in America, Harold Washington Library, Alex Kotlowitz, Studs Terkel, Fifth Star Awards, Millennium Park, Rifat Chadirji, Every Building in Baghdad, Fall Cocktail Challenge

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature May 26, 2016
Jackalope's Prowess, Aguijón's Adverses, and seven more new stage shows

Ike Holter does it again—and so does Rey Andújar.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, Aguijón Theater, Adverses, Rey Andújar, Euripides, Electra, Sándor Menéndez, Oswaldo Calderón, The Distance, Haven Theatre, Elly Green, Deborah Bruce, Medea, Phaedra Released, Poetry Is, Robert Eric Shoemaker, Catherine Theis, Mic Check, Spell, Zach Zimmerman, Cat McDonnell, iO, Interrobang Theatre, The North Pool, Rajiv Joseph, James Yost, Greg Pinsoneault, Old Hobbits Die Hard, New Millennium Theatre Company, Adam Rosowicz, Alex B. Reynolds, Die Hard, Lord of the Rings, Prowess, Sender, Ike Holter, Jackalope Theatre, Rent, Jonathan Larson, Metropolis Performing Arts Center, Lauren Rawitz, Irish Theatre of Chicago, Spinning, Deirdre Kinahan, Joanie Schultz, The Annoyance Theatre, Ben Larrison, Stevie Shale, Project #SquirrelTruth, Mick Napier, Very Much Forever

Arts & Culture, Performing Arts Feature May 4, 2016
Mike Mother, Best of Enemies, The 180 Degree Rule, and eight more stage shows to see now

A Neo-Futurist performance piece, a drama about an almost unimaginable alliance, and a satire of Hollywood's golden age are among the hits this week.
- Tags: Performing Arts Feature, iO, Vienna Juvenile, Matt Besser, Layne Dixon, Provision Theater, Best of Enemies, Osha Gray Davidson, Mark St. Germain, C.P. Ellis, Ann Atwater, Rod Armentrout, Felicia Fields, Collaboraction, Anthony Moseley, Rivendell Theatre, Dry Land, Ruby Rae Spiegel, Hallie Gordon, Bryce Gangel, Jessica Ervin, Curious Theatre Branch, The Eviller Twin, Sue Cargill, Stefan Brün, Raven Theatre, House of Blue Leaves, John Guare, JoAnn Montemurro, Kelli Strickland, Sarah Hayes, Lyric Opera, The King and I, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Paolo Montalban, Kate Baldwin, Ali Ewoldt, Rona Figueroa, Matthew Uzarraga, Théâtre du Châtelet, Mike Mother, Neo-Futurarium, Jessica Anne, Mike Hamilton, Marsha Norman, 'Night, Mother, Babes With Blades, The 180 Degree Rule, M.E.H. Lewis, Barbara Lhota, Rachel Edwards Harvith, Lisa Herceg, Stage 773, Skin in the Game, one-act festival, The Living Canvas, Cathedral, Right Brain Project, the Ruckus, Hobo Junction Productions, Organic Theater Company, pH Comedy, Thanks for the Tip, Kayce Alltop, Dan Wright, Jared Miller, Theatre Y, 3 Sisters, Andrej Visky, Melissa Lorraine, Katie Stimpson, Kevlyn Hayes, Anton Chekhov, Earl H.E. Hill, Dan Christmann

Arts & Culture, Feature Mar 17, 2016
Audio
Behold! The off-the-wall, always-growing world of Hello From the Magic Tavern

Gather around and read the tale of how three improv comedians created the most insane fake-fantasy podcast to hit the airwaves.
- By Janet Potter
- Tags: Feature, Hello From the Magic Tavern, comedy podcast, Arnie Niekamp, Foon, Usidore, Chunt, Matt Young, Adal Rifai, Max Temkin, Earwolf, ImprovOlympic, iO, Second City, Whirled News Tonight, Charna Halpern, Chicago Podcast Coop, Cards Against Humanity, Jackbox Games, Burger King, Evan Jacover, Ryan DiGiorgi, Chris Rathjen, Tim Ryder, Andy Carey, Brooke Breit, Sarah Fineout, Joey Romaine, Daniel Strauss, Charlie McCrackin, TJ Jagodowski, Audio

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