Sam Richardson/Photo: John McCloskey

The opening gag in Second City’s 98th mainstage revue dares audiences to break the fourth wall, and it involves not a single cast member in sight.

It is a radical moment (best experienced firsthand) for such a mainstream, name-brand comedy theater.  At Second City, audiences have been conditioned to assume nothing too uncomfortable will be asked of them, but suddenly that usual sit-back-and-relax ethos becomes sit-up-and-take-notice.

I don’t want to oversell what is really just a brief moment in the show, but it does upend the Second City formula just enough to suggest that “Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies” might be headed in some intriguing and unpredictable directions. That the show is in fact as traditional as any of its predecessors probably isn’t that surprising.

I find it’s best to assess Second City on its own terms—the comedy is of a certain type and style—and director Matt Hovde and his cast have brought strong concepts to the stage. The execution is another matter. Read the rest of this entry »

Demian Krentz

Admit it. When the Civil War comes to mind, you immediately think, “big laughs.” No? Well the creative minds behind “Shoot Faster, Dear Brother, I’m Dying! (a Civil War Comedy),” which takes the stage this week at the Apollo Studio Theater, 2540 North Lincoln, aim to change that.

This idea to write a comedy based on the time of The War Between the States came from an unprovoked email exchange between writer-performer Demian Krentz and writer-performer Joe Anderson. “At the time I was living in Lansing, Michigan. Joe and I had worked on a couple of plays in Michigan and I just decided to write him an email as if I was talking to my brother in a field in a war,” Krentz says. “He wrote me back in the same form and we realized it was turning into a funny idea.”

Krentz explains that the play, about two brothers who live in Virginia while one of them is fighting in the war and its aftermath, is a condensed version of a book they were going to write until they both agreed it would be better acted out. “It’s a ridiculous take on life back then,” Krentz says. “I’m a history nerd; it’s always great to imagine what people who lived before us did.” If you, too, would like to explore the funny side of The Late Unpleasantness, visit shootfaster.com or call (773)935-6100. (Ashley Abramowicz)

Lisa Pederson's hoot of a Halloween costume, a year after mastectomy

For thirty years, ever since she was a teenager, Lisa Pedersen has been told that she should do comedy. After surviving cancer, she finally decided to give it a shot and started performing at the “Your Sunday Best” open-mic at Schubas.

“I’m trying to spread the word about cancer,” she says. Pedersen wants people to remember that it’s out there but if we remain positive things will get better. “I had a lot of surgeries and pain but I always maintained my sense of humor,” she says.

Starting June 5 at 11pm and running Saturday nights through June 26, Pederson will be performing her one-hour standup-comedy act “Laughing in the Face of Cancer” at Gorilla Tango Theatre, 1919 North Milwaukee. Pedersen plans to donate her proceeds from the $10 tickets to the shows to Imerman Angels, an organization that connects cancer fighters with cancer survivors.

Cancer is a sensitive subject; Pedersen hopes her act will help people feel more comfortable asking questions.

“I expected someone to say that’s inappropriate and wrong but that’s not been the case,” she says of her show. “People who are struggling want to be laughing and enjoying life,” Pedersen says. “Things happen but we have to keep moving forward.”

This is not just a show for cancer survivors: Pederson promises that everybody will be able to appreciate her humor because everyone’s life has been touched by cancer in one way or another.

“The humor will hopefully remind people that they are not alone and it’s okay to laugh—it’s okay to laugh at yourself.” (Ashley Abramowicz)

Tom Flanigan, Tim Baltz, Beth Melewski, Brendan Jennings, Christina Anthony, Mary Sohn

RECOMMENDED

If there is one reason to see Second City’s thirty-fourth revue on the e.t.c. stage, his name is Brendan Jennings, one of the newer writer-performers in the cast who makes his presence known with a good-natured mania that is impossible to ignore.

Of the many talents who’ve worked on Second City’s stages in recent years, Jennings seems the most suited for “Saturday Night Live.” Whether that’s in his future is another matter, but Jennings has a lot of qualities that work well on TV. There’s an inherent sweetness to his comedy and, like Will Ferrell, he has enough personal charisma to play it broad—almost too broad—and still keep it interesting.

He doesn’t display much versatility, but he has the loose physicality of a frat-boy party animal, and a real knack for the comedy of humiliation. I will not soon forget his primal scream of rage as he stood dressed in a pair of Daisy Dukes hiked up his butt crack, wailing about his miserable life. Jennings screams like a girl, a trait that is both hilarious and a clever bit of comedy; you are always on his side, no matter how ridiculous and ass-cheek-exposing that side may be. Read the rest of this entry »

Less than two weeks before what would have been a marquee show featuring two all-time legends of stand-up comedy, Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory, Lakeshore Theater surprised the arts community by announcing its imminent closure this evening.

Here’s the text of the press release: we’re assuming it’s not an April Fool’s joke, though we wish it was.

CHICAGO, IL | April 1, 2010 – The Lakeshore Theater announced today that operations at the venue will cease on April 10th.

Lakeshore co-owner and Executive Producer Chris Ritter said “It saddens me deeply to announce the closing of the Lakeshore. While revenues have continued to grow over the last three years and the Lakeshore brand of comedy, music and good times has successfully taken hold, current revenues are simply insufficient to fund ongoing operations as well as much needed plant repairs and improvements needed to take the company to the next level of success.” Read the rest of this entry »

Mick Napier has directed plenty of shows at Annoyance Theatre, none of which however, have been sketch comedy. This is the same Napier who founded Annoyance Theatre, directed more than fifteen sketch revues at Second City, directed David Sedaris’ “One Woman Shoe” and directed “Exit 57” for Comedy Central. This is why his mates at Annoyance are so excited that Napier is premiering his newest sketch show, “The Swear Jar,” at his home base, so to speak. “It’s very dirty,” half-laughs managing director Tyler Wolff-Ormes. “And he’s definitely taking advantage of the no-holds-barred attitude of Annoyance.” With musical direction by Lisa McQueen and  a cast featuring Vanessa Bayer, Aidy Bryant, Angela Dawe, Colleen Murray, Andrew Peyton, Conner O’ Malley, Brian Wilson and Chris Witaske, Wolff-Ormes expects great things. “I’m really excited about the cast,” he says. “It’s a powerhouse cast.” The show, $15, opens March 27 and runs through May 1. (Peter Cavanaugh)

Photo: Jane Nicholl Sahlins

By Dennis Polkow

“If Aristophanes were alive today,” says an elderly but still twinkling Bernard Sahlins, “he would be on cable television.”  It may a seem a long way from the satirical ancient Greek playwright to the Second City some two-and-a-half millennia later, but Sahlins, a founder of Chicago’s legendary comedy troupe who is directing a production of “Lysistrata” this weekend, puts the timeframe in perspective: “Long before Second City, when I was directing ‘straight’ plays, including the Greek tragedies, Claudia Cassidy [then Chicago Tribune critic] wrote that I had directed the worst production in 2,000 years.”  Well, she ought to know.

Sahlins says that he has always been interested in Greek drama, a love that was in part fostered by his time studying the classics at the University of Chicago, where he graduated in 1943.  “A University of Chicago education was once described as ‘Casting imaginary pearls before real swine.’ But don’t use that.

“You know, the high point of Greek drama only lasted for about eighty-six years. The period of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus and Aristophanes passed quickly and then there was nothing except street theater until the Middle Ages and the development of church plays. The era of the playwright, the individual dramatist, did not emerge again until the Renaissance and the phenomenon of the playwright as we think of it is a fairly modern phenomenon that really fully came about in the nineteenth century.” Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Sutton/Photo: Bob Knuth

How do you make a satire about a satire?  That meta question goes unanswered—disappointingly so—in Second City’s new show “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical!”  There is so much lacking here, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Say what you will about the man, Limbaugh’s entertainment instincts are impeccable; he knows how to put on a show. Personally, I would have loved to see Second City parse what it is exactly that makes Limbaugh tick as a pop-cultural entity. Creators Ed Furman and T.J. Shanoff (with director Matt Hovde) choose a different track, portraying Limbaugh as a cigar-puffing, money-obsessed boob—which would be fine if it weren’t so predictable.

Let’s back up a moment.  Just about everything Limbaugh says or does has the whiff of satire and farce to it, and it’s never entirely clear how much is carnival barking and how much is true-blue sentiment. But to simply paint the guy as egotistical, racist, venal, sexist and hypocritical, well that’s as reductive as it gets. These are all the usual beefs against the guy, and it’s the obvious route. How do you puncture Limbaugh’s persona—and his wildly successful history of bloviation-as-political-discourse—in a new way?  Frankly I don’t have the answer, but I’m not the one creating a show, either. Read the rest of this entry »

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon than with a bunch of potheads listening to a pothead make jokes about pot. Today at 4:20pm, during a special single-matinee performance, a giggling crowd actually has something to laugh at. Upon entering the lobby, smoke-machine fog billows out of the theater doors.

Doug Benson may be best known for his appearances on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and various pop-culture commentary shows like “Best Week Ever” on VH1, but to a different audience, he is the proclaimed King of Pot Comedy. Besides his spoof on the feminist spoken-word series “The Vagina Monologues,” appropriately titled “The Marijuana Logs,” Benson has parodied the documentary about eating nothing but McDonalds for thirty days, making “Super High Me.” Benson did nothing but smoke pot for thirty days straight and functioned just as good if not better than usual.

Benson recently received the opportunity any “stoner comedian” would trade his best bong for, getting to share the stage with cannabis culture icon Tommy Chong during a tour of the “Marijuana Logs” shortly after Chong was released from jail. Read the rest of this entry »

Andy St. Clair, Brad Morris/Photo: Bob Knuth

RECOMMENDED

If the comedy revues at Second City hew to a familiar pattern, it’s for a purpose. I don’t always agree with that purpose, but the theater just reached its fiftieth anniversary, so something’s working.  The company’s latest mainstage show may not be its strongest, but it is worth seeing for two reasons: Brad Morris and Andy St. Clair.

“Taming of the Flu” feels especially traditional in its Second Cityness. (Longtime director Mick Napier is at the helm.) This isn’t humor that comes from uncomfortable introspection. The material and its execution is standard stuff. Ultimately it’s up to the cast to differentiate their show from years past and, on that score, Morris and St. Clair do most of the heavy lifting.

I barely noticed Morris three years ago when he joined the mainstage. It can take a little while for performers to figure out where they fit in, and Morris sorted things out by the time he hit the stage in 2008’s “No Country for Old White Men.” Read the rest of this entry »