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 »

Here’s a surprising fact: we’re coming up on the nine-year anniversary of Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s first episode (which, appropriately, was shown unannounced at 5am). That’s nine years of a series comprised of three talking fast-food items, their hairy, masturbation-loving neighbor, a bizarre cast of supervillians and a lot of nonsensical yelling. I’m not sure how any sober person can watch more than one fifteen-minute episode at a time of ATHF’s unrestricted insanity and often plotless shenanigans, but I’ll admit that the show (and this goes for anything on Adult Swim) can be pretty damn hilarious when in you’re in certain moods, especially any kind of stupor. The live show, featuring show co-creators Dave Willis and Dana Snyder, promises to include unseen clips from the show, script readings, and live music (?), so hardcore fans of the show and anyone who can handle at least an hour of unmitigated absurdity should feel right at home. (Andy Seifert)

November 13 and 14 at Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, (773)472-3492. $15.

RECOMMENDED

It’s mostly inaccurate to label Bill Cosby as a “stand-up comedian” anymore. First off, no way in hell is he going to be standing—the 72-year old understandably plops himself into a chair for his shows. Second, Cosby doesn’t fit the traditional mold of stand-up’s set-up/punchline structure—he’s more of a storyteller with humorous tangents and an overtly slurred delivery. (Here’s part of a joke, transcribed verbatim, he told on the “Late Show”: “I remember, 47, uh, two years ago, I swear, they came, they came. We we we we we—our children—we we we want, we want a dogggg.”) That said, even as a temperamental, grumpy old geezer who keeps making controversial comments about socioeconomic issues, Cosby’s still kind of a goofball, certainly capable of inducing fits of laughter, even if it is after dredging up clips of his New Coke ads. (Andy Seifert)

November 14 at Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee, Waukegan, (847)782-2366. $39-$75.

RECOMMENDED

The always-caustic Dave Attell brings his ubiquitous cigarette and smooth, soothing baritone to Lakeshore Theater, where his scathing wit and bizarrely contentious comments will take center stage. While many will remember Attell for his late-night Comedy Central series “Insomniac with Dave Attell,” which consisted of Attell roaming around the nightlife of a city, engaging in what most of us do during a night on the town (drinking incessantly while teasing those more intoxicated than ourselves), he appears to thrive best in a stand-up role. Hardly a drunken buffoon who blathers sex jokes all set long, Attell has developed a set rife with non sequiturs, curveball punchlines and just plain silliness. Like his take on global warming: “The ice caps are melting. But maybe there’s some pretty cool shit under those ice caps, like treasure, or even better, a talking dinosaur, who we can all have adventures with. Me first, I thought it up.” (Andy Seifert)

November 6 and 7 at Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, (773)472-3492. $34.50.

RECOMMENDED

Man, I wish I could be so wildly successful at comedy that when I’m 64, I can say, “You know, I’m tired of stand-up. I think I’ll go on a banjo/bluegrass tour,” and only not can I embark on such a tour as specifically quirky as the banjo-picking kind, but I can go play freaking Carnegie Hall. Such is the state of Steve Martin’s career as he rolls into town with the acoustic bluegrass quintet Steep Canyon Rangers. Martin’s been plucking away since the seventies, but back then the banjo was usually a prop to his zany, whimsical stand-up. These days, Martin has made it clear that bluegrass is a serious artform and ambition for him, but that will surely not keep the former Three Amigo/Father of the bride/Sgt. Bilko from throwing in a bunch of jokes in between songs (can “King Tut” be performed bluegrass?). As for his banjo skills, Martin’s no chump, making him one of the few performers who can cross into another medium and not embarrass themselves, which a pretty impressive feat, at least until Paul McCartney takes a stab at a stand-up career. (Andy Seifert)

October 22 at Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 West Randolph, (312)902-1400.

RECOMMENDED

Drunken, obscene and kind of a jerk, Australian comedian Jim Jefferies offers the three most enduring qualities of a successful stand-up (along the fourth-most: funny accents!). While part of his current popularity stems from a well-reported incident at a Manchester gig in which he was punched in the face by an apparently not-amused spectator, we’ll assume he’s stayed near the top of the stand-up ladder with consistently funny sets. Whether he’s defending the double standard of men called “studs” for having sex a lot while women are called “sluts,” or casually discussing the lump on his penis (or as he calls it, “dick cancer”), Jefferies is the kind of guy who’s just looking to stir up a little trouble, get in people’s faces, maybe even provoke someone to jump on stage and start beating on him. And honestly, don’t you want to watch someone who elicits reactions like that? (Andy Seifert)

October 16 and 17 at Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, (773)472-3492. $15.

I assume Oak Park-born comedienne Kathy Griffin is at least kind of funny. Between her Emmy-award winning reality show, “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,” her best-selling book “Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin,” and her general omnipresence on cable, Griffin has somehow parlayed her giggly giddiness and approximately twenty-seven plastic surgeries into inexplicable appeal. Hey, more power to her, I’m just clearly not in her target demographic (which I gather ranges between sorority sisters and Oxygen channel devotees) so I’ll assume my annoyance with her is just a guy thing. I’ll admit, if you search her rambling storytelling set, you’ll find a touch of satire on the state of gossipy Hollywood. It’s just particularly grating satire. Ah yes, you’re scratching and clawing for any publicity you can grab because you’re a “D-list” celebrity, one of many bottom-of-the-food-chain celebrities who can charge $50+ to see their set. Seriously, $50? I could go see Bob Dylan in a few weeks for that kind of money, and at this zany, upbeat point of his career, he might even be funnier. (Andy Seifert)

October 8-11 at Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, (312)263-1138. $49.50-$69.50