Chicago Underground Comedy Highlights From May 20, 2008

Spring fever must be taking hold, because the energy was sky-high on Tuesday night at ChUC. Adam Burke is too Irish to enjoy the sunshine, Robert Buscemi wonders about the weirdness of mulch, Cameron Esposito discovers an unexpected musical bond between herself and some random dude on the CTA, Brendan McGowan reconsiders his lifelong fandom of the Chicago Cubs, James Asmus shares selections from his girlfriend the special ed teacher's going-away cards from her students, and Ricky Carmona is tired of the ever-evolving complexity of the modern handshake.

(EDIT: fixed the soundtrack problem and reposted the video...after four $#%#ing tries.)

May 20 Recap Post

Tuesday night's show was awesome. Maybe the rare week off did us some good. The house was full and energetic and Buscemi did a great job hosting. As I told our guests Hey You Millionaires, I know it's a good show when I find myself thinking "I can't wait to get home and edit the highlight clip!"

Ricky did a joke I've never seen before, about the unnecessarily complicated evolution of the handshake, which I'm sure I'll put in the highlight clip.

Brendan just kicked ass. Buscemi said, as Brendan sauntered off the stage "Precocious little prick, isn't he?" It's so much fun to see people growing in confidence in skill as time goes by.

There was a moment during Cameron Esposito's set when I thought an audience member was going to cross the line between tipsily playing along and full-on heckling. It's always interesting to watch that happen. Earlier this winter, we had a tipsy girl in the audience get very chatty when Fay Canale was onstage, verbally responding to almost every single joke, but then, when she did the same thing to Bill Cruz, he said "What's your name, sweetheart?" in a very non-threatening, friendly manner, and she totally clammed up. You're not invisible when you're drunk, you know. But still, we're glad you came out and had a good time.

I'm working on the highlight clip now, that should be up soon.

Help ChUC's Paul Thomas Get To Lollapalooza!

Spoofy Chicago rock band Lola Balatro, featuring Jeff Madden, Cork Kangas, and Chicago Underground Comedy's own Paul Thomas, needs your help.

"There's this little music festival this year in Chicago called Lollapalooza. They have a little contest for a little performance spot that involves a little online voting. Lola Balatro would appreciate if you clicked the link and voted for them (song "I Got 2 Black Friends" is the entry). Voting goes until June 22."

And you can vote once a day! Help Chicago comedy talent land a big gig!

The song in question:

Come See Our May 20, 2008 Show (That's Tonight, Y'all)

We're back after our rare one-week break. Did you see the highlight reel from the May 6 show? It features Hannibal Buress, Fay Canale, Mike and Duane, the Puterbaugh Sisters, Paul Thomas, and Allison Leber. It's pretty sweet.

This week's lineup is a strong one! Performers from our cast include the clever and nicely accented Adam Burke (at left), the one-of-a-kind Robert Buscemi, the ebullient and charming Ricky Carmona, and the increasingly hilarious Brendan McGowan.

Special guests are wry and witty Lincoln Lodge cast member Cameron Esposito and the genius boys behind Hey You Millionaires, who, it's true, recently played Whirlyball with their heroes and namesakes, Kids in the Hall.

We hope to see you tonight! Beer specials! Tootsie Roll Pops! Laughter!

Chicago Underground Comedy Highlights, May 6, 2008

Featuring Fay Canale, The Puterbaugh Sisters, Mike and Duane, Paul Thomas, Allison Leber, Mike Wiley, and Hannibal Buress:



Highlights: Hannibal Buress suggests that Reverend Wright is Hillary Clinton in excellent "Norbit" style makeup, Fay Canale's cat likes to bring her fancy presents, the Puterbaugh Sisters want your dangly parts in their wet parts, Mike and Duane will rap your panties off with their ditty "LDC," where they talk about little dick pride, Paul Thomas invites lady athletes to show some ovaries, Allison Leber's PMS drives her to strange eating patterns and weeping at the emotional content of porn, Mike Wiley wouldn't be upset at being chased by a reverse centaur, Paul Thomas reiterates that being tall does not make him older than you, and Hannibal questions the necessity of Chicago's big shiny bean.

Robin Williams Hangs With ChUC, Other Chicago Comedians

As readers of this blog will probably figure out, I am editor of The Bastion as well as producer of Chicago Underground Comedy. Today's Bastion post was about a surprise appearance at Friday and Saturday nights' Lakeshore Theater stand-up shows by Robin Williams. Quotes from ChUC castmembers from that article:

Robin Williams was in town to make an appearance on the special Chicago set of the Ellen Degeneres Show (not "Helen," Mayor Daley), and while he was here he popped into the Lakeshore Theater Friday and Saturday night, where he performed and caught sets by Chicago comics including Hannibal Buress, Carrie Callahan, Cameron Esposito, Jena Friedman, Adam Burke, and Prescott Tolk.

Prescott Tolk was impressed with Williams' trademark manic energy: "It was a big thrill to watch a standard showcase night at the Lakeshore Theater transform into a major event. As word got out that he was in the house, the theater went from a quarter full to sold out within 45 minutes. He was friendly and gracious from the moment he walked in the green room. It was great to watch him work. The guy transcends age when he steps on stage. All energy, all the time. I get the feeling that the Lakeshore will be privy to more 'pop-in' performances in the future."

Adam Burke was disappointed to have missed Williams on Friday night but bumped into him Saturday night, almost literally: "He arrived just as I was due to go on stage; I almost knocked him over on my way out of the dressing room. That would have been unfortunate. It was a great night for all the performers as the audience was fairly buzzing with excitement. (Unlike the night before, where apparently half the crowd were completely blindsided by his appearance, I think the cat was largely out of the bag by Saturday.) The place went nuts when he finally came out on stage and he did an electric and utterly filthy set. He confirmed my belief an audience does have to get the references in a joke to find it funny, such as the time he mentioned both Gabby Hayes and Walter Brennan in a bit about John Wayne porno movies. I'm pretty sure 90 percent of the audience had no idea who they are but they all busted a gut anyways. All in all it was a fantastic night."

CJ Sullivan at Chicago Underground Comedy April 29 2008

One last clip from this week's show, from one of our favorite regular guests (and that night's feature act), CJ Sullivan. We gave him a longer set and I had to cut this clip down to ten minutes so I could post it on YouTube. It was sort of a pain in the butt to edit because there was so much good stuff in there and it was hard to decide what to leave out. CJ, you rock the stage. We love you.



And hey, while I'm here, my favorite CJ Blerds video."Mr. Sullivan, I think we've got your bag here. Didn't really come across any business papers, but I did find three notebooks full of fart jokes and a slide whistle, is that what you're talking about?"

If Real Life Were Like Facebook

It starts off with "pooooooke" and it only gets more accurate from there. "What's he doing?" "He's writing on your wall!"
P.S. If someone could explain that Lil' Green Patch application thing to me, that would be great. If they really want you to save the rain forest, why do they use such a poorly designed little game thingee to do it?

ChUC Podcasts From October 2007 - P.S., Could a Rich Person Please Buy Us an H2 Zoom Recorder?

Assuming we ever attract any real fans to this site, I thought I'd slap up these two podcasts I made last October, shortly after Dan and I took over as the new producers of ChUC. I originally posted them on Vocalo, and listening to them again now I am more determined to start the Chicago comedy podcast Dan keeps prodding me toward. I talked to Prescott about this once or twice, thinking it might be a two-host Never Not Funny sort of thing, and he likes the idea.

If I could just get my grubby paws on something like this (also seen at left). I've been told by Vocalo folks, who loved the ChUC stuff and other stuff I did for them, that my little cheapie Olympus digital voice recorder does not create broadcast-quality sound, and I need something better. They would put us on the radio, dudes! But I am a humble writer and therefore poor. Hm. Anyone have $200 hiding in their couch cushions somewhere? I wonder what the odds are that an art-loving philanthropist might happen upon this blog and be our patron.

Anyway, here's the ChUC Halloween 2007 podcast, with the original descriptions I wrote for Vocalo's site:



Chicago Underground Comedy is the most fun you can have on a Tuesday for five bucks. Check out this little behind-the-scenes peek at the Halloween 2007 show, wherein Ricky Carmona goes all "Dark Knight" (AKA Batman), Jared Logan is annoyed that no one can tell he's Frankenstein even before the spirit gum wears off his neck bolts, Dan Telfer talks about his zombie stand-up set inspiring an audience member to run out of the room vomiting, and Robert Buscemi explains the rich personal history of his lesbian Unitarian minister character, "Earth Sky Fish Pants." Or "Earth Mother Wind Sock." Or "Earth Sister Mother Star." Whatever the hell her name is.

...and the additional bonus nerdcast, also with original description:



Post-comedy show chatter is a always a mishmash, but at Chicago Underground Comedy, there are always a lot of passionate nerdy discussions. In this segment: "Lost" theories -- the little-explored "WWII doom scientists" backstory, the "accelerated psychic abilities" theory, who cares who kisses Kate? Jared Logan, Ricky Carmona, and Elizabeth McQuern love Star Trek, but Dan Telfer thinks the hot Borg chick is called "7, 8, 9," and can't get into things his parents were nerds about -- but was still scared by Dr. Who "garbage bags with lizard masks." Jared thinks Star Trek beats Star Wars by a mile. All agree that the final three Star Wars movies ruined the first three. Jared describes George Lucas as a "P.T. Barnum, Henry Ford, anti-semitic piece of crap." And no, the recording isn't skipping, there were lots of f*bombs that needed to be edited out. These are comedians, people.

Ladies Love Grand Theft Auto

Check out Youtube's featured video of the day, featuring ChUC's own Renee Gauthier and Mike Bridenstine: