A list of 42 things that take two hours by Katie McVay

Tomorrow night, Two Hour Comedy Hour at the Gallery Cabaret in Bucktown will trot out over 50 comedians in under two hours, 42 of whom will each be given under one minute of stage time apiece. 42x42 3 is the third edition of their fabulously gimmicky comedy parade, which is capped off with longer sets from CJ Sulllivan, Liza Treyger, Chad Briggs, and Mike Sheehan.

Katie McVay, one of Two Hour's producers, is here to plug the show with a list of 42 other things that share the show's 120 minute time frame.


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An Open Letter to Comedy by A Comedian

Dear Reader,

This isn’t going to be easy for a lot of people to hear, but I need to get this off my chest so we can move forward.  I’m hearing a lot of things in the comedy world that are negative, downright offensive and borderline hate speech.  Mostly directed at me, a real comedian.


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Brian McGovern's top five Cheers teasers!

DRUGSEX Incorporated is a monthly sketch show at the Public House Theatre, a recently opened written comedy oasis. Each month’s show tackles an insanely high concept in the goofiest way possible; tomorrow night’s show, The Cheers Show, consists entirely of original scenes written in the style of the classic cold open scenes that kick off every episode of Cheers. Brian McGovern, the producer of DRUGSEX, is here with a list of classic Cheers cold opens to prime you for tomorrow night’s show. The Cheers Show is at 11pm tomorrow night (Saturday, May 11th) at the Public House Theatre.

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A Letter from Apple CEO Tim Cook by Mark Colomb

Good Day Consumers,

It's Tim Cook here. I hope this letter finds you well. Are you working hard and saving your money for a new iPhone 5S or the next iPad Maxi that we plan to release this summer? Our manufacturing partners are working day and night to bring you the the slightest of upgrades on all your favorite devices. Figured I would just drop you a line about some market research we have been doing about our Apple end users.

You know all those cameras on your phones, iPads, and computers? We had them set up to send us pictures of you every two minutes for the last five years. That's right, we know exactly what you've been doing and who you've been doing it with almost every minute of every day for the last five years. It's been a fascinating project for us. Trillions of terabytes of data on how you use your phones and what you do while you use your computers. Let me share some of it with you.


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Think Tank presents Celebrity Intervention

The Chicago-based independent sketch collective Think Tank recently released Celebrity Intervention, an absurd, moody short film that explores horrors of identity. It features several Think Tank members, as well as the delightfully silly Chad Briggs. Think Tank will be performing their new sketch show every Sunday in June at the Den Theatre in Wicker Park. Check their website for more information as the shows approach!

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Interview: Party Time Party Time's Morgan Lord and Marty Schousboe

Kickstarter's a hot, controversial website these days, right? Here's an interview with two Chicago-based writers and performers, Morgan Lord and Marty Schousboe, who have together written and directed Party Time Party Time​, a feature length "melanchomedy" film featuring a cast of 60+ Chicagoans. There's less than a week remaining on the Kickstarter that Morgan and Marty set up to aide with the final costs of producing the film. These two (along with the massive cast and crew) really seem to be going for it, and I highly recommend pledging to the Kickstarter if you can spare the cash.

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Interview: Walt Delaney, Alex Honnet, and Cailtlin Stephan of The Jangleheart Circus

I talked to Walt Delaney, Alex Honnet, and Caitlin Stephan, the three folks behind the Upstairs Gallery about the recently announced Jangleheart Circus, a three day comedy festival showcasing independent sketch, improv, and standup comedy. By the looks of the current lineup, they've done a great job highlighting the DIY ethos and experimental bend of the Gallery's best shows. The Jangleheart Circus is August 22nd, 23rd, and 24th at The Den Theatre in Wicker Park.

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An annotated response to the response to A Letter to the C2E2 Organizers by Mark Colomb

Earlier this week, I posted a letter written by Mark Colomb that was the product of an ongoing creative project he's working on.

The letter detailed the clearly fake struggles of ​a clearly fake person who was declined entrance to the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo last weekend because he was dressed like a giant scrotum. A local nerd themed bar posted it on their Facebook timeline, initially thinking it was real, and asked their fans for some thoughts on the implications of the piece. As is often the case on the Facebook pages for local businesses, things quickly got out of hand and the post was soon removed.

Unfortunately, Mark was unable to respond to the controversy directly on the post before it was deleted, but was, thankfully, able to save a series of screenshots of the comments. Mark sent over an annotated version of these screenshots, offering his response to the numerous concerned nerds. Read More
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