Notes on Honey & Breezi's Valentines Day Spectacular

Tonight (Friday, 2/14) at 10:30pm, the Upstairs Gallery will host a totally romantic organized by a pair of local high schoolers. There will be improv from two mashup teams, a psychic giving free past life readings, a triple date, and an all-lady rap group, plus spiked non-alcoholic punch and other treats. 

While the producers weren't available for an interview in advance of the show, this series of notes exchanged by seniors  and were found folded up on the ground outside the girls' locker room earlier this week. Check out a scan of their juicy, gossip-filled correspondence below!

Read More
More info

Mike’s Hard’s Hard Laughs Festivade: Your Best Bets

Tomorrow night at the Upstairs Gallery is the second annual Mike's Hard's Hard Laughs Festivade sketch festival, and is definitely the only sketch comedy festival happening this weekend in Chicago. Producer/founder of the festivade, Brian McGovern is here with a guide to some of the best of the fest, hitting the stage tomorrow at 10:30pm. Mike's Hard's Hard Laughs Festivade is a totally free, BYOB affair.

With so many sketch groups coming in from out of town for , it can be a little overwhelming to know which acts to check out.

Well this year The Steamroller and the fest’s curator, Brian McGovern, have made a list of the hardest acts guaranteed to get the hardest laughs. We’ve compiled this list using the most accurate and foolproof methods available to modern journalists to determine who is the funniest: by looking at performer-submitted bios and press photos.

Just a reminder: these are just some of the fantastic acts performing at the Festivade. You should also be on the lookout for some other exciting out of town acts that bear a striking resemblance to Chicago’s finest sketch comedians including Andrew Tisher, Michael Brunlieb, Tim Baltz, John Reynolds and a whole lot more all within the time frame of 10:30 to about midnight.

Read More
More info

Jamison Webb’s Definitive and Complete History of Duck Soup

This Sunday, November 17th, marks the 80th anniversary of the release of the Marx Brothers' wildly influential Duck Soup. In celebration of this occasion, , a Chicago-based writer and improvisor, organized  on Sunday at 8:30pm at the Upstairs Gallery.

In advance of the screening, Jamison put together a complete history of the film, delving into the minutiae of its production, release, and reception.

Read More
More info

The Ghoulashes- "Ghoul Schoul"

Walt Delaney and John O'Toole are The Ghoulashes, a Halloween rock band that recently dropped the single "Ghoul Schoul." Originally released in 1964, the single finds the band at their spooky best, and was released in anticipation of their , a fundraiser to help finance their upcoming 2014 tour of Kosovo, happening this Thursday at the Upstairs Gallery.

Check out "Ghoul Schoul" below and don't miss the Ghoulashes Halloween Spooktacular and Telethon!

Read More
More info

A chat with Irene Marquette and Andrew Tisher of The Curio Show: The Early Work

This Wednesday, the first-ever edition of 's new monthly variety show, , goes up at the Upstairs Gallery. The first edition of this conceptually fluid night will focus on films produced by various local performers in their youths, in an era before Youtube or iMovie.

I Facebook chatted with Irene and Andrew Tisher, her co-producer for this month's show, which is subtitled . The show starts at 8pm this Wednesday, September 18th at the Upstairs Gallery.

Read More
More info

Drew & Ayala present...

The comedy duo of Drew Anderson and Ayala Skopp are presenting an overstuffed lineup of awesome folks from both the sketch and standup worlds tonight at the Upstairs Gallery, including Candy Lawrence, Wes Perry, the Puterbaugh Sisters, Gary Richardson, and Kellen Alexander. The show is tonight, August 6th, at 8pm, you can check out the poster for more information below!

Also embedded below is a recent clip from Drew & Ayala's new series of web shorts that follow two women who own a feminist pottery studio called Kiln Me Softly.

Read More
More info

A Jangleheart Circus: Schedule unveiled, tickets on sale NOW!

The full lineup and schedule information for A Jangleheart Circus, an independent comedy festival produced by the folks from The Upstairs Gallery, has been announced.

Head over to the Jangleheart website for full schedule and lineup information! 

Tickets for AJC are on sale now! I'm personally very excited to see something with this large of scope come together, you should make a point to check out at least one night, if not all, of this crazy thing. 

A word from the producers:  "We think it's important to celebrate what's being done right now, so we're gathering some of our favorite performers together to showcase our city, the work being done here, and some of the amazing people who make up the improv and sketch community."

Buy your tickets here.

 

Read More
More info