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.

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Interview: Sand

From what I can tell, Sand has become, in some circles, an improv version of a "comedian's comedian." Tons of improvisors have described the team as one of the best in the city, but they have yet to reach the sort of ubiquity that other contenders like TJ & Dave or the recently-departed Cook County Social Club. Obviously, both of those teams have been around for years, with regular appearances at iO and countless fawning profiles showering them with (much deserved) praise, whereas Sand has been quietly becoming one of the sharpest teams in the city, as the house team at a weekly show every Monday at Quenchers and at other independently produced shows around town.

Tonight at midnight, Sand performs a special one-off show in the Del Close Theatre at iO. In anticipation of this very exciting show, I spoke with all three members of Sand, Thomas Kelly, Mike Brunlieb, and Scott Nelson, about the team's history and The Camera, their unique, documentary-influenced improv form.

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