Steve Gadlin's piece of the Internet

The Players: The Fifty People Who Really Perform in Chicago

1/19/12, New City, by Zach Freeman, Brian Hieggelke, Sharon Hoyer and Dennis Polkow

Read this on NewCityStage.com

With our criteria shifted back to artistic accomplishment in theater, dance, comedy and opera this year, our task got infinitely tougher. Because while the number of performing venues grows at a steady rate, the increase in the number of noteworthy artists seems to grow exponentially. For everyone we name on the list below, we had to leave off five, an embarrassment of riches for Chicago. We made a conscious effort to introduce a meaningful number of new faces to the list this year; the necessary absences should not be construed as a loss of worthiness as a consequence. We often find trends when we do the research these lists require; this year we’re starting to see a more meaningful effort to redefine performance itself in the internet age, from the runaway success of StarKids, to the more calculated endeavors of Silk Road. So what defines a “player”? Consider it some complex stew of career achievement, recent “heat” and, in some cases, rising stardom.

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#41 – Steve Gadlin, Actor

Steve Gadlin and his Blewt! cohorts create some of the funniest, most imaginative projects anywhere, from the “Impress These Apes” show that first brought them to our attention, to his more recent “Nairobi Project” wherein he commissioned an email spammer to create plays for him which he produced. But he’s on the verge of going big-time now: his “Don’t Spit the Water” game show pilot recently aired on television and, later this month on January 27, he’s really breaking out when he appears on ABC Television’s “Shark Tank” to pitch rich investors on his project “I Want to Draw A Cat for You.” Sounds Trump-worthy to us.

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Funny Business: Talking with Steve Gadlin

1/12/12, TribLocal, by Teme Ring

Read this on TribLocal.com

Pssst. C’mere. Want some insider tips? Fill your mouth with water (coffee works if you’re reading this over breakfast) and hold it until the end of this interview. This training will give you an advantage over the competition when “Don’t Spit the Water” returns to the Wilmette Theatre on Thursday, January 19th.

Tip two: buy your cat drawings now! On January 27th, demand may grow faster than a kitten when Steve Gadlin, creator and host of “Don’t Spit the Water,” appears on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where a panel of millionaires awards sizable investments to deserving entrepreneurs. Gadlin will pitch www.iwanttodrawacatforyou.com where he “draws the cat that your describe.” The business has already been a Groupon sensation. Unfortunately, there’s no “insider tip three” because Gadlin wouldn’t tell us who won the purrrse on his episode of “Shark Tank.”

But you don’t have to wait until the 27th to see one of Chicago’s most innovative comedy impresarios. Next Thursday, Gadlin brings Chicago’s craziest live game show back to Wilmette. Contestants fill their cheeks with water as comedians engage in outrageous shtick to make them laugh, spit the water and lose. Gadlin achieved a long-held dream this past September when the “Don’t Spit the Water” television pilot aired on WCIU.

Gadlin is also the creator of “Impress These Apes”, a comedian talent competition, “The Nairobi Project”, a play returning for its three-quel this spring penned as always by a Kenyan e-mail spammer, and most recently, for two new ventures, “I Want to Write a Song for You” and “Two Film T-Shirts.” (“The only shirt that lets you show your appreciation for two films, not just one!”)

When it comes to show business, some are better at the “show”, some better at the “business”. TribLocal spoke with Gadlin to learn what it takes to succeed at both.

Q: What was it like to film “Don’t Spit the Water” for television?

A: It was a blast. It had been so long in the making for so many people.

Q: Did it feel like a dream come true?

A: Not so much as we were taping because it was a really long and slow day, but definitely when it aired a couple of months later. It was very surreal to watch.

Q: Will it be back on the air?

A: I hope so. We’ve talked about doing more and I’ve put together some budgets to show what that would cost. Right now, it’s not on the top of anybody’s to-do list. But I’m giving it a little time before I get too pushy about it.

What always happens with me is I’ll let something sit, then something will trigger in me and I’ll get really persistent and try to make something happen. It’s definitely an experience I want to repeat, so hopefully in 2012 we’ll start talking about doing more.

Q: What sort of challenges should contestants expect when “Don’t Spit the Water” returns to Wilmette?

A: We’re bringing in new comics and people who were a part of the show a long time ago and prepping for the possibility that we might get to do a bunch more of these. So there will be some interesting comics to go up against.

Q: How can audience members improve the odds of becoming a contestant?

A: We walk around before the show and sign people up. Some people take coaxing to put their name on the list and those are people we generally won’t bring on stage, but we fast-track the people who seem really enthusiastic. We want people who want to be up there and who look like they’re having fun.

Q: What’s the craziest thing a comedian has done to defeat a contestant?

A: When Ken Barnard did the show, I would always tell the contestants, “you have a safe word and that’s spitting the water” because I was scared of what he would do to get them to spit the water. He’d climb all over people. I would get really nervous any time I’d call him up because I was afraid of a lawsuit.

Q: How did you think of “Two Film T-Shirts”?

A: I thought it was a really dumb idea and those are the ones I like to follow through on. I decided the timing was right to put it together, so I talked to [filmmaker] Steve Delahoyde and he agreed to help out with the commercial. Everything kind of clicked.

It was an interesting experience because I had to learn about drop shipment and how to work with t-shirt providers. It hasn’t been very successful at all, but that’s been kind of the fun of it, too.

Q: A lot of people have ideas and dreams, but don’t take them any further. What advice do you have for figuring out those next steps?

A: Years ago, I was frustrated that I had all these ideas and never did anything about it. Not just me, but the people around me. The improv community was all about thinking up stuff, but your shows were always show-up-ten-minutes-before-and-make-stuff-up-onstage as you go along.

So I started with this project called “Silly Faces” thinking, if I’m going to think of something dumb, I’m just going to have to follow through with it and learn what I’m doing. I’ve had a lot more things flop than work. But it’s been fun and eventually, you look back and you’ve done all these crazy things and that’s kind of cool.

I’d say just get yourself underwater on it. Make it so you have to do something. If it’s a good idea, things will click into place. And also, for me, it’s been really easy because I’ve worked with a lot of great people who have skills that I don’t have.

Q: So you have to figure out who your team could be.

A: Yes. And you make your network as you do your stuff and find like-minded people. That’s the first step in making any of these things work.

Q: Which movies are on your “Two Film T-Shirt”?

A: Mine is “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and “The Big Lebowski.” If it were a three film t-shirt, I’d probably throw “Waiting For Guffman” on there, but no one’s invented that yet.

Q: Has anyone ordered an unexpected combination like, “The Little Mermaid” and “The Exorcist”?

A: Yeah, that’s been kind of the game of it, too, people coming up with weird combos. Here’s one: “Troll 2” and “Showgirls”.

Q: When did you tape “Shark Tank”?

A: Two days after the “Don’t Spit the Water” pilot aired, I flew out to L.A. for a week. It was a whirlwind week because the pilot aired, we were working on “Apes” at the time, too, and then two days later, I’m out there.

Q: Wow. Do you ever take any down time or vacation?

A: Actually, that was my down time. I got out there and I didn’t have a wife and kids to worry about, so it was more vacation than work. I don’t know if I’ll ever have an experience like that again where somebody’s taking care of my food and housing and I don’t have to take care of anyone or put anyone to bed.

Q: I read that out of nine thousand applicants, only one hundred were chosen for the show. What is the secret to making it through?

A: I’m not sure. I’d sent them literally a two-sentence e-mail saying, “Hey, I draw these stick figure cats. Let me at ‘em.” I didn’t expect any response to it, but about a week later, they called me right before I was about to go on for an “Apes” show. They had me make a video and send it to them. I threw that together pretty quickly and then it was a month or two until I heard anything else. My assumption was, okay, this isn’t going to happen.

Then suddenly, these two producers were on the phone with me twice a week working through what the pitch was going to be. They kept telling me every step of the way, “Look, you could never hear from us again”. Then a week before the shoot, they sent me plane tickets. Then you get there and they tell you, “By the way, you might not even get to tape”. And then you tape and they tell you, “By the way, you might not ever get to air”. And then a couple of Fridays ago, they called me and said, “You have an air date and here it is”.

Q: What were your impressions of the “Shark” panel?

A: While you’re backstage you see them coming in. You’re waiting to do hair and make-up and they’re kind of walking around, so you try to avoid eye contact. But they were very friendly. I didn’t have much interaction with them other than the pitching. Then it gets combative, but that’s their job. They had me singing and dancing. It was crazy. I walked out of it thinking they were pretty cool and nice.

Q: What are the contestants doing right before they go on – are you talking with each other?

A: No, it’s very closed. You meet a few of them in the hotel, but they keep everybody separate and warn you not to talk about much. When you’re waiting to go on you’re in this tiny room that’s very dark and cold. You know other people are giving their pitches that day, but you can’t see them. Then as soon as you’re done, they hustle you out of there into this second hotel so that you’re not talking to people who haven’t gone yet. There’s really no interaction other than casual hellos between the contestants.

Q: What are you doing to prepare for after the show airs?

A: I’ve got extra server space ready to handle the traffic if it comes and I’m taking the week off from work after it airs. If it’s vacation, that’s great, but I’m taking it just in case I’ve got a thousand cats to draw. In all likelihood, it will fizzle pretty quickly and maybe I’ll see a handful of new orders. But I also have read stories of people who have two thousand orders of their product while their episode is airing. So I have to brace myself for that possibility. But I don’t want to seem too foolish about it and assume that’s going to happen.

Q: Any time management tips for juggling so many projects? Do you ever procrastinate?

A: Oh, yeah.

Q: How do you do so much?

A: I think there’s more time in a day than people realize and a lot of things that seem daunting, especially in terms of these projects I do, don’t take as long as they might seem. I’ve been practicing a lot of this stuff for a long time. So to turn around a web site to sell some ridiculous product isn’t like a month-long project. I can sit down and in six hours on a Saturday have something up and running. So it’s just kind of go with your strengths and stuff won’t take too long. And again, don’t do things by yourself.

Like for “Two Film T-Shirts”, I did a lot of the set-up and writing ahead of time and then when it came down to shooting and editing the commercial, that’s pretty much someone else doing all of that. The more projects I take on, the easier it gets to execute them. It’s pretty much a matter of practice.

Q: What can we expect next?

A: A whole bunch of crazy things. Once this thing airs at the end of January, there will be very little coming out from Blewt! [Gadlin’s production company] for a while as I deal with the aftermath or lack of it. Then we’ve got “The Nairobi Project” again and we’ve got “Apes” again. There are another couple of web sites coming out, too, with some goofy things. Or maybe there aren’t. There are little projects I’m trying that may or may not go anywhere.

So hopefully, in 2012 we get to revisit “Don’t Spit” and getting it on TV. Or again, we might not. We might not have any success there, either. I think 2012 will be about trying to close the deal on a lot of this stuff and doing some cool things. But we’ll see. I’m as curious as you are.

“Don’t Spit The Water” returns to Wilmette at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 19th at the Wilmette Theatre,1122 Central Ave. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. For more information or for tickets, call 847-251-7424 or go to http://www.wilmettetheatre.com/events/.

Secrets Of A Creative Mind: Talking With Steve Gadlin

12/31/10, TribLocal, by Teme Ring

Read this on TribLocal.com.

Photo by Johnny Knight

Talking to Steve Gadlin is like attending a master class in creativity. His is a rare mind, blending creative versatility with marketing savvy. By day, this Evanston native and married father of two is a web developer for Weigel Broadcasting (home of WCIU). Nights and weekends find him creating game shows, producing plays, hosting programs on cable access and, lately, taking Groupon by storm. In this latest venture, Groupon accepted Gadlin’s proposal to sell his cat drawings, normally $9.95 through www.iwanttodrawacatforyou.com, for the bargain basement price of $ 3.00 each. The offer quickly sold out. But it will take more than one thousand cat commissions to slow down Gadlin.

On January 8, Gadlin brings his long-running game show, “Don’t Spit The Water” to the Wilmette Theatre. TribLocal spoke with Gadlin to learn the secrets behind his success and to find out exactly how one plays, “Don’t Spit The Water.”

Q: How did your theater career start?

A: I did a lot of improv in college. When I came back to Chicago, I spent a few years taking classes and doing improv shows. In 2004, I decided to start creating shows because the type of stuff I wanted to do didn’t exist. Instead of being frustrated about it, I decided to start creating the type of thing that I wish had been here.

Q: What was the first show you created?

A: “Don’t Spit The Water,” which started in October 2004. I signed up to write a sketch show at the Playground Theater for a four week run. But with a few weeks to go, I realized we hadn’t written any sketches. So I hurriedly put together this format for a game show so we’d have something to do when the run started. We had our first real rehearsal two days before the show opened. But I could tell I got lucky and put together a really good group of comics. We were in tears during our tech rehearsal because it was so funny. So, I thought, ok, this will at least carry us for four weeks. We ended up running it for four years.

Q: How did you come up with the concept?

A: I was under a lot of pressure. And I like game shows. To me, a game show is fun, it’s entertaining, it’s something the audience wants to play. I thought through different game show ideas and that one stuck with me. I remembered the old “Make Me Laugh” format and thought this will be really good if the contestants have to fill their cheeks with water. Then for the audience, there’s no question of whether they laughed or not. It’s a really explosive moment.

Q: What are the rules?

A: We pull contestants up from the audience. They fill their cheeks with water and then we have three comics who get one or two minutes to make them laugh. If they spit the water, the contestant gets as many points as seconds that they were able to last. And if they don’t, then they get all the points. There’s a betting round, too, where the other contestants wager points whether or not they think the person will spit.

There’s a sudden death round where our final two contestants are face-to-face with their cheeks puffed, so if they do spit the water, they drench the other person.

Q: What’s the shortest time anyone has lasted?

A: We’ve had instant spits. We’ve had the contestant spit just based on the costume the comic is wearing when they come out.

We’ve had some people who are a little too drunk to play and when they spit the water, they vomited all over the stage. We’ve had that happen four or five times. So we try to vet the contestants to make sure they’re not too wasted.

Q: That’s an aspect I hadn’t thought about.

A: Oh, neither did we. When it first happened, it was a bit of a surprise.

Q: Is participation voluntary?

A: Yes. When people come into the theater, they sign up if they want to be a contestant. We know people up there are pretty vulnerable. We have rules. The comics can’t touch the contestants and if someone really doesn’t want to be up there, we’re not going to force them.

Q: I read that you almost set fire to a theater. I have to ask. How did that happen?

A: More than just a game show, we try to be a variety show. We find alternative comics in the city and give them spots during intermission to do weird, random acts and one of the acts that we had a few times was this lady who did fire-eating. We’d had her on a couple of times before. She was never nervous, always real calm and cool. We had a packed house and for whatever reason, her hands were a little shaky as she brought out her lighter fluid. And then the stage caught fire. The fire grew kind of large, but luckily, our stage manager was quick enough to pull out the fire extinguisher and blast it. We tried to continue the show, but the fumes from the extinguisher were overwhelming, so everybody left. With their lives, though. I remember being so impressed because we all stayed in character the whole time, even though we were scared to death.

Q: Was that your most memorable “Don’t Spit The Water” moment?

A: That’s the one I still have nightmares about. It was after the Great White nightclub fire where all those people were trampled. Every once in a while I think about it and think, oh, man, that could have ended so differently.

I would say our throw-ups have also been memorable. I’m trying to think of good memorable things. Most of the ones I think of are disasters. But there’ve been a lot of really cool moments because we have a type of performance that you don’t see anywhere else. So when everyone on stage is losing control because it’s so funny … Moments like that that are pretty memorable.

Q: Have you always liked game shows?

A: I have. I’ve always wanted to be on one and I’ve had several close calls, but have never made it. I was almost on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” years ago, when you had to call in and answer a quiz on the phone. I got through the two different qualifying rounds and to the point where they said, if you get a call between this hour and this hour on this day, then you’re on the show. I was in some information technology class that day, hating it, just wanting some rescue from that wretched class, but the phone never rang.

And then a few years ago, I was called back for a “Deal Or No Deal” audition. I had another of those moments where they said, ok, if you get a call in the next couple of weeks, we’ll fly you out to be on the show. And it never happened. But it’s always been a dream of mine to play some sort of game show. So that’s what a lot of this stuff is. If I can’t play them, I can at least make them. And then other people get to play them and that’s pretty cool.

Q: How did you think of “I Want To Draw A Cat For You”?

A: I wanted a simple idea for a business so I could try cool ways of marketing it and see what kind of buzz I could create. So to me, that was a nice, simple business and once I got the web site up, I was free to promote it however I wanted.

Q: Which of the one thousand Groupon orders are you on now?

A: I’ve drawn about 650. I’d sold about 150 before Groupon. About 400 of the Groupons have been redeemed. But there were a lot of orders after Groupon, too, because of the publicity.

Q: If you could have a dream request to draw a cat for anybody, for whom would it be?

A: What would be cool would be to draw one for Conan O’Brien or for Ellen or for somebody who just by tweeting it would send the link out to hundreds of thousands of people.

Q: If you asked yourself for a cat, what would the cat be doing? Or maybe the cat would not be drawing a cat.

A: Actually, that’s it. I would draw a cat that’s done drawing cats for a while.

Q: You have little kids, you work as a web developer and you develop all these shows. How do you balance everything?

A: One, I have a very forgiving wife. She knows that every time I’ve tried to stop doing this stuff, it pops up in one way or another. There’s this drive in me to do these ridiculous, creative projects. I think we all in my family understand that now and don’t try to fight it. I’m somewhat decent at carving out nights where I won’t work on this stuff.

And two, I work with really great people on these projects who are able to shoulder a lot. None of this is a solo venture for me. It’s a whole production staff setting everything up, doing tech, performing. So it takes a lot off of my shoulders.

Q: How do you come up with your ideas?

A: A lot of it is sitting around thinking until an idea strikes. At this point, I have a somewhat decent filter for knowing if it’s worth putting in the time or not. I think about the kind of show that I wish someone else would have made for me. What’s nice about Chicago, too, is there really are no limits.

When I was stuck doing a lot of improv, every show was the same format, the same kind of show. Didn’t really consider the audience at all or how fun it would be to perform. What I’m learning is, if you can think of something that sounds fun to do and you can find enough people to have fun doing it, it usually makes for an entertaining show.

Q: Did it take time to develop your filter or do you have a natural sense of what will work and what won’t?

A: The reason it took five years of performing improv before I did my own show was that I was cautious about trying something new. I’d have ideas that I was pretty sure could work, but tradition would tell you that they wouldn’t. My filter is now more developed for having done this for a while. It’s also now easier for me to turn the filter off. Part of a filter is having a lack of a filter. Now I’m more confident about taking these ideas and doing something with them.

Q: What is the secret to thinking creatively? Is one born with it or can one learn to develop ideas?

A: It’s removing filters. “Creative” doesn’t mean being able to sit down and think about creative things. It’s an action word. Just by creating, you are creative; by not censoring yourself, by doing, doing, doing. The more you practice creating, the more creative you become.

What generally stops people from being creative is thinking of something and deciding, oh, that’s a dumb idea. But you know, what I think Blewt! [Gadlin’s production company] has done a lot of is to take the dumbest of our ideas and carry them out. We follow through on them and as a result, some really cool things have happened.

Q: What advice would you give someone who has ideas, but doesn’t know how to turn them into reality?

A: Look at the people around you, pool your skills together and see what is realistic. I’m a web developer by trade and I’ve used the web to drive a lot of my projects. That way, I’m not thinking of things that are impossible for me to execute. If you find like-minded people to work with, that always helps. And the biggest piece of advice is just do.

Q: What do you see yourself doing five years from now?

A: Hopefully, more of the same, but bigger and better. We have had several attempts at turning our stuff into TV projects. We haven’t hit it on any of those yet, but that’s something I’m going to keep on trying to do. That to me, is a natural extension of a lot of the stuff we do, especially since it’s so game-showy. And I like the idea of projects that use the web and TV in new ways.

Q: Any unexpected facts about you to share?

A: I’m very serious. All this comedy stuff, I take very seriously. I know a lot of the concepts behind what I do are very goofy and wacky, but I think the reason they succeed is I tackle them very methodically. I know a lot of the concepts seem kind of dumb, but I think I’m pretty smart. Maybe that’s the surprise.

“Don’t Spit the Water,” Chicago’s immensely popular crazy live comedy game show brought to you by the comedy geniuses of Blewt!, returns to the Wilmette Theatre on Saturday, January 8 at 9:30 p.m. for a special performance.

Best Variety Show: Impress These Apes

6/24/2010, The Chicago Reader, by Steve Heisler

Read this at ChicagoReader.com.

Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes

There’s a lot that can go wrong here. Impress These Apes is an eight-week talent competition, now in its fifth iteration, in which contestants prepare assigned acts—stand-up with a puppet, say, or anti-comedy—to be judged American Idol-style by “hyper-intelligent apes from the future” (three comedians in masks). The acts might easily flop—or, worse, they might not be bad enough to elicit sufficient zingers from the apes.

And yet there’s never a dull moment.

Blewt! Productions has engineered Apes with silly backstory and wacked- out characters enough to keep things lively. And the contestants—who’ve endured a rigorous audition process for the chance to win prizes, $500, and the title of Least Pitiful Human—are always up for the increasingly weird tasks at hand. The possibility that Apes could fall apart at any moment only means that when something special happens, like an underdog pulling out all the stops, it’s glorious. It runs through July 26, Mondays at 8 PM; tickets are $10.

Recommended – Impress These Apes!

6/14/2010, Chicago Reader, by Steve Heisler

Read this at ChicagoReader.com.

For its fifth edition, this eight-week talent contest has been streamlined. The backstory, explaining why three hyper-intelligent apes from the future are subjecting eight people to weekly challenges, is gone, and bits between the apes and other characters–a bronzed beauty pageant host; the sidekick, Future Human–are kept brief. The focus is on the contestants and the challenges, which are harder and weirder than ever. The first week’s task was to perform anti-comedy. Chloe Ditzel prepared a unicycle routine that was derailed when she couldn’t mount the thing; Otis Fine chugged two bottles of wine and sat quietly, awaiting the consequences. Few shows in Chicago are as consistently dangerous as Impress These Apes–anything can happen and usually does.

Top moments that cracked us up-and changed Chicago comedy

12/30/2009, Time Out Chicago, by Jason Heidemann

Read the whole list on TimeOutChicago.com.

2001 Second City’s Holy War, Batman! helps prove comedy still thrives in a post–September 11 world.
2001 Under threat by the International Olympics Committee, Improv Olympic shortens its name to iO.

2004 A group of Chicago writers and comics forms Blewt! Productions, which creates long-running comic faves Don’t Spit the Water and Impress These Apes.

2005 Chicago Underground Comedy debuts as a showcase for the city’s best alt comics.
2006 After roaming for the first half of the decade, the Annoyance Theatre finds a home in Uptown.
2006 After South Side staple All Jokes Aside closes in the late ’90s, Mary Lindsey opens Jokes and Notes in Bronzeville as a showcase for black comics.
2007 At the end of its first season, 30 Rock, written by and starring a number of iO and Second City alumni including Tina Fey, Jack McBrayer, Rachel Dratch, Kay Cannon, Tami Sagher and Scott Adsit, wins the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.
2007 The Lakeshore Theater reopens as the city’s best place to see touring and local comics.
2008 Hometown stand-up T.J. Miller breaks out with a role in Cloverfield.
2009 TOC’s 2007 “Funniest Person in Chicago,” Hannibal Buress, is hired to write for SNL.

Small and Intimate make Theatre Better

12/29/2009, PerformINK, by Nina Metz

Read this at PerformINK.com.

Theatre is meant to be an intimate experience, and 2009 offered some compelling evidence of how size and scale can affect a show.

Let’s say this up front: larger, plusher venues have their perks. But they also have a way of diluting immediacy. The Steppenwolf and Goodman may be downright cozy compared to the Oriental, and yet all but the most compact fringe venues are predicated on a physical distance between actors and audience: You’re over there, we’re over here.

The main casualty of this in 2009 was Charles Newell’s problematic staging of The Wild Duck for Court Theatre at the cavernous MCA—a nice space certainly, but one that feels like a parking garage all the same. Tina Landau’s fussy, throw-everything-at-the-wall interpretation of The Tempest for the Steppenwolf also suffered from a serious case of too-muchness.

The shows I responded to this year understood that they were small, and used this quality to their advantage, including Kimberly Senior’s out-of-the-ordinary staging of The Pillowman at Redtwist (extended through February.) Her methodology—keep things up-close and personal—is a bold choice that turns the theatre’s lack of space into its biggest asset. She didn’t need a lot of money to do it, either.

(2009 was the year of Kimberly Senior, by the way, with stellar productions of Cherry Orchard at Strawdog and All My Sons for Timeline, as well.)

Theater Oobleck took a similar tack with its revival of Mickle Maher’s wickedly smart and funny play, An Apology For the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening. Prowling a narrow path across the Chopin Theatre ’s basement—just a few feet away from his audience at any given moment—Colm O’Reilly’s portrayal was endlessly complex and watchable. The production used only a small portion of the Chopin’s square footage, creating the illusion of that all-important smallness. (The Steppenwolf would have been smart to offer its garage space for a transfer.)

These are the kinds of shows, I think, that can reprogram audience expectations about what small theatre can offer. Small is good, and while small doesn’t guarantee quality (small shows can suck, too) reducing things down in size tends to create a more potent experience.

I would argue that Craig Wright’s Mistakes Were Made would not have been half as interesting if it weren’t in the tight confines of A Red Orchid, all the better to see Michael Shannon’s sweaty meltdown in fine detail. In the same way, the shows produced by Theo Ubique stand out (especially last fall’s goofily punk-goth version of The Taming of the Shrew) precisely because of the No Exit Café setup, with everyone packed-in tight, dinner-theatre-style.

Small is what traps emotions in so that nothing gets lost or neutralized. Small is what makes these shows work. Small can be incredibly sophisticated, especially when compared to some of the bloated fare we saw this year. Small, incidentally, charges a helluva lot less for tickets.

Victory Gardens is anything but small, but I would argue that The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity—one of the most unexpected and entertaining productions all year—was staged with a small theatre ethos directly attributable to Teatro Vista ’s collaboration (Edward Torres directing and actor Desmin Borges in the lead).

Sean Graney was busier than ever this year (and working with substantial budgets, including his production of The Mystery of Irma Vep for Court) but I preferred his down-and-dirty environmental staging of Oedipus for the Hypocrites, which turned the Building Stage into a mini garbage dump, with the audience plopped down in the middle. Again, intimacy was the name of the game.

The company that really broke through this year was The New Colony , with three strong shows in a row: Frat, Tupperware and In the Blood. (It’s actually four, if you count A Domestic Disturbance at Little Fat Charlie’s Seventh Birthday Party, the company’s hilarious contribution to last year’s Sketchbook festival.) Frat was by far the winner—the production had a lot things going for it, including a terrific group of actors and a director (Andrew Hobgood) who welcomed close proximity between cast and audience.

Concerning Landau’s aforementioned Tempest at Steppenwolf, I’m aware that I’m in the minority. But for me, the real accomplishment was BoHo Theatre’s version of the same play (directed by Peter Robel, working with far less money and a much smaller cast), re-imagined as a Shakespearean fever dream set in a 1940s psyche ward, with an ingenious, perspective-challenging set by John Zuiker.

Strawdog, after a prolonged spate of mediocre shows, had fine year, as well, topping out with “Red Noses.” I thought Gift Theatre turned out some impressive work this season as well, with “Talk Radio” and “The Ruby Sunrise.”

Second City celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009, and you know the joint wasn’t going to let the milestone go by without a huge blowout. Brad Morris, who performs on the mainstage, recently told the New York Times he was drawn to Second City for its “renegade, anti-establishment attitude.”

I like and respect Morris quite a lot as a performer, but I have to disagree. Second City serves an important role in Chicago—probably more for the training and opportunities it offers its performers than anything else.

Second City is a safe bet when you have visitors in town, but the really intriguing comedy—comedy that hasn’t had its edges buffed down—tends to happen elsewhere, including i.O. (where those same Second City cast members frequently perform after hours).

And pound for pound, Impress These Apes is still the show the beat in terms of originality and offbeat humor.

And, a few extra thoughts on other shows, performances and moments from 2009 that still linger in the mind:

Griffin Theatre ’s production of The Robber Bridegroom (genuinely funny and twisted); the wistful cinematic prologue to Michael Menendian’s production of Death of a Salesman for Raven (summing up Willy Loman’s solitary life on the road in just a few short minutes); Brian Sidney Bembridge’s intricately detailed, blow-out-the-lobby set design for Timeline’s History Boys; playwright William Nedved’s Kid (staged as images glimpsed through an old view-master for Collaboraction ’s Sketchbook); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Marriot (I had forgotten how much fun this musical could be); actors Sadie Rogers and Kristina Johnson gabbing up a passive-aggressive storm in The Rocks at the Side Project (nicely directed by Anna C. Bahow); the surprisingly intense and entertaining noir that was Dead Wrong at Factory; Rollin’ Outta Here Naked: A Big Lebowski Burlesque (the title says it all); Lori McClain as a ball-busting Patti Blagojevich in Second City ’s Rod Blagojevich Superstar; Dan Granata’s extended opening monologue in Touch for New Leaf; Kirsten Fitzgerald blowing everyone out of the water in Pumpgirl at AROT; Molly Brennan’s golden retriever-like performance of Harpo in Animal Crackers at the Goodman; and Usman Ally jive-talking like nobody’s business in Chad Deity.

Nina Metz reviews theatre for the Chicago Tribune and Newcity.

Comedy show is more fun than a barrel of you-know-whats

9/23/2009, Chicago Tribune, by Nina Metz

Idiotic but enthralling, “Impress These Apes” might be the best comedy show on the calendar each year.

Though it still flies under the radar in certain quarters, this improv/talent show mash-up is poised to break citywide with its fourth season, which runs Wednesday nights at ComedySportz. A gutsy alternative to the polish of Second City, “Impress These Apes” (from Blewt! Productions) traffics in weird originality and risk-taking.

The rowdy beast has been tamed a smidge — the current offering doesn’t feel as though all hell could break loose at any moment. But it’s rare to stumble upon a show this audacious — this fun — that offers unpredictability and a swiftness to the proceedings. You will laugh, and you will laugh hard (even if the cruddy audio needs tweaking).

Over the course of two months, eight comics, actors and improvisers are tasked with concocting an offbeat “talent” each week, and the results can be elaborate, a twisted cousin to “American Idol” that is both wholesome and completely messed up. The assignment for opening night had the contestants arriving with new lyrics to a popular song, performed to a karaoke backing track.

The stakes are high — egos are on the line — and the creativity can be mind-blowing and strange. Michelle Renee Thompson is African-American, and she brought the house down with her version of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places”: “Well, I ain’t really what you’d call the whitest/But I just came down with country-itis.”

Kelly Beeman devised a very funny, prop-enhanced bit of self-humiliation about weight gain (No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” became “Don’t Eat”), and Chelsea Devantez was sublime doofiness belting out an ode to laser tag to the track of Patti LaBelle’s “New Attitude.”

As always, the judges panel is staffed by apes — looking to crown “the least pitiful human.” Their ad-libbed commentary is hilariously sharp. Sucking on his pipe, Captain Apehab (Paul Luikart) happily informed one contestant, “You finished with a surge of misplaced self-esteem.” A new addition this year is a redneck ape called Bushmeat (Bryan Bowden), and he got off some of the best one-liners of the night: “I liked it because it reminded me of prom,” he told a teary, makeup-smeared contestant.

The Onion AV Club reviews Impress These Apes

9/22/2009, The Onion AV Club, by Steve Heisler

For eight weeks, eight Chicago comedians are given a new task each week—ranging from puppet stand-up to duet choreography to short film making—and are awarded points by a trio of hyperintelligent apes from the future. This Blewt! Productions outfit (also responsible for the live game show Don’t Spit The Water) is really just a talent competition in primate disguise, but the show’s different elements work hilariously together: The apes each have personas, like the surly Captain Ape-hab (”scourge of the seven trees”), which delight audiences during the judgments; the hosts are local comics Ken Barnard and Jim Fath as Beauty Pageant Host (layers of fake tan) and Future Human, respectively; the contestants brazenly embrace their most bizarre comedic sides; and those who miss shows can watch live feeds or catch up on video after the fact. Not every week’s a winner, but few shows in town are as unexpectedly uproarious.

Impress These Apes Back for More Hilarity

9/16/2009, Chicagoist, by Marcus Gilmer

One of our favorite local comedy troupes – Impress These Apes – is back for another go-around of fun-filled shenanigans. Eight new contestants are back to compete for the prize – being declared “least pitiful human” – by making three apes laugh which is no easy feat. Each week brings a difficult challenge and this year is sure to be no different. Before tonight’s big debut, be sure to first catch up with this year’s contestants. You can do this by checking out their auditions and then their audition call-backs in which they had to tell their life story in two minutes. All of this has hopefully prepared them for tonight’s challenge: lyrical karaoke, in which each contestant has been given a song except they have to write and perform the song with new, original lyrics.

One bonus this year: if you can’t make it to the live show for whatever reason, each show will stream live on the Apes’ website so you can stay caught up on the fun and funny. But, if you can, be sure to make it because it’s a worthwhile trip.

Impress These Apes, Every Wednesday, Sept. 16 through Nov. 11, 8 p.m., ComedySportz, 929 W. Belmont, $10