Did you hear the one about the local comedy club manager who complained that there wasn`t enough media coverage devoted to local comics?
Well, Mr. Manager, this one`s for you.
On these pages we highlight 10 acts with strong Chicago roots. While they are not necessarily the funniest 10 acts in town, they are certainly among the best.
Each has his/her/their own style of humor, but they all have one thing in common: talent that rivals anything on the Coasts. And they`re all chasing that same brass ring: the chance for stardom as a national headliner, the chance to branch out into movies, TV and the growing cable scene. The chance, in brief, to join the ranks of the great comedians of all times, 18 of whom surround local talent Judy Tenuta on our cover. (For a guide to the 18, see Page 5.)
Whatever the validity of that manager`s complaint-and it`s hardly original-one thing is for sure: These comedians have picked a good town in which to make their move.
Between May, 1988, and January, 1989, four new comedy clubs opened in the Chicago area. Two of the top national names in comedy clubs, Catch a Rising Star and the Improv, each started laugh shops here last year, roughly a month apart. And Catch didn`t waste any time expanding, opening a second club five months later.
There now are at least 16 clubs that showcase national and local talent, not to mention the various music and alternative entertainment clubs that highlight comedy reviews.
According to those in the industry, the rest of 1989 will see the opening of even more clubs. For instance:
– Zanies, the granddaddy of Chicago comedy clubs at age 10 and parent of a branch in Mt. Prospect, is planning to open a second suburban location next month in the Pheasant Run Lodge in St. Charles. Club manager Bert Haas says the club chain wants to open yet another location by the end of the year.
– The Funny Firm, the Grand Avenue club that has emerged as one of the more successful ones to open in the last few years, may expand on its Chicago comedy base.
– Richard Fields, president of Catch a Rising Star Inc., is on record as saying his firm is planning to open another Chicago-area club. The chain already has two clubs here, one in the city and the other in Oak Brook.
– The Improv expects to open another local outlet. Though the chain`s first Chicago club, Chicago Improv, suffered a number of setbacks, including the closing of its dim sum restaurant, after bursting on the scene last June, co-owner Budd Friedman is optimistic about expansion. ”Hopefully, it`s just a question of dotting a few I`s and crossing a few T`s,” Friedman says.
All of this translates into more opportunities for comics to ply their trade.
”You can`t swing a dead cat without hitting a comedy club,” says Dea Staley, a nine-year comedy veteran who this month was named ”Chicago`s Funniest Lady” at a contest sponsored in part by Chicago Improv.
”I`m glad it has (become successful),” Staley says. ”I`m able to bank money for the first time since I`ve been in comedy. I actually have a nest egg, which I never thought I`d have.”
Comic Mike Toomey, who has been working for seven years, also is happy about the local scene. ”I just think it`s great for someone like me, who would like to spend a little more time in town, because there`s a lot more opportunities,” he says.
But all is not roses and sunshine in Comedyland. There are those who express concern as to how long the current level of popularity can last.
”I think that we`re at the top, and people are getting tired, really getting hammered away with standup comics,” says Ed Hellenbrand, owner of the Comedy Cottage in Rosemont.
Toomey agrees, at least in part. ”I think it`s at a peak right now,” he says. But when a dip will come, ”that`s anybody`s guess. It doesn`t give any indication of dying just yet.”
”It scares me,” says Staley. ”I`m afraid it`s like disco. I worry that some day, everybody in the audience is going to wake up and go, `Well this is fun, but waitaminute, there`s a reggae club down the street.` And they get up and all go down the street.”
But Chicago Improv`s Friedman is not among the doomsayers, nor even among those who think the trend has peaked. ”No, not yet. I still see it getting bigger and bigger. I think . . . if it happens naturally, it will be a couple of years before it starts to abate.”
Zanies` Haas is hedging his bets. ”If the economy stays strong,” he says, the interest in comedy ”will continue as it did in 1988. If the economy weakens, as we anticipate, you`re going to start to see some clubs close.”
Comic Ian Williams agrees that economics would put a damper on what`s happening in the comedy world. He cites ”economic factors, with President Bush`s administration, with the debt, and the implications of leisure-time and money.”
Hellenbrand, who opened ”the first comedy club between the two coasts”
in 1975 with the Comedy Cottage, agrees. ”While the audience did grow, the pie is bigger,” he says. ”But you`ve still got too many slices. And I think that will level off. And some of us will survive.”
Haas adds: ”It`s inevitable that if the pie gets sliced thinner and thinner, there`s not going to be as many people to go to every club. At some point, somebody`s slice is gonna get so thin that they`re not going to be able to stay open.”
So what`s the final verdict on where the local comedy scene is headed?
”Right into the toilet,” says Williams.
But seriously.
”I hope that it gets a little more refined, that it weeds itself out,”
says Williams, an Ontario native who relocated in Illinois in 1984 when he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana. ”I think that it`s become so saturated that I think that it`s naturally gonna decline.”
The clubs aren`t going to take any of this lying down, however.
Denise McGowan, regional creative director of Catch a Rising Star, expects they`ll come up with ways to keep audiences interested. ”I think basically what`s going to happen now is the clubs are gonna get more competitive. . . . You`re gonna see clubs focusing on and competing with each other, trying to make their club the most known.” And clubs are going to try to carve out their own niche.
Catch a Rising Star is getting a head start on this trend, by adding a house band, cutting down on its regional talent showcase to one Monday night a month and using the remaining Mondays for special events. For instance, national headliner Richard Belzer opened a stint on a Monday, instead of the traditional Tuesday. And Catch is bringing in a musical group to play on a Monday next month.
As for the comedians themselves, the trend may be away from offbeat humor, according to those in the know. More intelligent humor will be the coming thing.
”The comedy audience is now an older market, they`re well read, they`re well moneyed,” says McGowan. ”And comics are going to have to stop using shock humor. They`re really going to have to develop and tone material as well as stage presence.”
Hellenbrand says the old standbys, likes jokes on the president and sex, will prevail. But he reveals a secret to success:
”The guys that stay away from those (topics) will be the unique guys who`ll make it,” Hellenbrand says. ”The mass of comics will be talking about those subjects, which have always been popular and always will be. It`s the fella who can depart from that who will stand out in the crowd.”
