Posts Tagged “Chicago City Limits”

Great Night At Broadway Comedy

On almost any night of the week you can find a great show at Broadway Comedy Club. Sometimes I just drop by unexpectedly and have yet to be disappointed! The last night I went Monroe Martin was MC’ing the show.

Monroe Martin MC’ing at Broadway Comedy Club!

He said he should never be working with kids because he looks like a huge child! And he does. He said if you detach his head from the rest of his body, he’s actually adorable! (I’m sure he didn’t mean to decapitate himself, cause that couldn’t be cute no matter who you are! LOL)

I had never seen Rich Aronowich before since he’s from Cali, but he’s really funny and the audience thought so too! He does a lot of physical humor, like his impression of a muppet running, plus sound effects, and crazy voices and faces, and it all works.

Rich Aronovich, Screech, or Horshack onstage at Broadway Comedy Club! All three of them did well!

Talking about internet dating he mentioned his favorite site, www.yourgonnadiealone.com. I liked his take on why he hates musicals! ” I don’t wanna pay $85. to hear every thought I ever had in song!” Exactly the reason why I hate musicals too!

He said he looked like either Screech or Arnold Horshack and again the audience likes when comics make fun of their own appearance!

Bryan Scott McFadden is so used to getting thunderous applause I don’t even think it phases him anymore. His character work is superb, like when he imitates the old fighters at the gym. Fantastic.

Bryan Scott McFadden making a point onstage at Broadway Comedy Club!

I liked his new bit about every job should have an MC to announce you when you get to work. And he told one couple they were sitting there staring like an Amish Village at Radio Shack!

Laurie Parmenteri was also very funny. I had also never seen her before. Her writing is very sharp and her jokes are succinct. She said she started birth control. Once a month she throws herself down a flight of stairs.

Laurie Parmenteri making people laugh at Broadway Comedy Club!

She said she was against abortion except in a case of emergency, like if SHE got pregnant! She also said she never got an abortion, but asked the audience not to tell her boyfriend because she already spent the money!

Kyle Grooms is another killer act. He said in Detroit you can buy a house for five dollars. Detroit is doing so bad, Haiti is throwing a benefit for them! I love when he talks about growing up in the hood with a name like Kyle. No one would ever be scared if they heard that Kyle was looking for them! “Kyle? That ni***r with the glasses??? Hysterical.

And his Barack Obama impression is so right on, I think Kyle should run for President!

The dangerous looking Kyle Grooms killing it onstage at Broadway Comedy Club!

And who better to end a killer show than Mike Vecchione? (That’s a redundant question, meaning it needs no answer! It answers itself!) Mike says that women love doctors so he wears a stethoscope on the subway.

He also has sex like he performs CPR, 15 thrusts, two breaths and then he checks for a pulse.

Mike Vecchione doing what he does best, onstage at Broadway Comedy Club!

Mike is a smoker, and when people tell him that smoking is bad and that every cigarette takes 7 minutes off your life he tells them that if their conversation goes on another 30 seconds he’s gonna kill himself anyway, so it won’t matter!

And before I knew it I laughed so much that the show was over! It’s that way every time!

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Todd Barry, Kurt Braunholer at Broadway Comedy

On any night at Broadway Comedy you’re liable to be surprised as to who drops in to perform. Recently both David Spade and Steven Wright stopped by and thrilled the audience with a surprise performance.

Dan Soder hosting the show at Broadway Comedy!

On the recent night I stopped by, the very funny Dan Soder was hosting, and had a line-up of funny local comics like Orlando Baxter who I had never seen before but offered his opinion on fire drills in schools. How often does it happen that there’s a fire in a school. He thinks it would be better to have “Hey, that M-F’er’s got a dun drill.” That would probably be more effective!

Orlando Baxter telling the audience about fire drills and what other things strike him funny!

Or Jeff Wesselschmidt, who once he got over his obsession with what I refer to as bathroom type material, had this comment on girls with big butts: “If a girl has a big butt, ,she has to know it cause guys who like big butts are generally not stingy with compliments!”

Jeff Wesselschmidt onstage at Broadway Comedy!

The always popular Jon Fisch came out and killed it for the crowd, but it felt like he was doing a longer set than usual, and it turned out that he was. Whoever was supposed to light him seems to have gone on vacation in the middle of Jon’s set, so being the pro that he is, he just kept coming up with more material, until finally someone noticed, and brought up the next comic! The audience had no idea, but Jon and I had a good laugh about it!

Jon Fisch killing it onstage at Broadway Comedy in a “hyper-extended” set! (LOL)

What Jon didn’t realize was that I caught him standing in what I can only describe as some sort of “ballet position”, which is something I have to ask him about! He seemed very comfortable in that position, so maybe he studied ballet at some point in his past!

Jon Fisch in “resting position”, or some sort of ballet stance onstage at Broadway Comedy! Nice going Jon! (LOL)

Kurt Braunholer, who teaches improv at The Pit, which is also where he co-hosted Hot Tub Variety Show, is another crowd pleaser who still performs with Kristen Schaal, a talented comic and Daily Show correspondent! They host a show together out in Brooklyn, and also do a show together on Sirus Radio called “High Five With Kurt and Kristen.”

Kurt Braunholer performing directly into the mic at Broadway Comedy Club!

The highlight for me was seeing Todd Barry who I don’t get to see perform all that often, but who I always enjoy. His laid-back understated delivery just makes me laugh out loud, which I don’t often do. If most comics had to face an audience filled with people like me, they’d be very unhappy.

I do a lot of smiling, but it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. Not because I don’t want to, but I like to let it just happen because I can’t help it!

Todd Barry in a surprise guest spot at Broadway Comedy Club!

Todd makes me laugh out loud! His combination of sarcasm, and clever punchlines do it for me.

You’ve seen Todd in Louie, on Sarah Silverman, (not exactly on HER, but on her show!), in the 2nd season of Adult Swim’s “Delocated”, and in films like “The Wrestler.” I try and see him whenever I can. I think he tours a lot and appears in festivals occasionally!

But it was a great night at Broadway Comedy, and it just shows that you never know who’s liable to pop in!

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Broadway Business

Not all comedy clubs do business on a Sunday night but when I stopped by Broadway Comedy Club the place was busy on a Sunday night and had shows in three different rooms. Unable to spread myself that thin, I chose the main room where I got to see Backstage competition winner Giulio Gallarotti, (who despite his name insists he’s Italian!), host the show.

Backstage comedy competition winner Giulio Gallarotti hosting the show at Broadway Comedy Club!

Giulio won the “Young Guns of Comedy” competition during the Stand-Up 360 Comedy Festival that is held at Broadway Comedy annually, usually in June, which means there’s another one coming up soon! I performed in a show on the last one that was produced by John Femia, and it was a great show.

Brian Scott McFadden is a guy I could listen to all night. He’s such a wordsmith, and as a writer I really admire that. And his character work is superb. He should really be a regular on TV.

Brian Scott McFadden onstage at Broadway Comedy doing one of his many great characters!

Out of the many characters he does, one of the stand-outs is an old guy who works in a boxing gym, who repeats what he says over and over again, but it’s so well planned out that he claims to stay in the character too long, due to the the audience’s supposed “lack of response”. Its hard to even explain what he does with the bit, but it’s genius, as is his ” What Women Want” which I believe is the name of his new DVD.

He also wonders about things like why there’s no mouse-flavored cat food, and why there are no “B” batteries which is one of the greatest questions I ever heard. There are A, double A, even Triple A, and then it goes right to C. What happened to “B” batteries?

That’s what good comedians do. They take something you’ve been seeing and taking for granted all your life, and they show you how obvious, and yet how ridiculous it is, and YOU respond with laughter!

Joe DeVito is always funny and one of my favorites, and I’m not just mentioning this to mention it, I’m mentioning it because he was on next! (LOL) Well, that and the fact that mentioning things is a hobby of mine!

A newly thin Joe Devito onstage at Broadway Comedy. I would have said “svelte” but I once swore to myself I would never use that word!(LOL)

Joe claims that a medical condition kept him out of the service. He was diagnosed as a pussy! And the doctor wrote it into the chart, which was so embarrassing for Joe.

Joe lost 30 pounds and looks really great. He claims he was bullied as a kid cause he was fat, and he wonders if that kind of stuff still happens these days cause now ALL kids are fat! (LOL) He says that kids are so fat, abductions are down. They can’t get the kids in the van!

I was glad to see Harris Stanton on the show. Harris was close to my good friend Patrice Oneal who we lost so prematurely this past year. Harris is a real crowd-pleaser and talked about how technology has made some people into assholes. They demand to know where you are at all times. And they expect you to get right back to them, and if you don’t they complain, ” Hey, I sent you three text messages, an e-mail and a photo! Where are you?”

Harris Stanton, Jeffrey Gurian, and the late, great Patrice Oneal bacjstage at the Comedy Central taping of “Elephant In The Room”, Patrice’s last special!

He also doesn’t feel sorry for people who get hurt mountain climbing, cause people don’t belong way up in the mountains. That’s where G-d lives! And he also doesn’t feel bad for people who get bit by sharks. Where did it happen? In the ocean! That’s where sharks live. If you got bit by a shark in the supermarket, like in aisle 8, he’d feel bad for you, cause sharks don’t belong in the supermarket, but if you’re stupid enough to go where they live, you have to expect to get bit!

Harris Stanton “doing it” onstage at Broadway Comedy Club!

On my way out, I ran into Martin O’Keefe. Martin runs the New Faces stand-up show called “Poster Dog Comedy Show” which he does every Sunday, in the upstairs Chicago City Limits room. At certain times during the week you can go to that room and see a great improv show. Check the schedule at www.broadwaycomedyclub.com for details!

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