Laughing My A*@ Off at the iO Theater in Chicago

Michael Balzer kicked off this fine night of outstanding comedy with his set of silent monlogues, Loudmouth. Quite appropriately, he first presented his entertaining version of, El Popol Vuh (in my head that's what it translated to) and then delved into other subject matters like skiing, photography, space odysseys, surgery, dancing and sword fighting in a most delightful way. The show reminded me of silent films and Mr. Bean - if he were American and not so silly. Not that there's anything wrong with silly, it's just not exactly what the talented Mr. Balzer is up to... Becky Poole then took the stage in a very dramatic way as a saw weilding monster who then played it beautifully with a bow like a cello to open her arresting and smart, Sit on My Lapse. She nimbly moved from scene to scene portraying a wide array of hilarious characters including: Kitty Poole, a 6 year-old performance artist; Valerie Solanas, best known for attempting to kill Andy Warhol; politician, Dennis Kucinich; an autistic TED lecturer named, "Temple Temple"; and a hearing impaired doctor. (I would have had a few more pictures of Becky Poole, but I was laughing so hard, I messed up the shots. Mea culpa!) Black Ted Williams turned out to be two very funny white guys, Barry Hite and Kevin Sciretta and what seemed to be a special guest (also funny) red headed guy. (I think I overheard his name was, Joey.) Highlights for me were their low tech time travel sketch, pondering why a family through the generations has been so dysfunctional; a boy and his soon-to-be stepfather at Comic-Con (spot on); the pompous rockstar and the teenager; Italian working class guys pitching pet grooming; and sexually ambiguous karaoke... No wonder this iO Theater place is so legendary...

http://chicago.ioimprov.com/io/shows/202