Atypical Commute

On my walk to work today, a bird hit me in the head.

Fabio and I need to start a support group.

Snubfest 2011 Performance

Click here to enjoy our Snubfest 2011 performance, we had fun!

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FBI’s Most Wanted

First they found bin Laden.

Now they found Whitey Bulger.

Waldo, you’re f-ed.

Thanks, Biggie.

“Hypnotize” by Notorious B.I.G., though a groundbreaking hip-hop song, will forever be burned into my brain as the song that made a 12-year-old me ask my mother what a ménage à trois was.

Big ups to Biggie for that special family moment.

Extra thanks to my middle school’s sex ed program for ill-preparing me for rap lyrics.

Picture Perfect? Performance

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported us over the course of our run at Second Stage!  Here’s one of the performances from that run.

Enjoy!

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Picture Perfect? at the Second Stage, Fridays February 18 – March 25

Chicago improv group Hugs and Pullups is announcing their latest production, Picture Perfect. Known for their fast pace, relationship driven style of improv, they plan to explore the true meaning behind relationships through seemingly flawless pictures. They will be performing Fridays at 11:00pm from February 18th to March 25th at The Second Stage Theater located at 3408 N. Sheffield. Admission is $5.00. The theater is located near the Addison stop on the El Train Red Line, and can also be reached by the #22 Clark bus, at the Sheffield stop.

Sure, sounds great. Wait, seemingly flawless pictures? What are you talking about?

Awkward family courtesy awkwardfamilyphotos.com

Well, it’s part family psychology and part Awkward Family Photos. It’s every picture you’ve seen from a vacation, or at a family reunion, or just randomly looked at, where you know there’s more happening behind the scenes then this single photo can say. It’s taking a look at the forced smiles, the stiff stances, and the random people running around in the background, and saying to yourself, “I’m glad I’m not there, certainly. I’m sure it’s bad. But…. how bad?”

 

We’re going to answer that for you with a combination of our distinctive style of improv and a brand new improvisational form, created over the course of several months of practice, and designed to dig deeper and deeper into our photographic relics of bizarre memories.

Sounds daunting, but if you’ve seen us perform before (and if not, you can get a taste or two of our style in our list of previous shows) you know we’re always pushing ourselves further and further. This is a pretty big challenge though, so to help us, we have TWO separate teams opening up for us each and every night. These are all home brewed Chicago improv teams, who are ready to make your Friday night a very funny one.

The show is BYOB, because after all, it’s Friday night, and we’re all shaking off the work week. But as an added bonus, if you go across the street afterwords to Nisei Lounge, you’ll get 10% off all your drinks! Now you have no excuse whatsoever to stay serious and sober.

Come see why Hugs and Pullups is one of the best known independent improv teams in Chicago. Join us any Friday in March at 11pm at Second Stage, 3408 N Sheffield, and you’ll walk out with a newfound respect for everybody you’ve ever laughed at in a bad picture.

For questions or inquiries, email handpcomedy@gmail.com. We’re looking forward to seeing you!

Why We Love Improv Comedy

We here at Hugs and Pullups all share a common trait – an absolute adoration for improv comedy. I’ve done straight acting thanks to a theater degree, and I’ve done stand-up comedy, but neither of them come anywhere near the fun of getting onstage with all my friends and goofing off for 20-30 minutes in front of a live audience. It sends chills down my spine just thinking about it – or maybe that’s just the chilly Chicago winter.

That’s pretty much the only downfall of Chicago improv comedy though – the cold weather. Other than that, everything is unbeatable. Chicago is home to the finest improv comedy schools in the country – iO theater, the Annoyance theater, and the most famous of them all, Second City. Those are the big three, but there are many others too. Comedysportz is here too, which has a more national presence than the other theaters but still has one of its most powerful ensembles here. We all met at iO, where the teachers teach long-form improv, where instead of just playing improv games (fun as they are) we are acting out full scenes, where we develop characters and locations, see what kinds of situations we end up in as those characters, and by reacting to each other line-by-line, we figure out where they are going to go. It’s completely unpredictable, and it’s more fun than anything else I can think of.

If you had to see just one improv comedy show here in Chicago, it would be a hard choice. Second City and their famous mainstage show is guaranteed to be great, though by the time it makes the mainstage it’s mostly written out sketches you’re watching. IO has some excellent shows – the Improvised Shakespeare company is well known for bringing a very strong understand of Shakespearean plays into the improv world. They’re so popular they have two shows every Friday night, and they usually sell out too. Very highly recommended.

Of course, we have some upcoming performances that you may be interested in. We love the process of inventing characters on the spot and finding out where we’re going to take them as an ensemble. If you want to see what we mean, either give us a comment here or show up for a show!

If you want to try it yourself, then you’re a very brave soul. Not a whole lot of people have the guts to stand up in front of an audience with nothing planned ahead of time. It took me about nine months to do it without freaking out a little bit! But of all the improv comedy tips I was given, the best one was to focus all your attention on your scene partner. You must keep in tune with your partner, and with some practice you’ll find yourself forgetting about the crowd and just reacting to your partner instead. This is called being in the zone, and it is incredible.

If you’re a fan of improv comedy, and you’re in Chicago, I really hope to see you at one of our shows, or in one of the classes we’re taking at any given time. If you haven’t seen it before, I think you should come to one of our shows and see what it’s all about. We look forward to seeing you there!