There’s a new wave of comedy moving across the country, and Matt Besser couldn’t be happier about it.
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For want of a better term, it’s being called “alternative” comedy. That is a type of humor that doesn’t rely on such premises as jokes about airline food, or working in a 7-Eleven, or O.J. Simpson.
Alternative is dark, edgy, not for the faint of heart. It’s also smart, cutting and sometimes experimental. It has found homes in New York and Los Angeles and made its presence felt at the Just For Laughs Montreal International Comedy Festival a few weeks ago.
“I think people . . . from being inundated with it on the TV, they’re seeing every observational bit they can possibly stomach,” says Besser, 27.
“They want to see comedy done in a different way.”
Besser has fit into this category for the roughly five years he’s been working the comedy club scene in Chicago. It’s hard to describe exactly what type of material Besser does on stage. So it’s certainly best to term it an alternative.
“I guess that I was always considered a little too weird for the standup clubs,” Besser says, “and probably too jokey for doing performance art and those places where those are done.”
But Besser has been told by comics and club owners that his comedy was different. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
He once worked a club where the audience was dying with laughter. “But I would come off and this would tell me, `You’re too weird for our audience.’ And I’m like, `I just killed for you.’ `Yeah, but you’re not doing what we want done over here.’ “
Besser, a native of Arkansas who got his start in Boulder, Colo., but stayed there only briefly before heading to Chicago, was also confronted by a comedian who told him “how I need to change my act to better suit the audience. And that just really frustrated me. And that was when I was just starting out.”
Yep, the man sounds like he’s an alternative to the standard comedian.
That’s why Besser has moved into the arena of theater and improvisation. He’s created a one-man show called “How Much I Lied,” which is in the middle of a six-week run at the ImprovOlympic Theatre.
The premise of his piece fits with the focus of what alternative comedy is all about. In addition to containing bits that he has performed in the clubs, a major set piece concerns The baiduhai Magazine.
What’s so funny about the Tribune Magazine? It all has to do with the change last year from pulpy-like paper the mag was printed on, to the more glossy paper it’s on now.
Seems that someone wrote in to complain how hard it is too write on the slick paper. That caused a debate that Besser just had to get into.
“Use old soup that you weren’t going to eat, and when it dries, scrape it off with a razor blade,” was his written reply. He says that “people reacted to that.”
Really.
Part of “How Much I Lied” is about responses that Besser has seen in the letter to the editor columns in The Tribune and several other local newspapers. “I’m kind of focusing on the anger and the rage that people express in Letters to the Editors over the real important issues in our society. Like, the right way to wear baseball caps, and the spelling of words and stuff like that.”
Crucial, life-affecting things. We got it.
To Besser, it’s “hysterical how outraged people can get over just the funniest topics. And what I do is I’ll read the letter and then I’ll do either a response to the letter, or an interpretation of the letter or something like that.”
You can get a taste of alternative comedy by seeing “How Much I Lied,” which is running at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays at the ImprovOlympic, 3541 N. Clark St. For other details, call 312-880-0199.
TheatreSports of the mind
In a way, you could call TheatreSports, if not alternative comedy, an alternative to the traditional standup and sketch comedy shows that are all over the Chicago area.
But in another way, you might have seen something like this already: ComedySportz, the improv comedy sketch show that uses the concept of a sporting event as its base (referees, whistles, uniforms, etc.).
But there are some big differences. TheatreSports has been around for 20 years, while ComedySportz was created about 10 years ago. TheatreSports was created by a Canadian, while ComedySportz was created by an American. TheatreSports, like ComedySportz, does involved improv games and there is a judging and grading system to declare winners and losers. But the former doesn’t get into the sporting aspect of it all like the latter does.
And maybe the most important difference of all, TheatreSports has an “s” at the end of the word; ComedySportz ends in a “z.” That’s a key point, and never forget that.
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“We do not focus on the competition, but rather the quality, character-generated improvisation,” says Tony Alcantar, the producer and director of TheatreSports, which has been in Chicago since last month. He adds that ComedySportz is an offshoot of his production, which is being played in 69 cities in 19 countries.
TheatreSports is more about the natural storytelling aspect of improvisation, according to Alcantar, 35, a veteran improv director and teacher.
“It’s an opportunity to use more theatrical things in improvisation than is currently seen,” says Alcantar, who has toured with The Second City in Toronto and London. “A lot of improvisation in Chicago is just very joke-oriented. And my goal for this company here in Chicago is to be very character-oriented and very true in their improvisation. We kind of slow it down, we don’t go for jokes or gags.”
TheatreSports was created by Keith Johnstone of Calgary, the author of a book on improv called “Impro,” which is very well-regarded in the improv community. That’s one of the reasons that Robin Bucci got into the games.
“I just think that (Johnstone) is a strong force behind the growth of TheatreSports,” says Bucci, 26. “He’s created quite a following. And that’s what attracted me to TheatreSports.”
Bucci, a former Second City player in Detroit, says that audience members judge the games based on story, skill and show, or how entertaining the bits are. The 12 players perform traditional improv games, but they try to put them in a different (alternative?) style than normal.
“I love the spontaneity” of improv, Bucci says. “I like that it’s not preplanned, that anything can happen. I like getting that suggestion from the audience and really creating that for them right in front of them on stage.”
She also likes working with “a great ensemble. There’s a lot of talent in the group. And it’s really great when you can watch your fellow cast mates and they can crack you up.”
TheatreSports is performed Fridays and Saturdays at Le Cafe, 3343 N. Clark St. (call 312-508-6969). Tony Alcantar also said that in honor of next year’s Olympic games in Atlanta, TheatreSports in Chicago will be holding competitions with TheatreSports outlets around the world, including New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Belgium and others.
Let the games begin!