A group of seven young comedians from the Southland got their first taste of success this month at the “Laugh Battle” at Stage 773 in Chicago’s Lake View community, which they entered on a whim and won.
Samantha Hilger, Kenny Garner, Matt Gainer, Joey Molloy, Donovan Singer, Michael Cronin and Mike Pastore met in high school as members of the Shepard High School speech team and started performing together as recruits of the school’s student improv group, the Improv Army.
“We as a group were incredibly blessed to have attended the same high school and meet each other,” Hilger said. “We were lucky enough to find people with the same passions and just connect intimately with one another.”
After graduating in 2012 and 2013, the friends reunited under the name Discount Lunch Line as a way to stay together and keep performing. Since July 2013, they have performed several shows at Ashbary Coffee House in Willow Springs and at comedy nights at Shepard alongside their successors in the Improv Army.
Molloy started looking around for new performance venues.
“I wanted to do more shows so I was checking out ChicagoImprov.org for opportunities,” Molloy said. “I saw an ad for the Laugh Battle at Stage 773, which was being shown as a kind of comedy March Madness tournament. I called over to check if there was an age limit for performers (all the group members are between 19 and 20). There wasn’t, so I sent an email to the group to see if they were interested in doing it, then I signed us up before anybody actually got back to me.”
The Laugh Battle tournament bracket consisted of five Wednesday night competitions and two divisions: an improv division and a sketch division. Eight improv teams performed for eight minutes each the first two nights and audience members were asked to vote for their favorite act. The two teams with the most votes advanced to the next round.
On the third and fourth nights, it was time for the sketch comedy teams. On night five, the top four improv teams and the top four sketch teams each performed for 10 minutes. The top two vote-getters in each division were awarded performance time in the Laugh Battle Winner’s showcase the following two weeks, and the No. 1 team in each division was given a pizza gift card.
On its first night of competition, Discount Lunch Line took second place behind the troupe DC2.
“We never really had the intention of doing this much with Discount,” Garner said. “We were all originally doing it for the fun, the laughs and simply for the opportunity to perform outside of high school. When we entered the laugh battle, we didn’t expect much, only to be a part of this big event downtown. When we passed on to the next round, we started thinking that we can actually make something of our group.”
Tickets for the final night were so high in demand that Stage 773 had to move the event to one of its bigger performance spaces.
“The cool thing about that performance was the stage jutted into the audience so when the lights went down, we were just enveloped by the audience’s laughter and applause,” Molloy said. “Walking off that stage was definitely one of the high points of our comedy experiences so far.”
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The overwhelming reaction to Lunch Line’s set was demonstrated again in votes. The group was crowned champions, besting the group which had beaten them in the preliminary round.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Cronin said. “I still can’t believe we won sometimes and how far we’ve come in such little time. I believe in each and every person in our group wholeheartedly, as individuals and performers. They’re all so talented and I’m honored to work with each and every one of them and call them my friends.”
Hilger said, “Performing with my crew of six boys gives me unparalleled joy. We’re like siblings, sometimes we bicker, but I love them and I couldn’t imagine striving for this dream with anyone else.”
The teammates were quick to mention another friend who was an important inspiration — Zaid Shareef — the eighth founding member. He died of lung cancer at age 20 in August.
Although they do not mention him on stage, the team still sees Shareef as a part of the group.
“He was part of the foundation that grew into Discount Lunch Line and he will always be our brother,” Hilger said. “Without him, we wouldn’t be what we are today.”
“Our good friend Zaid is no longer here to perform with us,” Cronin said, “but he is always in our memories and we try to honor him with every performance.”
Discount Lunch Line had a performance last week and has another at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago.
Group members plan to continue their performances at Ashbary Coffee House and are exploring other options.
“To perform in Chicago proper feels like a culmination of all the work we’ve done and the start of a new chapter for our group,” Singer said. “I’m looking forward to the future of our group.”
Jessie Molloy is a freelance reporter. Joey Molloy is her brother.