You pregame with friends. You go to a bar. You order a drink. You dance. You drink more. You stumble. You drink even more. You text your ex. You go to a 4 a.m. diner for greasy food. You throw up. You get home. You black out.
That was a fun night, huh? Sure. A little destructive, but fun nonetheless. Well, from what you can remember of it, at least.
But what was really going on inside your brain last night? Oh, stop it. I’m not trying to lecture you like your mother would. I’m asking for real. Scientifically, what the hell is happening while you’re throwing all that booze down your throat?
Allow longtime Chicago comedian Sean Flannery to explain, as part of his newest show “Drunk Science” at 8 p.m. every Wednesday at The Comedy Bar (500 N. LaSalle St.).
“It’s a show that explains why your brain does the things it does when drunk,” said Flannery, who also hosts “The Blackout Diaries”—all about specific drinking stories—at The High-Hat Club (1920 W. Irving Park Road). “Why do you crave greasy foods? Why do you suddenly want to talk to your ex? Where do hangovers come from? A lot of the habits and choices we make when drunk can be explained via science, by what’s going on in the brain.”
Aside from performing stand-up comedy throughout Chicago for a decade, Flannery helped create the online Web series “Blerds” in 2009 with comics T.J. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Kyle Kinane, C.J. Sullivan and Mike Burns. Flannery also has appeared on Comedy Central, SiriusXM radio and National Public Radio.
Each “Drunk Science” show profiles personal stories from audience members to create a hilarious depiction of just how alcohol actually takes over your brain and entire body.
Flannery started doing “random science segments,” as he calls them, within “The Blackout Diaries” show, explaining what studies have shown about beer goggles, for example. The additions were so well-received that The Comedy Bar contacted him about doing another show.
And since July 15, Flannery has been going strong with “Drunk Science.”
The show dives deep into audience members’ real-life stories and analyzes them.
That time you had a six-pack and then thought it was the perfect time to tell your boss that nobody likes his or her jokes? Allow Flannery to explain why you would ever do that in any state of mind.
The host explains that alcohol affects the body in a particular order every time, which is “why your nights out usually all progress the same way.”
The show explains that after your first drink on any given night, you’re excited to see friends because dopamine, a reward stimulant, is immediately released. After a couple more? You say things out of character because your frontal lobes, which are in charge of judgment, are being directly affected.
“For example, alcohol slows down the prefrontal cortex before other parts of the brain, and that part of the brain is mostly responsible for judgment and risk assessment, which is why a lot of people say things they wouldn’t normally say [as opposed to if they were sober],” Flannery said. “Their brain can’t figure out that it’s going to get them in trouble because that part of the brain is running at half speed.
More Top Picks Bose Quietcomfort Earbuds
“If you keep drinking? You pass out because the alcohol eventually reaches the medulla and starts shutting down basic motor functions. When you black out, the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus, creates what are essentially roadblocks that prevent new memories from being formed … like the brain has decided to quit recording after it saw you order a pizza from a closed post office. Like it [actually] knows it won’t ever want or need [to remember] those experiences [the next day].”