the day laughter died...

this past weekend, i was really looking forward to watching the improv olympic 25th reunion show here in chicago. the show was sold out and the featured performers included mike myers, tim meadows, amy poehler, rachel dratch, horatio sanz, andy richter, and andy dick. i was able to get tickets for face value on friday, the day before the show and when i got there, i realized that i got 5th row seats! so the stars seemed aligned, right? got tickets for face value to a star-studded show during my last weekend here in chicago--what could be better?

OH MY GOSH! what a horrible, horrible show! first, the wireless mics were jacked - no one could not really hear what the performers were saying. so to solve this problem, they had the performers hold mics or talk into mics set up on stands, which didn't really solve the problem because the people in the balcony still could not hear. because they were filming the show for HBO, when they realized that there were problems with the audio, they would have to repeat a performance or repeat an introduction so that it would get recorded properly. i guess this would be acceptable if the show and the performances made up for the technical difficulties. but NOOO, the performers weren't funny either. by intermission, it seemed like almost half the audience had left. i found out later, a lot of people were asking for refunds. i decided to stick it out to the end because i hoped it would get better, but overall, there was not much improvement in the second half. i felt really bad for some people because i know they paid way more than face to see such a bad show.

after seeing a regular improv olympic show with gary when he was here a last week and seeing this show, i WOULD NOT recommend watching an improv show here in chicago. i've seen second city shows (which includes some improv but mostly skits) and their shows are significantly better than improv olympic.