Dan Telfer's dinosaurs and the rewards of a stand-up road warrior

My Chicago Underground Comedy co-producer Dan Telfer has made a lot of headway in stand-up lately. Dan and I started out doing open mics together with our little posse of supportive pals a few short years ago, then we started producing ChUC together, and he's made incredible progress creatively and professionally since then.

Dan was recently featured in this cool feature story in The Onion, which explains how he's struggling with the "the eternal dilemma of Chicago comedians," which is "how far can I go in my comedy career before actually having to leave Chicago?" He's spent a lot of time on the road lately, doing stand-up gigs at clubs in Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, and elsewhere, as well as doing stuff like making appearances on the Bob and Tom Show.



(Even more impressively, he does all of this while being responsible for serious grownup things like a mortgage, a lovely wife, and a painfully cute kid - seriously, I've babysat for the kid. She'll crush you with her cuteness.)

Conventional wisdom - and road warrior comics like our castmember Mike Stanley - says that road work teaches you to adapt to audiences that may or may not be terribly familiar with you, and who likely have very different tastes and cultural leanings than hometown crowds. It's where you learn to play to different kinds of audiences, really sweat it out, and earn your chops.

Dan came back to ChUC from the road a few weeks ago, and he and I and our awesome sound engineer Evan Hydzik (from Big Audio, hire them!) sat on the side steps of the Beat Kitchen enjoying a nice cool breeze before we opened the house and the madness began.

Evan and I were reading The Onion article on Dan and embarrassing him with praise.

"I'm trying to decide what to do with my set tonight," he said, "either a straight set or more crowd work."

"I like it when you go bananas," I said, and Evan agreed. "Cut loose. What do we always tell our castmembers? 'This is your home base, the supportive place where you can try new stuff and experiment a little.' This is the payoff for all those road gigs where the audience wasn't giving it up and you had to work like hell."

So here's the clip. You can hear me and Evan laughing in anticipation, before the audience (and sometimes before the joke) because we know what's coming, and we know what an unusually electrified mood Dan is in. (I still need to find out a way to dampen my laugh behind the mic. I try to lean back but I'm in constant motion and I have to keep the camera pretty close - but then again, come on, when stuff's funny, I'm gonna laugh.)

We've watched Dan polish and refine the awesomely dense and nerdtastic joke "The Best Dinosaur" for quite awhile and I honestly think with this iteration he reached mastery. I couldn't help but think back to some of those early lonely open-mics where Dan banged out early versions of this joke. As you can hear, our audience was wild with appreciation. It was kind of amazing.

Cameron Esposito 4-27-10 at Chicago Underground Comedy

Cameron Esposito 4-27-10 at Chicago Underground Comedy!



This was two weeks ago, when Cameron hosted a show that began with very few audience members actually settled in to our cozy back room at the Beat Kitchen. (Sometimes our audience tends to linger in the front, sipping drinks, chatting with friends, and keeping an eye on whatever hockey or baseball game is drawing attention that night, before gradually drifting back into the show.) You can see Cameron greeting the stragglers as they file in, and generally do a great job engaging the crowd and amping up the energy level for what ended up being a powerful show.

Hosting is not everyone's favorite thing. You sort of sacrifice a regular set and take on the responsibility of punctuating the show, setting the tone, and preparing the stage for your fellow comics. Some people are better suited for it than others. Cameron is always a marvelous host.

Much to her credit, I once saw her hosting (at a non-ChUC show) where one particular performer was a major mood and energy killer. The audience was not digging them, sort of bristled, and quickly stopped paying attention to them altogether. The second that set ended, Cameron bounced back up on the stage, and got the energy to its previous high point within about three sentences. It made quite an impression.

My favorite part of the above set, which friends and I keep repeating to each other:

"Dad, have you met Claudia yet?"

"I'M NOT UPSET ABOUT IT!"

(Here is Cameron's Chilarious blog, on the Tribune's ChicagoNow network, should you feel inclined to learn more about her.)

Chicago Underground Comedy is $5, every Tuesday at the Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont. Produced by Dan Telfer and Elizabeth McQuern. Video, music, and editing by Elizabeth McQuern.

Beth Stelling 4-27-10 at Chicago Underground Comedy

Chicago Underground Comedy is $5, every Tuesday at the Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont. Produced by Dan Telfer and Elizabeth McQuern. Video, music, and editing by Elizabeth McQuern.

Woodturner Tim Kennedy at Kellar Mahaney Gallery, Zionsville, IN

Another new video project! This one has nothing to do with comedy, although it's definitely about creativity. Featuring Kellar Mahaney's Lolly Schoonover and talented woodturner Tim Kennedy. Video, music & editing by yours truly. Lolly and Tim are both family friends and Lolly's gallery is in my hometown of Zionsville, Indiana, so I put some extra TLC into this one. It's pretty short (2:40) but I think it tells you a lot about Tim, Lolly, and the art they love so much.

The Job Interview - by Bryan Bowden and Elizabeth McQuern

Rev. Jim Fundy has come up with a humdinger of an idea - sexless porn! Written & produced Bryan Bowden, directing, music and editing by Elizabeth McQuern. Featuring Kristen Studard and Bryan Bowden.

Made especially for Second City's 7 Day Shorts. I'm happy to report my parents think this is hilarious, and they watched it five times when I emailed it to them.

Fallout! A Second City 7 Day Short

We just had an awesome ChUC and I'm exhausted but here's our latest 2-minute funny, via Second City's 7 Day Shorts. This shortie was based on the audience suggestion "fallout," featuring Bryan Bowden, Keith Ecker, John Bohan and Chad Briggs. Written and produced by Bryan Bowden. Video, music and editing by stupid old me. Very proud of this one.

Invention - a Second City 7 Day Shorts project

Here's a one-minute short Bryan and I shot last week with Chelsea Devantez, as part of Second City's 7 Day Shorts program. To keep things nice and meta, here's the blog post Bryan wrote about it.

Invention was screened last night at the DeMaat Theater but none of us were there to see if people laughed at it, a situation we may try to remedy. (One problem - the shorts are screened at 10:30 on Tuesdays, and my show Chicago Underground Comedy is at 9:30 on Tuesdays. Boo.)

Before you ask, the sound effect used for the "invention" is my bikini shaver. Believe it or not, it's almost impossible to find a good vibrator sound effect anywhere online. And yes, casting actresses to play my boyfriend's wife or girlfriend is meta and very fun.



Bonus: here's a photo I took of Chelsea during last season's Impress These Apes. Perhaps in homage to Marge Simpson, she pulled that ray gun out of her hair in the middle of her song. It was pretty great.

Hey Dancin'!

Another new thing I did! I was the director on this video. I wish I could say I did the editing on this short-but-awesome promo, but in fact the shooting and editing wizardry is compliments of Mike Tutaj, who is marvelously creative in countless art forms.

A few weeks ago Sarah Rose Graber and the Factory Theater folks had Mike and me come hang out with the cast of Hey Dancin', a new play about a 1986 Chicago cable access dance show, and shoot this promo. So fun.

Chicago Underground Comedy - Halloween 2009 Show Highlights!

Why yes, Chicago Underground Comedy's Halloween show was très formidable, and yes, I did just edit a zippy highlight reel, and skip to my lou, here it is! Six minutes of Chicago comedy brilliance.



Video, music, and editing by me! Featuring Adam Burke, Ricky Carmona, Beth Stelling, Cameron Esposito, Ken Barnard, Nick Vatterott, Dan Polydoris, C.J. Sullivan, Paul Thomas, and Chad Briggs.

Chad Briggs at Chicago Underground Comedy Halloween 2009

It only takes a second to be safe! Chad Briggs' Impress These Apes-winning character, "professional safety expert and accidentalist" D.K. Ediger - at Chicago Underground Comedy's Halloween show last week. Honestly, funnier than any character on SNL right now. Video, music, and editing by me.

Happy Halloween!

My second video project for Outworld.tv!

Second verse, same as the first!

Summer in Chicago!

This is what I did yesterday. Featuring some new piano music I wrote! Hope you also had a lovely weekend.

What I've been up to...

Spending many hours learning Final Cut Pro. MANY hours. So far, I have 17 cool seconds to show for it. Whaddya think? For once I'm editing something that actually has me in it, although it's only a still photo. Also, I needed a cool, fuzzed out clip of someone performing stand-up to put under the early part, so I snuck in some boyfriend footage. Sweet.

ChUC Promo Experiment

Goin' crazy experimenting with the Final Cutzz. Also, I wrote new, unnecessarily dramatic music! Featuring some of your favorite Chicago Underground Comedy stars! Version 2.0 to come. I LOVE editing and music but they are turning me into a zombie. Must sleep now.

My Vid of Sean Flannery at Chicago Underground Comedy March 17, 2009

...and it all came to an Irish Catholic peak with our Sean Flannery, who unintentionally provided me with the best visual gag I've seen in months: right before the show started, a car pulled up out front, and six Chicago Irish comedians (including Adam Burke, CJ Sullivan, and Joe Kilgallon) poured out of the doors and the hatchback, too. They'd been celebrating since...well, who knows when?

My Vid of Brendan McGowan at Chicago Underground Comedy March 17, 2009

Hardcore Irish Catholic Chicago comic #1, our beloved Brendan McGowan:

My Vid of Chad Briggs at Chicago Underground Comedy March 17, 2009

Last night was a fun show - St. Patty's Day in Chicago is pretty raucous anyway. Our boys did a great job. Briggs hosted with aplomb, despite being pretty jetlagged from his recent trip to Japan.

My Vid of Paul Thomas at Chicago Underground Comedy Jan 20 2009

Paul Thomas asks, why doesn't anyone sing like the screaming death metal singers of yesteryear anymore? And why did it take Paul so long to figure out that his voice wasn't going to just one day go from squeaky pre-teen to wailing high priest of metal? Why do so many people sing so different than they speak - Dave Matthews doesn't talk as weird as he sings, and Ozzy Osbourne doesn't order toast by screaming like a banshee.

It's too bad people love (and overuse the phrase) "born and raised" when talking about where they're from, because Paul can only yell that he was "RAISED" in Wisconsin. Paul's also a happily married dude who has been profoundly changed by marriage - for example, he never thought he'd be the kind of guy who would say "that oven mitt is too rustic." Also, naming a star after your loved one is romantic, but did an ancient space civilization really need to die to appease their sun god Norma Lipke?

My Vid of Bryan Bowden at Chicago Underground Comedy Feb. 2009

A few weeks ago we had some folks fall out sick from our show so I plugged in a local lad who teaches stand-up at Second City, has had jokes published in Time Out Chicago, performed all over the city...and happens to be my sweetie. He knocked it out of the park. (I played around with the annotations thing at the beginning of this clip, just for fun.)

Oh, and for those of you who are fans of Bryan's Timekeeper Willis character from Blewt!, he's going to be doing man on the street at the Lincoln Lodge this Thursday and Fridays nights...in character. That means a Mexican wrestling mask, no shirt, and a really bad attitude.