Can you laugh at yourself? But can you make others laugh? A night of stand-up comedy at the IO Theater is a hotspot. Spitfire is hosted the last Thursday of every month where seven comedians take the stage performing their best material in a six-minute set. The comedians buy more time on stage by taking a shot of hot sauce. The hotter the sauce, the more time they received. Can they take the heat from the sauce and make it to the end of their set?
These professional comedians were selected by producer Michael Martin to share their talent with a vibrant crowd. The audience was full of returning to the Lincoln Park venue. This intimate venue greets people with a ticket and merchandise booth. Further back was a bar for people in their 20’s and 30’s to vibe. With dim lighting, a bustling bar, and televised sports entertain the chatty group.
Up the stairs, you follow the historic entertainment that has occupied the stages of the IO Theater. Some impressive alumni include people like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jordan Peele, Tim Meadows, and plenty of others. Their alumni have applied skills found in comedy and applied them to industries like film and television shows. The hallway is covered with framed images of capturing some of their most memorable moments.
Arriving at the top floor of the warehouse, another bar awaits. Sofas and chairs surround a coffee table while board games are offered on a short shelf. A short wait to be seated in front of the stage. A tightly packed room filled with chairs and small tables. The crowd quickly filled and the program started on time.
Host Andrew Nadeau opened the evening with a brief explanation of how the show works. He performed a disastrous magic trick and then immediately introduced the first comedian, Sandy Lee.
As a kid, Sandy was shy but sassy. After being encouraged to take a class in standup, she fell in love with it. She shares in an interview: “I feel like I spent most of my life being an observer and it was a rare opportunity to share my views and my ideas.” As a comedian, you can test the crowd with dark humor and avant-garde topics. This becomes a platform to bring awareness through a reflection of life, so she chose to begin the evening with a fart joke.
Sandy’s jokes progressively reveal some of her inspirations Margaret Cho and Ali Wong, “I love their honesty and it feels rebellious. There’s a lot of myths about Asian women that they defy.” That defiance was the punchline to her anecdote about being a moderately single Korean-American Woman.
Sandy is a tax accountant who uses comedy as a balance between the left and right brain. She explains “Sometimes the best punchline will come to me while I’m buried in a spreadsheet”. This supports the idea that inspiration can happen anywhere at any time. It’s how the inspiration manifests that is impressive. Instead of chuckling at an inside joke and carrying on with her day, she harvests those thoughts and performs them to the crowd.
An interest in comedy is similar to being interested in successful communication. Sandy shares in the interview:
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Thinking on my feet has been vital for communicating with coworkers and clients in my day job. The most valuable skill that I’ve learned from comedy is being able to connect with anyone.
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Learning skills that improve charisma and communication can really be invaluable when interacting with others. Comedy is a platform to share ideas, but can someone really learn to be funny?
Comedian Willie Griswold shares that:” The classes are a great way to learn the basics and meet people”. According to the IO Theater: “Improv classes can be used to improve personal skills like team-work & collaboration, listening, reacting, and adapting in real-time, leadership, public speaking, being in the moment, supporting the ideas of others without judgment, and much more”.
As a college student, all of these skills have been listed among the many syllabi that guide our learning. Leadership, adaptation, public speaking, and charisma are a set of invaluable tools to use for success in all fields.
Students have the skills to apply to comedy, but physically practicing them teaches the student to make the most out of negative situations and laugh at themselves. This could be a practice that helps alleviate the immense stress that students are already facing. It could be the difference between sharing an idea or keeping them private. By being comfortable with sharing ideas in a social situation, we can really begin to innovate and thrive as a community.
By attending a comedy club and enjoying a laugh with a group of people, you begin to really understand the nuances of a community. When the crowd simultaneously laughed, everyone understood the reference and it had a successful delivery. A few laughs meant that only a couple of people understood. Laughing and learning skills for life is a social skill that our generation can appreciate. We face disconnection growing up in a technological era. This is a great way to know that we are not alone with our experiences.
Willie’s set begins with just that, a hilarious anecdote about being overweight and in college.
What’s more comforting than knowing that most people struggle with the same issues in college. It’s hard to be cool, especially when navigating bad days with no motivation. As an outlet, he took the mic and delivered a hot set on the Spitfire stage.
In light of the moment, the comedian often draws from personal experiences and treats this as a normal conversation, reminding his audience that this is supposed to be fun. By keeping this in mind, they share unpleasant stories about themselves and are able to laugh it off.
The performers were not afraid to explore dark humor. Audience members responded positively to jokes about sensitive topics. The background of the performers was diverse and often became the subject.
One of the acts included young performer Luis Arevalo. First introduced to stand up at age 16, he was inspired to take creative writing, poetry, and English when in school. When a classmate performed a poem, Luis competitively knew he could outperform his peers. He wanted to live on stage. Two months later, he did his first open mic and was well received by the audience with his humor and has remained consistent with it ever since.
“When I realized I wanted to live on stage…I really started being consistent with [comedy].“
-Luis Arevalo
This comedian opened the evening with a joke about his observations of the venue. He used his time on stage to explain some of his family dynamics. Economically conscious, he made a conscious decision to live at home. Sharing a narrative about his reaction to friends with less fortunate living situations, he recognizes an unfair system that amplifies these hardships. He shares in an interview that he was brought up in a good household and expresses how fortunate he is.
By addressing a topic comically, it brings awareness to the harsh truths that are suppressed in common situations. Economic hardships for college-aged students are drastic and demoralizing. Taking the stage and talking about sensitive topics addresses something more than the fundamentals of humor.
It addresses problems that people neglect and accept as truths about reality. Through the use of dramatic pauses, he accentuates a build-up dynamic that adds impact when delivering the punchline. This was a fun way to explore a successful use of timing. The pauses allow the audience to anticipate what’s coming next, making them laugh even before Luis completes his jokes.
This kind of event is offered monthly and with new comics. To find out more about the Spitfire Comedy Show you can visit their website or follow them on Instagram @spitfirecomedyshow. To follow the comedians, social media is a great way to find out what’s coming next. They are also on Instagram @heysandylee, @willie.griswold and @ahumbleluis. With a bit of scripting and a bit of improv, someone on that stage is bound to make you laugh.