Chemcially Imbalanced Comedy’s Blog

From
TimeOut Chicago

”Like a strong improv scene, the Playground’s history continues to be created by everyone involved. What started as merely a place to play has become, as Barbera puts it, “a more mature theater”—the breeding ground for powerhouse ensembles (American Dream) and similar offshoot companies (Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, pH Productions). As for the future? “We’re improvisers, not people running a theater,” he says. “We have to be able to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Otherwise, we’re just gonna suck.”

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First of all let me say congrats to The Playground for 10 great years.

Second with all due respect to Steve Heisler of TimeOut please let me explain why we are not an offshoot of the Playground.

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Here is how the whole thing started. I (Angie) had graduated from Second City’s Conservatory Program where I met my (now husband) boyfriend Tom. I was performing in Tony and Tina’s Wedding with Catherine Pappas, and I was taking an improv class at the Annoyance (my second time through Annoyance, I was having a hard time finding my next step in Improv but could not afford to join another year long program). After the second day of class one of the fellas in class (Rodney) made an announcement. His friend who owned a bar was looking for some entertainment on Saturday nights. Would anyone want to help him our in putting up some kind of an improv show.

I said sure, I’ll meet you at the bar and take a look. We met, and two weeks later we had our first show. Cat and I were coming straight from T N T’s and Tom was working the door. Rodney was the host (also he is the guy that named the show Chemically Imbalanced Comedy). The first three groups were Bare, Sirens, and LFO. Strangely enough Myself, Rodney, and Catherine had never even heard of the Playground until 3 or so shows in when one of the members came to our show to flyer our audience.

It all worked out in the wash in the end. But I can not honestly say we started because of the Playground the way they claim they started because of IO. We started more out of boredom and a need to find a place for ourselves. Being that CIC is 7 years old and starting our 8th season in September it was not like a the Playground had been around for years and years before us.

It wasn’t until after Rodney left (only 4 months after the start of all of this) that Cat, Tom, and I started to organize a bit more and figure out where to go with all of this. Catherine and I both wanted to act more and we both also liked improv. I Miss High School was feeling more and more like a family and Lori had wanted to help us more in finding our direction.

That is when we started to become more of the company we are today.