Chemcially Imbalanced Comedy’s Blog

Here is a few pictures of the space since we have started to make our transition to a bar/lobby/reception area

Our new seating bank

The Lobby

This weekend Hal Sparks came by to see his good pal Greg Holliman sit in with Pimprov this weekend. Here is a few pictures with Hal, Greg, and our very own Pimps Jonathan Keaton and Keith Smitherman.

Greg Holliman and Hal Sparks

Jonathan Keaton, Keith Smitherman, Hal Sparks

By Carrie L. Kaufman
See the entire Article at performink.com
The Second Chase Community Giving challenge is over and 15 Chicago theatres have pulled down $20,000 a piece, giving Chicago Theatre $300,000 of the $5 million total purse.

“It was a great community effort and everyone pulled together to make this happen,” said Lindsay Muscato, managing director for The Neo-Futurists , which came in 111th on the 200 charity list (and fourth among Chicago theatres).

“There was a lot of teamwork, a lot of vote trading, and a lot of supporting one another,” said Amanda Farrar, executive director of Barrel of Monkeys , which finished 139th.

This contrasts with the last round, which ended in January with two Chicago Theatres—Sideshow and New Colony—getting $25,000 a piece. Those theatres did it totally on their own. But when the next round came along, many small theatres had their network in place.

Chemically Imbalanced Comedy announces that Founder and Executive Producer Angie McMahon has stepped down from her position. She will remain a Resident Artist and Marketing Director.

CIC is excited to announce the appointment of Sarah Borer as the Managing Director. Sarah has been a company member with CIC since 2003. She has stage managed over a dozen productions over our 10 seasons, directed, and produced as well. She has been the companies House Manager since 2007, and resident Artist since 2005.

CIC is also excited to announce Adam Higgans has taken the position of Rehearsal rental Manager. Adam has been an Artistic Associate with CIC since 2007. If you would like to book rehearsal space you can contact him at cicannex at gmail.com

With 1603 votes on the Chase Community Giving Facebook grant giving contest we came in at 143 our of 200 Charities in the Country. We can not thank our friends, family, and fans enough for this wonderful support. We will be awarded $20,000 from Chase and use it for our expansion project.

Also contracts to the other 14 Chicago Theater Companies that were also awarded a grant:

Stage Left, Theatre Seven, Strawdog Theatre, Neo Futurists, The Hypocrites, House Theatre, Backstage Theatre, About Face Theatre, Strange Tree, Barrel of Monkeys, P H, Will Act For Food, Eclipse Theatre, and Wildclaw Theatre!

Congratulations to ALLISON KELLER and NATALIE RAFF!!! Our two winners of 2 three day passes to this year’s Lollapalooza!

We are finally at our last day of this contest. We have only 17 hours left and 30 votes between us and the last place charity.

We appreciate so much everyone’s votes and support these last 27 days. Today is the day, please post it in your Status update, tell a friend, and vote if you have not. For your enjoyment Artistic Associate Anthony Ellison seduces you for one last vote in this short film by him and Sean Keith.

Thanks everyone voting ends today at 10pm Chicago time.

On Wed Jun 30 is the final night of the 6th month run of Dummy, an evening of unscripted comedy with Colleen Doyle and Jason Shotts. After wonderful reviews in the Trib, Reader, Yelp, and more we close the Dummy run for the summer. Look out for this Dynamic Duo to return to our Comedy Showcase in the near future.

Final night is Wed June 30 8pm tickets $5, sponsored troupe 96D opens.

Here in the midst of a hard economy many Not For Profits are looking for alternative funding to help bridge the gaps. My daughter is 5 years old and goes to a Chicago Public School. With horrible budget cuts looming the parents of the school have really taken the reins and found ways to reach the schools goals and needs. Sometimes with fundraisers, sometimes “vote for us” type contests (her school won $100,000 from US Cellular), sometimes through creative donations (all of the artwork around the school was donated by various neighborhood artists). But it is obvious why these parents would fight so hard for there children to get a quality education.

A lot of discussion has been flying around the Theater blog/facebook world about recent fundraising efforts by Theater in Chicago. Many people don’t even know Theater is a charity. Some flat out deny it is, no matter what the government has deemed it. Some only see the value of arts if they give back to education programs (my daughters school for example again has writes grants to have various artists come and teach special things to the kids. My daughter had a whole quarter of bucket drum classes and she LOVED it!)

So I ask you, dear friends, fans, and fellow artists…why is CIC important to you? Is it the low cost high quality entertainment? Is it the chance to perform when you cant find a break to cut your teeth? Is it the many different styles of Comedy you will see under one roof? Is it the fact that we raise money for battered women every week after our 2 year old show Pimprov?

Please share with us why CIC is important to you…and thanks for the support.