Show Notes
KP joins to talk about origins and dramatic sudden closure of iO theater. How can you make a sustainable business off of adults playing pretend? Turns out it’s pretty hard. This episode has everything: improv comedy, wage theft allegations, desecration of human remains. Twists and turns everywhere! Follow KP's incredible project @they.call.us everywhere!!!
Footnotes:
- Behind the Laughs: Community and Inequality in Comedy, Michael P. Jeffries
- The Funniest One in the Room: The Lives and Legend of Del Close, Kim “Howard” Johnson
- Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History, Margaret Hicks
- Skullduggery, Tad Friend, The New Yorker
- Comedy Guru Charna Halpern Carries On, Achy Obejas, Chicago Tribune
- The First Comedy Strike, Richard Zoglin, Time Magazine
- This Unsung Comic Guru Turned Her Passion For Improv Into a Profitable Business INC Magazine, 2016
- iO Co-Founder's Controversial Sexual Harassment Comments Spark Debate, Mae Rice, Chicagoist
- iO Chicago’s move is more than a new address, Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
- iO makes a big move into founder Charna Halpern’s ‘dream theater’, Brianna Wellen, Chicago Reader
- What We Can Learn From Improv Theaters' PPP Loans, Seth Simons, Paste Magazine
- The Death of an Improv Theater: Mismanagement and Neglect at iO West, Seth Simons, Paste Magazine
- Chicago Comedy Institution iO Theater Is Closing, Melena Ryzik, The New York Times
- iO Past, Present, and Non-Future, Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader
- The Case for Unionizing Comedy, Seth Simons, The Outline
- Laughs Can Be Cheap at a Comedy Theater, Jason Zinoman, NYT
- She’s the Hidden Architect of Modern Comedy, Jason Zinoman, NYT
PS. Sorry Seth Simons, I think I said your name wrong like 8 times in this episode. I misread it so many times. Forgive me, bestie.
