Bad Review to close Oct 5

Bad Review to close Oct 5

I came up with the idea of Bad Review initially as kind of a joke. Almost the same way Snubfest came about.

The first time I called the Reader was in Oct 2001 to ask if we could get a review for our first show "The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show". I was a Columbia College Grad and knew one of my teachers worked at the Reader Albert "Bill" Williams. He taught a singing for the actor class at Columbia.

Always sweet Bill took a good amount of time with me on the phone kind of explaining how it works. "Its your first show...well we get a lot of requests. We kind of try to see everything but can't always make it work. Ok give me an hour or so to find someone" he said. "Oh Bill, you made this Columbia Grad so happy!" I liked to hit people over the head with stuff cause subtlety has never been my middle name. "You wont be the first Grad I've helped and I'm sure not the last."

We got a nice softball review.

As the years started to pass we got fewer and fewer nice things from the Reader. Always one or two nice lines with a few undercutting remarks. Just enough to knock you back down a peg. But always enough for a nice pull quote.

After "God" by Woody Allen I started making jokes to folks around the Theater. "I'm gonna do a show called "Bad Review" and improvise what the critic thinks he wants." The description always made people laugh.

In Nov 2005 we decided to try to revamp our Friday nights. Our show "Lick Your Wounds" had never caught an audience and we had always struggled with the 11pm time spot. We came up with the idea to do 4 different shows. Each show would be a different offering each week. I decided to put my money where my mouth is and take a crack at doing "Bad Review"

I had worked with the now defunkd Free Associates Theater Company for sometime as an actor and a producer. I often talk about them as the first influence that shaped me as a improv actor. I used the techniques I learned with them to create the show.

The original cast worked with me for three months before the first show in Feb 2006. Trying different styles, tweeking the "Matrix" form I had found at a screen writers lecture. They were relentless and falling in love with the show.

That original cast would meet at midnight if it was the only time we could all meet just so we didn't go a single week without working on the show.

One of the only shows I actually taped was the very first one. Found here:

myspace.com/badreview

The first show almost sold out, with 40 of the 50 seats full. And not just friends of actors, it was a lot of Theater companies and lovers wondering...looking on to see what this was gonna be like.

The show became hugely popular quickly. I started to get other Theater companies sending me bad reviews asking if we would do there show. People would get a bad review and hope we picked it. It was crazy.

After we got our space and opened Dec 1, 2007 I wanted Bad Review to have its own open run. The show had sold out 300 seats at Looptopia, headlined at the LA Improv Festival, done a run at Donny Skybox (also sold out), and I wanted it to have a permanent home.

To date we have done 38 shows total...we will close on our 41st show.

In our open run the shows fan base has gone down. It was a once in a while treat that folks would come out of the woodworks for. Even the Reader liked it...Giving us its highest honor of "Highly Recommended"

We have grown to love and learn so much about the writers at the Reader, and it has been a treat to read your reviews week in and out.

It is with a heavy heart I close this show. The first show I ever created and directed from scratch (with the help of an amazing original cast of Gillian Belinger, Cynthia Shur, Jeremy Bassett, Isaac Sernoffsky, Jill Slattery, Krystal LaFianza-Pitzen, and F. Tyler Burnett).

Thanks to all the Theaters that have had a great sense of humor, and all the fans that have come again and again. With three shows left in this long run we will for sure go out with a bang.

Bad Review is set to close Sunday Oct 5 at 8pm at the Chemically Imbalanced Theater, 1420 W Irving Park, Chicago, IL Box Office 800-838-3006

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