John Loos Presents DESPERATELY SEEKING SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
Big gay John Loos just wants a big gay chance. After 10 years of being the unsung Dianne Wiest of the Chicago comedy world, he's never been afforded the opportunity to audition for the uber-hetero Saturday Night Live. So, he's created his own SNL audition showcase in the form of a full-length play titled John Loos' SNL Showcase.
John Loos' SNL Showcase previews Sunday Aug. 16 at 8pm at The Annoyance Theatre (851 W. Belmont) and runs Sundays through Sept. 20. Tickets are $10.
"Usually, you have to be a marquee performer at a major theater to get the chance to audition for SNL," says Loos. "I know I'll never be one of those favored performers, and I'm not getting any younger, so I'm saying 'fuck it' and desperately throwing myself in front of the Saturday Night Live bus by writing a balls-out, tragi-comic epic solo show."
John Loos' SNL Showcase is part Moby Dick, part Apocalypse Now, part tragic Sondheim musical. It not only functions as a formal audition for Lorne Michaels, but explores why the Saturday Night Live dream has such a strangle-hold on Chicago comedians, what happens when irrational dreams don't come true, and being the "right kind of gay man" in a comedy world that doesn't really know what to do with gay men.
"The trend the last decade is for gay comedians to say 'Being gay is just a small part of who I am' and shy away from super gay material," adds Loos. "Which, if that's true to them, great. But personally, I keep my gay cranked up to an 11, and there should still be room for voices like mine at the comedy table, and on Saturday Night Live."
Drawing inspiration from past SNL alumni, the late Elaine Stritch, Dog Day Afternoon, and the musical Company, John Loos' SNL Showcase seeks to upend the paradigms of the Chicago comedy system, eschew decorum and decency, and explore the lies we tell ourselves just to keep going.
John Loos is a teacher, writer and corporate facilitator for Second City. He has performed improv and sketch comedy for nearly 15 years, the last decade in Chicago. He is an ensemble member of GayCo Productions, one half of the critically acclaimed sketch duo Pinque Pony, and has written three previous original plays for The Annoyance (Earthqueef, A Woman's Path and Lady Balls). He performs regularly with the all-gay improv super troop Baby Win at the iO Chicago. He wears size 16 women's pumps.
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