iO Theater Reopens After Two Years, Providing Chicago Improv Community A New Home For Comedy In The City

After closing its doors in 2020, iO Theater announces its return to the Chicago improv comedy stage. Starting Thursday, November 3, more than twenty different improv productions will once again be featured across the theater's stages, including favorites like "The Armando," "Sex and the Windy City," and "Stir Friday Night." Tickets are now on sale for all productions at ioimprov.com.

iO Theater closed in June, 2020 during the height of pandemic-induced shutdowns that drove many theater and comedy institutions into bankruptcy. One year later, the building, located at 1501 N Kingsbury St., was purchased by Chicagoans Scott Gendell, Larry Weiner and Steve Sacks, and since that time has undergone extensive renovations, including upgrades to the building's mechanical systems, refreshed and enlivened audience spaces and stages, improved bar space and a brand new façade.

Sacks serves as iO's new CEO, and with guidance from comedy icons Mick Napier and Jennifer Estlin from Annoyance Theater, has assembled a leadership team of comedy industry and improv veterans to cultivate a home for new and exciting works that will entertain and challenge the comedy community.

"Comedy, specifically improv, is an integral part of Chicago culture and the Chicago experience," said Sacks, who in addition to being a businessman was once a stand-up comedian. "Having the opportunity to spearhead the rebirth of an institution like iO is both humbling and exciting, and we're committed to ensuring the new iO will be a welcome home to every Chicago community."

"We're also committed to make sure it's funny," he added.

Starting November 3, the featured shows will be:

ANARCHY: The Improvised Rock Opera

ANARCHY: The Improvised Rock Opera is a completely sung, completely improvised rock opera featuring Chicago's finest musical improvisers. ANARCHY takes one audience suggestion and creates a fully sung, fully improvised rock opera complete with live musical accompaniment. We are long-form musical improvisers specializing in strong vocals, modern narratives, and angst. Get ready to fight the power.

The Armando Diaz Experience, Theatrical Movement and Hootenanny (aka The Armando)

Created in 1995, The Armando Diaz Experience is the longest running improv show EVER. A guest monologist takes a suggestion from the audience and shares true stories from their life. These stories are then brought to life by a rotating cast of Chicago's best improvisers.

Boneless

This is a one-hour sketch revue featuring stand up openers followed by a variety of sketches that touch on topics including: finding flannels in Lesbian Queer Eye, a haunted housewarming, and a Black Friday fight to the death.

The Co-Op

The Co-op is an inclusive improv performance program. Each season a new cast of performers join forces to perform incredible comedy in tribute to their mutual love: improv.

Devil's Daughter

The hottest show in town, Devil's Daughter features a cast of seasoned comedians who have performed together in Chicago and around the country for 8+ years. This award-winning team has their own unique spin on a classic improv form, The Harold, and is known for their solo scenes, artistic style, and dastardly sense of humor.

Friday Freaky

Brought to you by the improv group Smoochers - Friday Freaky is a long form improv show that takes inspiration from the hit 2003 film Freaky Friday-specifically the body swapping part.

Good People Trying Bad Things

iO Theater's free-admission, open mic night every Sunday, inviting stand-up comedians and character performers to workshop their material - which culminates in a monthly free-therapy session for one performer. Seriously.

Haunted: Improvised Ghost Hunters

"Haunted" is a longform improvised comedy show in which a group of hunters investigate the "haunted person, place, or thing" suggested by the audience. The show features camera-style edits, including flashbacks and confessionals.

Holidays from Hell

Put your holiday stress aside as you watch Chicago's best comedians and improvisers make light of guest storytellers' horrific holiday stories.

Improvised Jane Austen

Improvised Jane Austen is an all-female & non-binary troupe that performs a full-length, improvised tale in the style of one of the most beloved authors of all time!

Improvised Survivor

This show takes the reality show Survivor and turns it into a comedy show. In 8 - 10 weeks Tribes (teams) compete against one another in improv/comedy based challenges and the audience votes on

which tribe did the best. The losing tribe then goes into tribal council and they must internally vote out one of their own. Every week there is a new twist introduced which can save an improviser, screw them over, or even give them more power. They do this until there is one sole Improvised survivor, who wins the title and goes home with $100.

It's Giving Thanks: Fall Through the Eyes of Gen Z

Come take a hayride through cuffing szn with us as we explore the good, the bad, & the UGGly of autumn: post-Covid, post-Trump, post-Doja Cat beefing with the Stranger Things kid. Join us for an hour of spooky vibes that'll put you in a silly goofy mood!

La Chancla Salvaje: An Improvised Telenovela

La Chancla Salvaje: An Improvised Telenovela is an episodic telenovela where every episode explores the trials, tribulations, and hilarity between people in all walks of life. Every relationship is deep, every situation is dangerous, and every chancla thrown is wild. Each show is inspired by audience suggestions and the last episode's cliffhanger ending.

No Curfew

Jaymes Gretchky is a two-person comedy team featuring James Dugan and Gretchen Eng that performs a patient exploration of a relationship in an improvised scene. With a single suggestion, they will create a rich world of relatable characters and circumstances that will entertain, provoke, and captivate the audience. Both James and Gretchen are performers and teachers with more than a decade of experience and have been featured in shows all over the world.

Not Your Average Joe

Have you ever had to go through life with the same name as everyone else and take a deep hard look at yourself? This Joe has. Joe Kovach will take you into his life featuring characters, songs, and personal pieces that will show you why he is not the Average Joe.

Our Throwback Thursdays

In an effort to preserve the legacy and contributions of the dedicated artists that contributed to iO, we bring you Throwback Thursdays: a late night party featuring your favorite iO Harold and Indie teams of the past.

Play Practice

Each week, brother and sister improv duo, Jake Prizant and Hanna Moser, will be inviting their favorite performers from around the city to come join in the merriment of Live Theater. Come watch some of the best talents in Chicago perform alongside two of Chicago's #1 Thespians. New acts every week will include stand-up, improv, sketch comedy, and anything else Jake and Hannah deem art.

PoeProv

Poeprov is an improvised play based on your suggestions and the works of Edgar Allan Poe! A fully improvised play with lights, sounds, music, costumes, sets, and everything, inspired by suggestions gathered during the show.

Pussy-verance

A darkly absurd sketch show with a feminist outlook. The show's overlying theme is about accepting tragedy and doing what you have to do to live in today's world.

Sex and the Windy City: An Unofficial Musical Parody

Sex and the City fans and Chicagoans alike will fall head over Manolo Blahnik heels for this musical parody of the famed HBO show. Carrie Bradshaw and friends encounter a literal rude awakening when they find themselves transported from their beloved New York to the Windy City. As the core four try to make sense of their surroundings, they learn there's a lot to love about the Midwest, and it might be just the right time to give Chic-ago a go.

SITCOM

SITCOM is a longform narrative improvised piece/form with a structure inspired by (but not identical) to a Harold, with a narrative throughline unique to each show (not episodic). Since the SITCOM form is based on a variety of familiar sitcoms from television, the audience will have access to shared tropes and conceits, which frees us to do some exciting, weird, good improv while using this shared language with the audience to create crowd pleasing shows.

Stir Friday Night

Founded in 1995, Stir Friday Night is Chicago's longest-running Asian American comedy team and a fixture in the comedy scene. SFN proudly includes performers such as Danny Pudi (Community), Mary Sohn (A.P. Bio), and Oscar nominee Steven Yeun (Minari, The Walking Dead) as a few of our notable alumni. Come watch these rising stars improvise comedy up close before they're whisked away to Hollywood!

Student Jam

It's an old tradition where students and improvisers from the community gather and play with each other. It's basically a chance for folks to network and get some reps in with their fellow student body.

Improvised Holiday Movie

Take Two is an hourlong improvised movie show featuring two completely improvised "movies." Each set is 30 minutes. In its main form, genre is established in the first establishing opener, based off the suggestion. However, Take Two may also do "runs" of specific themes, like "Holiday Movies," "Horror Movies," Romantic Comedies, "Action Movies," etc. etc. What sets this show apart is its use of camera edits.

The Night Shift

"Girl Doctor presents the Night Shift" is mysterious, gory, absurd, and irreverent. This show is not for the faint of heart, or mind, or... *spirit*. Equal parts hilarious and spooky, it is a must see for girls and doctors alike. If the laughing doesn't kill you, you just might die of fright

Your F#%!ed Up Relationship

At Your F#%!ed Up Relationship, no one's exes are safe. Our cast of heavy hitters take inspiration from your worst dating and hook up stories to make you remember why you dumped their a$$es in the first place! If you think your romantic past is bad, just wait until you hear about the person next to you. Bring your friends, your boos, your situationships and enjoy this hot night out!