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We went for the late show, and would be heading to the only jazz bar in town that allowed kids afterwards. The first thing we noticed as we entered the theater was that everyone had beers. Some brought cases, others just a bottle or two. It was just sort of strange, but I hear any sort of comedy is more fun when you've been drinking, which made me start to wonder about improv... Loud music pulsed through the stage as a guy in a referee shirt jumped out, telling us about the scoreboard (They keep pointless points) and went through the various fouls. Everything was being done in a sporty way, which added a little spice to the pre-game warm up. The fouls were the groaner, for a bad pun, the yawn, for when nothing funny is happening, and the paper bag foul. That was pretty cool. Whenever someone gave a suggestion that would not be acceptable for younger children, they would get a brown bag foul and would have to put a brown paper bag over their head. This was more effective than I would have thought. Next, they introduced the players, three on the red team, and three on the blue team. They started up the night with a game for each team. Unlike at ImprovOlympic, there were a thousand times to get your idea out. They were taking suggestions all the time. We soon fell in love with a certain player, Dr. Jim McDonnell (The captain of the red team), whom we felt was just doing a great job with what he had. After the first two warm-up games, they asked who in the audience had a birthday today. Three people raised their hands. They sang them a cute birthday song: "This is your birthday song, it isn't very long" <players abruptly stop singing and walk away>. I liked it anyway. The ref than chose two of the birthday people to pull a block from the bucket of doom, which was an old McDonald's bucket. The block had the name of a game on it; the red team got a game called stage directions, while the blue team got a game in which they act out a scene in a certain style.
It was so fun in fact, we came back again on the third day. Jim was playing again, so that was cool. There were a few more great acts, and this time everyone seemed to know what they were doing a little more. Jim was the only one back from the previous, but we also got to see Tim in action, who also became a family favorite. Tim did a great job with 5 things, a game that involves taking regular actions and items and replacing them with absurd twists, this time in way to much detail. The catch is that the other two guys can only describe in mime and gibberish. Tim got 4 of the 5 in 5 minutes. Amazing. There were a few more good acts, all of which were at least somewhat enjoyable. Until we ran into Laugh-Off again. We had hoped it was just bad luck last time that they picked it, but it turns out that it is a permanent act. Ugh. It was equally un-fun this time. Again, even with Laugh-Off, we still had a great time.
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When
we were preparing to come to Chicago, we knew we would be doing at
least two improv shows. Dad had already seen an improv show with some
business associates before Mom and I got to Chicago, but we weren't
exactly sure what to expect. I had stumbled on to 
The
red team did an awesome job with stage directions, where pieces of
paper with audience ideas are strewn about the stage and the players
have to pick them up and use them in character. It was probably one
of the best games we saw. The blue team got Shakespeare as their
topic, and did a good job with it too. The next thing they did was a
bit called Laugh-off. This was stupid. Almost stupid enough to ruin
the rest of the show. Basically, one person from each team comes out
and acts out a scene. Every time a person laughs at a joke, the team
that made the joke LOSESES a point, and switches members. That's
right, the point is to be not funny. How STUPID! We had some fun the
rest of the time with a few other good acts. The players came out and
greeted us at the end as we left the theater, which was sort of funny
because Dad and I have a running joke about small casts shaking your
hand. Dad said that this was a far more fun than ImprovOlympic, and
we decided it was still fun, even with the excruciatingly dumb Laugh-Off.
We
came back to Comedy Sportz once more, this time on Thursday, which
was their special "Who's chorus line is it anyways?"
performance. At the very beginning, everyone wrote down an unlikely
title for a musical. Dad wrote "Sun, Sand, and Shenanigans",
Mom wrote "La Bahama Belle", and I did "Soylent
Green: The Musical". Of course, none of ours got picked. The
ones that did were "Why don't people from Wisconsin have any
personality?" and something about N*SYNC. Bleh. These ended up
being the only suggestions from the audience, making the performance
more like ImprovOlympic, which we had seen a day after our second
Comedy Sportz performance. Although there were a few funny points,
this special performance wasn't even close to as fun as the regular
show. It was an interesting thought, an improvisational musical, but
for entertainment purposes, the regular show is better.