PHOTO: Matt Braunger/Photo by Mindy Tucker ****************************************** As Matt Braunger toured nationwide honing material for his new special Doug, he discovered a problem. The surprise twist at the end had unintended consequences. “It happened almost every weekend,” Matt said. “I would look online and people had shot video of my show, unbeknownst to me. They […]

What are your favorite TV moments of 2022? Mine happened on October 12 between 3-4 p.m. I was watching The Kelly Clarkson Show on NBC. Jay Leno was on. He confessed that Kelly’s next guests had comedy kudos that even he lacked. For one thing, he’d never brought down the house at a P.T.A. event, […]

I don’t know how we got home from Elgin. It was a long drive, but all I remember is my husband and me, immersed in an altered state discussing Jimmy Carrane’s World’s Greatest Dad(?).  We were returning from this year’s Elgin Fringe Festival where we’d seen Jimmy’s reboot of the show he first launched in […]

Never mind Covid, there’s an epidemic of pessimism these days. If you could inoculate yourself against pessimism, would you do it?  Well, you can! This Saturday, Stephanie Miller’s Sexy Liberal Save Democracy Tour arrives at the Harris Theater in downtown Chicago. The tour is the brainchild of Hal Sparks who makes a persuasive case that […]