Category: comedy

  • Off-Site Event at The Hideout: Daniel Kibblesmith and Sam Weiner Talk How to Win at Everything 11/16

     

    9781452113319

    Nobody chooses to be a loser – they just haven’t found the right advice. This ground-breaking new handbook guides readers through how to win at everything (actually, more like dozens of things) —even things that aren’t competitive, and that you can’t or shouldn’t try to win at, such as eye exams, puberty and apologizing.
    Essential diagrams direct winners through activities such as raising a child (remember: feed them daily and have them checked by a veterinarian), bird watching (start by spotting common species like pigeons, or dogs), fishing (throw a toaster into a lake), faking your own death (Write DEAD on your library card in red block letters) and many more scenarios for success. In sharing their hard-won knowledge, the authors—who win at winning—help readers become the future winners they were meant to be.

    Join Quimby’s at the Hideout November 16th to welcome authors Daniel Kibblesmith and Sam Weiner as they present this new book, which Quimby’s will provide for purchase.

    About the Authors:

    SWeiner_DKibblesmith_1
    Daniel Kibblesmith has written for the Onion News Network and Splitsider, produced video for Funny or Die and The Best Show on WFMU, and appeared on Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker. He lives in Chicago.
    Sam Weiner is a staff writer for the Onion News Network. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Splitsider, on NPR’s Marketplace, and on stage at Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre. He lives in Chicago.

    How to Win at Everything
    By Daniel Kibblesmith and Sam Weiner
    5 x 7 in; 176 pp;
    2-color images throughout
    Paperback
    ISBN 9781452113319
    $15.95

    Please note: this event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at The Hideout, at 1354 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60642, (773) 227-4433. For more info about The Hideout, see hideoutchicago.com.

  • Joe Janes and Friends Read from 50 Plays 10/1

    50 Plays by Joe Janes is the follow-up to the remarkable and insane 365 Sketches of 2010.  

    Joe Janes spent months working with fifty local directors and their chosen casts to write a ten-minute(ish) play for each one.

    A “Best of” presentation of pieces at Donny’s Skybox at Second City in August was hailed by the Chicago Reader as “”silly, bizarre, violent, and provocative” “…the pieces showcase Janes’s willingness to take risks of all kinds.”

    Joe Janes is a teacher, writer, actor, improviser and director in Chicago. He is the Improv Program Director in Columbia College’s Theater Department. At Second City, he teaches all levels of the writing program. He has worked for Second City for over a dozen years and in that time has performed in the national touring company, produced and directed at Second City – Detroit, directed for the touring company and Second City – Las Vegas.  He spent time as the artistic director of ComedySportz-Chicago where he developed their training center curriculum and created BattleProv. As a comedy writer, he wrote for and provided voices for Jellyvision’s You Don’t Know Jack series of CD-ROM trivia games, freelanced for SNL’s Weekend Update and won an Emmy for his work on Cincinnati’s Club 19. He is a founding member of The WNEP Theater Foundation for which he has written and performed for 20 years in such shows as The (Edward) Hopper Project, Metaluna and the Amazing Science of the Mind Revue, The Armageddon Radio Hour and Soiree Dada. He is also the artistic director of Robot vs. Dinosaur and a former company member of the hit show Improvised Shakespeare. Joe began his career as a stand-up comedian where he toured the country for five years opening for such acts as The Monkees, Bill Hicks, Rita Rudner, and Paula Poundstone. You can follow his exploits on his blog biteandsmile.blogspot.com and Twitter and become a fan of 365 Sketches on Facebook.

    Joe Janes can be contacted at jjanes@secondcity.com

     

    Sat, Oct 1st, 7pm  

  • David Shrigley comes to Quimby's 9/20!

    David Shrigley – Live and in person! 9/20 7pm at Quimby’s

    and 9/21 at Columbia College

    WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? The Essential David Shrigley

    “David Shrigley is probably the funniest gallery-type artist who ever lived.” -Dave Eggers

    “With a casual gesture Shrigley points to that hideous shape whose name I’ve never known—and then he names it. And the name is profoundly, embarrassingly familiar. I’m laughing while frantically searching for a pen, so desperate to capture the feeling he has unearthed in me.” -Miranda July

    David Shrigley is the rare artist that can comfortably walk the fine line between pop culture and high art. While he’s animated videos for musicians such as Blur and Bonny Prince Billy, his work can also be seen in world renowned museums such as MoMA and the Tate Modern, and his highly distinctive style has been on display in galleries in New York, Paris, Berlin, Melbourne, and beyond. He is also clearly a madman.

    The aptly named WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING: The Essential David Shrigley [W. W. Norton & Company; October 24th, 2011; $35.00 hardcover] is an outrageous compilation of his illustrations, comics, photography and sculpture. His crude drawings and unexpected compositions are at once childish and clever, and each depiction oddly sincere. They capture the morbid humor of Edward Gorey, the absurdity of a Monty Python sketch, and the peculiar perspective of a Charles Addams cartoon. In short, this beautiful, full color collection is an indispensible introduction to one of contemporary art’s most fascinating and provocative minds.

    The pieces in this book are an eclectic and encompassing representation of Shirgley’s interest in the surreal. From a photograph of a hot dog (affixed with googly eyes and tucked comfortably into bed) to childlike drawings of humanity’s most grotesque members (a man drinking a goblet of blood, captioned simply with “CHEERS!”) this book is a both a celebration of condemnation of humanity’s most base urges, fears, and delights.

    WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? is remarkably bold, and Shrigley leaves no topic untouched. Through colorful commentary, he explores everything from clowns to caffeine, sexuality to God, and all the delightfully inappropriate bits in between. You would be hard-pressed to find, in any other work of art, a match to Shrigley’s satirical brilliance. As Will Self points out in the introduction, “Shrigley’s photographic works suggest the refined eye of someone sent back from the future beyond the looming apocalypse, charged with assembling images that, while ostensibly of the mundane, nonetheless explain how it came to pass that humanity destroyed itself.” By turns unsettling, moving, and gut-wrenchingly funny, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? is a revealing glimpse into an offbeat, darkly comedic, and utterly hilarious artistic mind. For more info: davidshrigley.com/

    Also, click here for a hilarious animated video abut the book!

    Tues, Sept 20th, 7pm here at Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave., Chicago

    Wed, Sep 21st , 6:30pm – 9:30pm at Columbia College Chicago – Stage Two 618 S. Michigan Ave., 2nd Floor — Quimby’s will  be there to sell books!

    These events are co-sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore, Columbia College and AIGA Chicago.

  • Quimby's Podcast #1 Available Now. And Weekly Top 10

    It’s true. We have for you this week’s top 10 but also, the first episode of the Quimby’s podcast that you can download from podbean.com. Eventually it will be on I-Tunes; we’re in the application stage where they listen to it and then (hopefully) approve it. So for now, you can listen to it at podbean and/or download it in some form to listen to it on some device or machine. The first episode features an interview with Margaret Hicks who wrote Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History. We think you will agree that she was extremely charming, if we don’t say so ourselves.

     

    In other news, you will see that two artists featured in the first volume of the comics anthology Black Eye have made the top 10 bestsellers this week with their books, both Paul Hornschemeier and Lilli Carré. They will be here to celebrate the release of Black Eye on 6/24 with other contributors Ivan Brunetti, Paul Nudd and Onsmith.

    Top 10 This Week

    1. Life With Mr Dangerous by Paul Hornschemeier (Villard) $22.00 – Life with Mr.Dangerous is a study of modern emotional understanding as tethered to pop culture fandom. Amy Breis, the book’s protagonist, does an awkward job of navigating a life full of seeming dead ends. Her response to reality is constantly informed by her love of a television show, and the show acts as a filter to make the mundane situations more dramatic and interesting.

    2. Roctober #49 $4.00

    3. Haymarket 1886-2011 by AREA Chicago $5.00 – As part of the 125th commemoration/reenactment of the Haymarket Riots, AREA Chicago has put out Haymarket 1886-2011 a look at the broad and still resonating impact of Haymarket today. Smartly laid out and broad in scope with contributions from: Penelope Rosemont, David Roediger, Alma Washington, the history of Haymarket walking tours, Euan Hague, Paul Buhle, Peter Chanthasena and Anh Nguyen, the Haymarket Historic Landmark District, Paul Durica, the South Chicago ABC Zine Distro, reflections on Haymarket from the shadow of September 11, Holly Nelson, May Day, the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, Josefa Mellor and Nick Naber, 134 years of social struggle in Pilsen, Teko Sãso, Anthony Rayson, Josh Otte and Jordon Olson, Jerry Mead-Lucero, Sam Mitrani, alternative Haymarket monument proposals, Samuel Barnett, Lucy Parsons, teaching and learning about Haymarket, Bucky Halker and Nicolas Lampert.

    4. Animal Sex – You Might Not Want To Know by Isabella Rotman $3.00 – This mini is so good! It’s a sly and pervy funny-as-shit guide to kinky sex in the animal kingdom. From ungodly long schlongs of Argentine lake ducks to pheromone-fueled Garter Snake fuckballs, Rotman’s bestiary culls the cream of the crop from what sounds like some pretty extensive -uh- “internet research”. -EF

    5. Little Otsu Living Things vol 4 Lilli Carre (Little Otsu) $6.95

    6. East Village Inky #47 $3.00 – Ayun gives us a Mermaid Parade 101 and plenty of scrapper parent scene reportage. Topped with tales of a sourdough starter (you know how New Yorkers like to brag about how cultured they are). -EF

    7. Root Rot by Anne Koyama and Michael DeForge, eds. (Koyama Press) $12.00 – Koyama calls the 5-second rule on everything that falls to the forest floor. Root Rot’s an impressive comics-centric Nobrow-like look book of stunners. Moldy mushrooms and tossed moss from t edward bak, JFISH, Mickey Zacchilli, Bob Flynn, Lizz Hickey, Dan Zettwoch, Chris Eliopoulos, Joseph Lambert, Jon Vermilyea, Derek M Ballard, Angie Wang, Greg Pizzoli, Hellen Jo and Ines Estrada with special show-stoppin’ contributions from Robin Nishio and Jesse Jacobs. Let’s go camping, yes? -EF

    8. Maximumrocknroll #337 Jun 11 $4.00

    9. Boys Club #4 by Matt Furie (Pigeon Press) $6.00 – More boners, more pizza, more roommates, more stoney-baloney plus also some barfing. I’m not going to tell you twice: zit’s awesome. -EF

    10. Burn Collector #15 by Al Burian $3.00 – Al Burian takes on his new home town, Berlin with a little help from a Chicago All-Star team of Anne Elizabeth “Unmarketable” Moore and Liam “Secret Beach” Warfield.

  • Off-Site Event: The Return of the Geek @ Words That Kill 6/16

    Every year Words That Kill celebrates everything nerdy and geeky through literary, visual and performance arts. In the past, this meant love letters to Mr. Spock, comedy sketches about surviving zombie apocalypse, and poetry about inner Jedi and addiction to video games, amongst others.

    This month the Geek is back once again and he has planned an even more mind-boggling extravaganza with features by The Former Fat Boys (Mixtape release party), The Great Luke Ski and art installation by Rotofugi, John Campbell (Pictures For Sad Children), and many more artists and performers.

    Lethal Poetry Presents  W O R D S  T H A T  K I L L –  a comedy / poetry series & omni-slam featuring local, national touring, and award winning comedians and poets.

    Return Of the Geek on Thursday, June 16th and W O R D S  T H A T  K I L L every 3rd Thursday
    @ creative lounge CHICAGO (1564 N. Damen Ave 3rd Fl., Wicker Park)
    Doors / Sign-up 7 PM
    7:00 – Open Mic (geeks only please this month)
    8:00 – Show
    ALL AGES
    Admission: $5 or FREE with canned goods donation.

    Featured Performers:

    The Former Fat Boys: are the creators of YouTube sensation “I’m a Dinosaurus” and “Nerdapalooza.” Their sound resembles that totally pumped up noise you make when you’re watching the original Power Rangers and Tommy the Green Ranger blows his knife flute and the Dragonzord comes up and you just know there’s some ass that is about to be kicked, so you jump out of your seat and punch the wall and scream! Since they understand that they are continually awesome and timeless they call their genre: Shatnercore. The group will be releasing a mixtape called, “Wanna Buy Beats” – the idea spawned from all of the spam on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook to buy beats. So they bought a bunch and created an album.

    The Great Luke Ski: is the 21st century Weird Al Yankovich, but with better hair and no mustache! At Dragon*Con 2004, Dr. Demento declared “the great Luke Ski” to be his program’s “Most Requested Artist of the 21st Century”. Since then, he’s held that title by having songs on “Dr. Demento Show’s” annual year-end “Funny 25” countdown of his most requested songs for nine years running, two of which ranked #1 (“Peter Parker” 2002, “Stealing Like A Hobbit” 2003), & two ranked #2 (“You Don’t Know Jack” 2006, “Too Much Stuff” 2009). His song parodies, originals, and sketches about pop culture make him a popular act at sci-fi and geek conventions nationwide. In his 9 albums and 1 DVD release he’s covered: Lord of The Rings, Star Wars Star Trek, Battlestar Gelactica, Anime, Marvel, Spider-Man, and much much more!

    John Campbell: is best known for a popular web comic Pictures For Sad Children, but he is no stranger to gallery art. His work is satirical by nature and his humor has been described as “…mostly dark, incorporating elements of magic realism…” Campbell, began his work in 2007 while he lived in Zacatecas, Mexico, but has since moved to Chicago, released a book of the first 200 comics and continues to exhibit his gallery work with great success.

    Rotofugi Artists: Rotofugi is a fantastically geeky store notable for carrying a culture of toys whose origins trace back to China and Japan. Established in 2004 by husband and wife Kirby and Whitney Kerr, the store is a staple destination for geeks and nerds of Chicago. The store runs a gallery that will be exhibiting work from various artists that they represent (including Shawnimals and Squibbles Ink)

    That Juggling Guy aka Brad French: will make his second appearance at Words That Kill. A juggler and comedian, Brad is known to wonder off into ontological and existential discourses while trying to keep several objects in the air.

    Corey Arcangel is a digital artist from Brooklyn, NY. His work is concerned with the relationship between technology and culture, and media appropriation. He uses many different media including drawing, sculpture, video, and photographs but is best known for his video game ROM hacks.

    DJ Limbs: Nerdcore and Top Geek 40’s all night!

    Additional visual artists include: Seamus P Burke (of web comic Oh Goodie!) and Sara Brumlick (of Dikkers Animation)
    Hosted by Lethal Poetry’s President Mojdeh Stoakley as William Shatner!
    __________________________________________________________

    Words That Kill has been repeatedly selected for Metromix’s “Best Bets” column, written about in Sun-Times, and reviewed in NewCity. Our past performers include such distinguished comedians and poets as Marc Kelly Smith, Javon Johnson, Cameron Esposito, Marty McConnell, Michael Lebovitz, Chad Briggs, Robbie Q. Telfer, Brian Babylon, Shannon Matesky, Avery R. Young and others!

    Lethal Poetry is an arts/entertainment company and label built to support non-profits through the arts. LP produces interdisciplinary art exhibitions, music, comedy & poetry events, and seeks to utilize arts & entertainment as means to provide public service.

  • Margaret Hicks Reads From Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History 5/28

    Famous for being a city of broad shoulders, Chicago has also developed an international reputation for split sides and slapped knees. Watch the “Chicago Style of Comedy” evolve from nineteenth-century vaudeville, through the rebellious comics of the 50’s, and into the improvisation and sketch that ushered in a new millennium. Drawing on material both hilarious and profound, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History touches on what makes Chicago different from other cities and how that difference produced some of the greatest minds comedy will ever know: Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, Lenny Bruce, Del Close, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and so many, many more.

    Margaret Hicks is a professional tour guide in Chicago, who has been giving walking tours in the loop (like her tour of Old Town offered through the famous Second City Comedy Club) since she completed the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s docent program in 2004.  She maintains her own website at chicagoelevated.com and has had years of experience in the Chicago comedy scene working at improv theaters and stand-up clubs.

    Sat, May 28th, 7pm

  • Calling All Nerdy Sluts & Slutty Nerds: Shappy Seasholtz & Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz Read at Quimbys

    Poets Shappy Seasholtz and Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz have had a pretty incredible last few months. In August, they left New York City (their home for the eight years) to move to Philadelphia, where Aptowicz had been awarded the 2010-2011 ArtsEdge Writer-in-Residency at the University of Pennsylvania– the first time that the honor had been given to a slam poet.

    In October 2010, Seasholtz won the slot to represent Philadelphia at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships, where he competed in December, placing in the top 10 after the first night of competition. In November 2010, it was announced that Aptowicz had been awarded a 2011 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. And in 2011, a combined total of five books of poetry – covering the couple’s compete back catalogue – are being released on two separate independent presses.

    Shappy Seasholtz’s Spoken Nerd Revolution (Pennmanship Books, 2011) covers Seasholtz’s 20 year history in Performance Poetry. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s Hot Teen Slut – her memoir-in-verse about the year she spent as a writer for porn – is one of four books by Cristin being re-issued in expanded editions by Write Bloody Publishing..

    “Reading Spoken Nerd Revolution was like looking in a fun house mirror, letting us laugh at and relish in our own oddity.  He makes nerd beautiful. Shappy pees on the shoes of the accepted poetic stereotypes.  He’s not writing the verses that will be dissected into eulogies and greeting cards, or blasted atop break beats until the meaning is lost.   These are real words, from a hilariously cynical and sincere person.  Everyone needs a Shappy in their life..” – John Hancock, The Legendary

    “When Aptowicz graduated from college, she got a job as porn editor. Hot Teen Slut are the poems she wrote about that time. The poems are as much about that first foray into the real world as they are about the day-to-day life of a porn editor. They are funny and painful and funny. I understand that what I’m about to say might seem a little nuts to poetry pros, but I’m going to say it anyway: I have found the greatest book of poetry ever written.” – Melissa Lion, Bookslut

    Quimbys is proud to be welcoming Shaptowicz back! Special guests and refreshments will be provided!

    For more info: uncleshappy.com and aptowicz.com

    Sat, Apr 16th, 7pm

  • Patton Oswalt! Not at Quimby's, But at Reckless Records 3/18

    Comedian Patton Oswalt will be signing his book Zombie Spaceship Wasteland at the Reckless Records in Wicker Park! And we’ll be there at Reckless too, selling it, as well as an unabridged audio CD version of the book. Of course Reckless will be selling other Patton Oswalt CDs to complete your collection.

    Reckless Records is at 1532 N Milwaukee Ave, just a 5 minute walk from Quimby’s.

    Yes! This event has been updated! It is now, in fact, March 18th at 3:30pm, coincidentally rescheduled to coincide with the C2E2 comics convention. Come to Chicago for the comics. Stay for the Patton.

    Prepare yourself for a journey through the world of Patton Oswalt, one of the most creative, insightful, and hysterical voices on the entertain­ment scene today. Widely known for his roles in the films Big Fan and Ratatouille, as well as the television hit The King of Queens, Patton Oswalt—a staple of Comedy Central—has been amusing audiences for decades. Now, with Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, he offers a fascinating look into his most unusual, and lovable, mindscape.

    Oswalt combines memoir with uproarious humor, from snow forts to Dungeons & Dragons to gifts from Grandma that had to be explained. He remem­bers his teen summers spent working in a movie Cineplex and his early years doing stand-up. Readers are also treated to several graphic elements, includ­ing a vampire tale for the rest of us and some greeting cards with a special touch. Then there’s the book’s centerpiece, which posits that before all young creative minds have anything to write about, they will home in on one of three story lines: zom­bies, spaceships, or wastelands.

    Oswalt chose wastelands, and ever since he has been mining our society’s wasteland for perversion and excess, pop culture and fatty foods, indie rock and single-malt scotch. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is an inventive account of the evolution of Patton Oswalt’s wildly insightful worldview, sure to indulge his legion of fans and lure many new admirers to his very entertaining “wasteland.”

    This event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at Reckless Records at 1532 N Milwaukee Ave, just a 5 minute walk from Quimby’s.

    For more info:
    www.reckless.com
    www.pattonoswalt.com

    Please note! This event was originally scheduled for Friday, February 18th. It is now scheduled for Friday, March 18th at 3:30pm.