Schwa In Wheaton

One of Jeff's old students opened an improv theater in Wheaton, West Side Improv, and asked Schwa to come do a set for opening night. Karisa picked Danny, Jeannie, and I up in the loop after work and we headed out to the suburbs. The traffic was pretty dreadful but it was nice to spend an hour in the car together telling stories, catching up, and gossiping. It's not something we usually have the time or opportunity to do so the car ride in and of itself was a real treat.

We met Brett and Jeff in downtown Wheaton and had a bite before the show. The theater is in a converted basement, pretty intimate, probably sat fifty or so reminded me a little of the old iO cabaret. The six of us walked in, it was a packed crowd, and got a certain amount of attention. It was cool and weird. We'll get some kind of recognition at iO but this was a little more focused, a little more energized. It felt like the expectations were pretty high, us being billed as the veteran Chicago team, a reputation Schwa has certainly earned.

We closed out the night and the show went great. The crowd was reacting a lot from the get go, seemed like they were really hungry for it, really wanting to laugh, seemed very fresh. The intimacy of the theater itself helped us to create a good energetic groove. The set was a little longer than we're use to but we didn't run out of steam, we hit a couple peaks and a couple valleys and ended on an upswing. Jeff and Jeannie have been gone the past two Sundays so it was nice to have them back for this fun one-off.

It was refreshing to get out of the city with the team, bond a little, and do a fun show for a very receptive audience. It's good every now and again to break your routine and do something different, adjust your perspective, shake things loose.