What do they have at the old time Art Festival in Chicago this weekend?
The laughs really depend on you when Chicago City Limits performs at the Columbia Festival of the Arts this Tuesday, June 16 at The Jim Rouse Theatre. That’s because this improv company relies on suggestions from the audience. There’s a long history behind all that spontaneity. Students affiliated with the Chicago-based Second City spun off from it and formed Chicago City Limits in 1977, and then moved to New York City in 1979. In effect, comedians from America’s traditional second city moved to its first city. Chicago City Limits’ resident company has been based in New York ever since, but it also has a touring company of four or five members. These are the traveling players who’ll be doing a show called “My Space or Yours?” in Columbia. Whether this improv troupe is doing a sketch that has a semblance of structure or is doing a totally improvised bit, it needs to be sensitive to the demographically varied audiences it encounters on the road. “The audience is calling things out, so yo
