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By Alison Neumer Lara
Special to the Tribune
Chicago Tribune
Published February 10, 2006
Laughs at Lincoln Lodge
Settle into a Naugahyde chair and enter the kitschy, hilarious world of Lincoln Lodge. Now in its sixth season, this venue for underground stand-up comedy offers a lineup of established and up-and-coming talent plus a sprinkling of variety acts.
The Thursday-Friday show takes place in a circa-1970s banquet room at the back of Lincoln Restaurant, an ordinary greasy spoon marked by an enormous Abraham Lincoln sign hovering over the street.
Co-organizer Tom Lawler, fellow comedian Mark Geary and a handful of volunteers and performers convert the space every week--bringing in lights, sound equipment and a stage--and break it down after every performance.
On Fridays, the room is packed. The night I visited, all 50 seats were full and another 20 people stood in the back by the bar.
The hosts were Lincoln Lodge regulars, identifiable by the Shriners-style uniform of a sport jacket and fez. There was some solid stand-up comedy, and the evening's goofy highlight was a narrated slide show ruminating on the many uses of a shoehorn.
Tacky? Yes, but in that wonderful gut-busting way, Lawler hopes. But the Lodge also draws quality comics who have appeared on the likes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brian" and Comedy Central. "For the most part, it's [about] the rising stars of Chicago comedy," Lawler says.
9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays through May, at 4008 N. Lincoln Ave. $8; contact 773-251-1539 or thelincolnlodge.com.
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By Elunia Chroback
Diversions Writer
Loyola Phoenix
February 15, 2006
It's another typical Friday night: You've got $10 in your pocket and you're just itching to get out and discover something new. Perhaps a little off-beat comedy is what you need to satisfy your entertainment cravings - a show that could go in any direction, during which you're never entirely sure what to expect. A night of stand-up comedy at "The Lincoln Lodge" might be the place to find it.
"The Lincoln Lodge" is a stand-up comedy and variety show that plays Thursdays and Fridays at Chicago's Lincoln Restaurant. In addition to a cast of stand-up comics, variety and music acts are rotated each week. The Lincoln Restaurant, located on 4008 N. Lincoln Ave., is easily accessible via the CTA Brown Line at the Irving Park stop.
Upon walking into the Lincoln Restaurant, a brightly-lit diner lined with booths and tables, you'll wonder where it is that a comedy show can be held. You'll be directed into the restaurant's back room, which is transformed on nights that "The Lincoln Lodge" is performed. This room presents a completely different feel. Red, orange and gray 1970s carpet lines the floor, dim lighting circulates the entire room, several tables are lined with crimson and gold-studded leather chairs and up front a small stage, barely elevated, awaits the beginning of the night's show.
"The Lincoln Lodge" has played host to established comedians such as Fred Armisen ("Saturday Night Live") and Neil Hamburger (Drag City Records). It makes a point of showcasing the most promising up-and-coming stand-up comics performing in Chicago and the Midwest. A typical night will include a host, three to four stand-up comedians and a group variety act.
Prior to the show, music plays in the background while waiters and waitresses serve the guests as they sit back and enjoy the unique ambiance of the place. The last song before the beginning of the show begins with distinguishing fanfare to announce the entrance of the night's host. This past Friday, comedian Josh Cheney hosted the show and began with his own short segment of stand-up, which encompassed a variety of topics, including, believe it or not, a science experiment testing Newton's law of gravity by rolling up the two segments of his tie. The pun? "It's a tie!"
David Angelo was the second comedian to entertain the audience that night. His kind of random, awkward humor involved long pauses and repetitions of the same joke with different punchlines, which for some audience members, was hilarious. For others, a more lively comedian might have provided for a better show. In that case, Sean Flannery, whose material covered everything from the good old days of playing Oregon Trail to the population of Taco Bell after midnight, kept the audience enthralled and laughing throughout his entire segment. As with any stand-up show, every comic adds his or her own humor to the mix. In addition to live stage comedy, the show includes a couple of short "man (or woman)-on-the-street" segments broadcasting from right outside the restaurant and presented to the audience on a big screen to the left of the stage. This segment is a sort of play on Jay Leno's "Jay Walking." However, it doesn't exactly seem to fit on the North Side of Chicago, where frankly, outside of the restaurant, there isn't too much happening. Even so, it is up to the comedian, not the various passers-by, to entertain the audience.
Every week a new line of comedians highlights the night, so it's hard to tell what each show will hold. For just about the price of a movie - admission is $8 with a one drink minimum - it may be something to check out. As is true for most variety shows, each night has high and low points, but "The Lincoln Lodge" is different from your run-of-the-mill comedy performance, and just might give you what you're looking for.
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Snubfest gives rejected comics a second chance
By Julia Borcherts
Time Out Chicago
January 12, 2006
SNUB-A-DUB-DUB Sketch troupe The Brothel works hard to prove it's festival worthy. It began a year ago with a rejection letter and a hole in the Cornservatory's schedule.
"The space was available for a weekend," says Angela McMahon, whose company, Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, has been in residence at the Lincoln Square theater since 2000. "We'd just gotten turned down by a comedy festival, so my husband, Tom, suggested a 'reject fest.' It's the same idea as what Slamdance is to the Sundance Film Festival. And it's an opportunity to laugh at ourselves."
In just three weeks, McMahon recruited a lineup of artists who had been kicked to the curb by other festivals, and Snubfest was born. Its success persuaded the McMahons and Corn Productions to host an annual underdog event. Provided they had been passed over by at least one comedy festival in 2005, all acts that applied to Snubfest '06 were accepted.
"It's a wide, varied group, going off in every direction," says Corn Productions' Robert Bouwman. "There's sketch comedy, straight improv, games and long form."
Snubfest '06 features a dozen rebuked ensembles from across the country, who all throw down at the Cornservatory in three-segment showcases on Thursday 12, Friday 13 and Sunday 15. Performers aren't scouted by HBO, but they can earn slots at Chicago Sketchfest* and Chicago Improv Festival. There's also a Saturday midnight improv jam and a Sunday screening of humorous (but dismissed) short films.
New to this year's lineup is a stand-up contest at Lincoln Restaurant. Lincoln Lodge, in its sixth year of weekly comedy shows at the old-school eatery, joined Snubfest when McMahon contacted the producers for leads on potential stand-up judges.
"We did one better by volunteering to participate as a venue," says Lodge coproducer Tom Lawler. "Snubfest made a lot of noise in its first year, and since Angie's doing most of the heavy lifting, we saw a great opportunity to ride her coattails."
Seven solo funnymen -- including Chicago Underground Comedy founder Tony Sam, Edge Comedy's Dave Odd and Second City TourCo member TJ Miller -- will be rated on humor, performance skills and comic chutzpah by a panel of three audience members. The winner receives the Dwight "Hairy" Heggenberger Memorial Award for Comedic Achievement (in honor of the Lodge's fictitious founder), which consists of an onion burger, fries and a Coke (Heggenberger's favorite meal)Ñplus a cash prize of $19.76, signifying the year he disappeared.
Friday and Saturday's performances at the Cornservatory are capped off by The Last Snob Standing contest for selected festival acts, judged by Lawler, Bouwman, WNEP Theater's Don Hall, Toronto Improv Festival's Kevin Patrick Robbins and a secret celebrity from an influential local comedy club. The winner hosts Snubfest's closing night, but all contestants get feedback, whether or not they want it.
"I'm the Simon Cowell of the festival," Hall admits. "I don't particularly like improv or sketch comedy, although I happen to direct both. When it comes to judging, I have no mercy."
So why would anyone pay to see shows that weren't good enough to get into festivals?
"Everyone gets rejected at some point," McMahon says, "and the most common reason is that their application materials are incorrect or don't reflect their talent."
"There are lots of good comedy acts that submit crap tapes," agrees Hall, who also selects candidates for Chicago Improv Festival and teaches a class about improving your odds in the festival lottery. "If I've got 75 tapes to go through, and I spend the first five minutes of a tape watching the audience walking in, I'll hit the eject button before I even see their actual show."
Hall believes that the original rejections benefit Snubfest audiences by motivating performers to tighten up their acts.
"People who've been turned down have something to prove," he says.
And even though McMahon and Bouwman concede that some of last year's performances were weaker than others, it's worth the effort to seek out pleasant surprises.
"All of the out-of-town groups were outstanding," McMahon says. "And it's like saying, 'Why should I go to the Playground when I could go to Second City?' You never know when you'll see a diamond in the rough."
Snubfest acts get their day in the sun Thursday 12 to Sunday 15 at the Cornservatory and Lincoln Restaurant.
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Stand up and deliver
Thriving underground scene puts the edge back in comedy
By Allan Johnson
Tribune staff reporter
Chicago Tribune
April 8, 2005
Your typical comedy club consists of a stage, microphone and curtain or brick wall as a backdrop.
But there's another comedy club in Chicagoland where there might not be a stage at all or even a microphone--an underground spot where the club might be in the back of a restaurant or bar.
This comedy scene gives emerging talent and more daring stand-ups a chance to try out a twisted punch line, or even get booed off the stage, at shows such as "The Elevated" at Cherry Red on North Sheffield Avenue or "Da Comedy Corner" at Amelia's on West Grand Avenue.
"Pretty much every single night of the week there's some kind of show going on somewhere in the city," says comic and producer Dave Odd.
The underground scene may not be as prosperous as the so-called comedy boom of the late 1980s and early '90s, when national chains such as Catch a Rising Star and the Improv brought the Jerry Seinfelds and Ellen DeGenereses to the area. But this new scene may be more vital, as it is developing the next Seinfeld and DeGeneres . . . if not the next Maron and Garofalo--Marc and Janeane, respectively, two players in the so-called "alternative" style, a quirky, non-traditional, sometimes bizarre comedy that turns stand-up on its ear.
And that "alternative" style is what's on view at many underground venues.
"What is successful with underground comedy is it pushes the form," says Cayne Collier, who runs The Elevated, a weekly showcase that has been running for more than eight years.
More than 10 years after the alternative scene was launched at New York's Luna Lounge and Los Angeles Un-Cabaret by Maron, Garofalo, Dave Attell, Kathy Griffin and others, the off-kilter comedy offshoot has found a niche in Chicago's underground community. It is thriving here because the alternative form is more acceptable in these venues than in mainstream clubs looking to entertain more general audiences.
"I've had performers who were very much set-up/punch [line] as far as the structure," says Collier, 32, "but what they chose to do [with the material] and the way they chose to do it was not mainstream."
The comedy is unconventional. It sometimes uses long stories with odd punch lines, jokes where the endings are unexpected, premises that are either aggressively social or political, or pushes the boundaries of taste and decorum.
Robert Buscemi, a comedian in Chicago who works underground rooms, feels a freedom in Chicago underground spots. "I don't feel stagnant artistically, either," says Buscemi, 35. "I feel more and more on my game. I feel that my writing gets tighter and tighter."
Amy Danzer, 30, of Rogers Park has seen Buscemi at various haunts around the city, and finds him "bizarro and disturbingly gritty at times, but it's good stuff."
Yet as much as Buscemi's career is blossoming, the underground scene will never replace Chicago stand-up institution Zanies on Wells Street. But while Zanies, which also has rooms in St. Charles and Vernon Hills (and a location in Nashville), is the most popular comedy club in the area, many of the comedians playing the underground rooms can't get work there. Because many of them lack the experience to handle crowds expecting a higher, more polished caliber of comedy. There are so few full time comedy clubs, and so many acts needing stage time to work out their material, that the underground scene blossomed.
"When I came back to comedy, I saw myself and a lot of other comics that were very promising and smart and funny not getting stage time, and not having a place where they could go do their act other than open mics," says Odd (a stage name), 28, a comic off and on since 1997. To give comics such as himself a voice, Odd devised the Edge, a comedy and variety showcase he's been producing for four years at several bars and clubs in the city and suburbs.
"I think there's such a lack of opportunities for guys to work in Chicago," the Skokie native says. "There's not that many clubs around, and it's hard to get into clubs that do exist."
One such outlet, the Red Lion Pub at Lincoln and Fullerton Avenues, provided open-mic comedy in a smoky, cramped room. In 2000, promoter Thomas Lawler, wanting to expand the Lion's scope, approached comic Mark Geary. The Lincoln Lodge was born that September in a back room of the Lincoln Restaurant on North Lincoln Avenue. It evolved into a mix of mainstream and alternative comedy, sketch and improv, live video bits, audience participation, and variety and music acts.
"Part of our business imperative was to add that little bit of structure to their [comedians'] proceedings," says Geary, 36. "Create more like an improv/sketch structure to a show where people are really invested in it and committed to it."
"It's a great time," Danzer says of the Lodge's loose ambience, willingness to embrace more adventurous comics, non-traditional comedy, including such familiar features as "Man on the Street" interviews with perplexed passers-by, conducted by a seemingly bored comic.
"What I also like about it is its non-pretentious environment. For the most part, everybody-- from emcees to hosts to wait staff to comics--is pretty down-to-earth."
There are no signs that the thriving underground comedy scene in Chicago is going away. As long as these multipurpose venues have drinks, music, food and other areas to fall back on (along with cheaper ticket prices--if they charge for admission at all), there will always be comedians prepared to add an extra dimension.
"For some of these alternative venues, all you need is a microphone, some chairs, and that's basically it," says Lawler, 33. "In San Francisco, you have people doing shows at Laundromats or luggage stores or wherever someone lets them set up a show.
"And that will happen anywhere you have ambitious comedians trying to make something happen for themselves."
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Where to find the funny
Some venues where the underground comedy scene is alive and laughing:
The Lincoln Lodge: A weekly cavalcade of comedians, variety acts and a repertory, this week's guests include hosts the Drury Brothers, comedians Sean Gardner, Dan Winter and Shawn Cole; and multimedia sketch group Park Avenue Produce; 9 p.m. Fridays, the Lincoln Restaurant, 4008 N. Lincoln Ave., $7; call 773-296-4029 or www.thelincolnlodge.com.
Da Comedy Corner: A group of stand-ups hit the stage for a bi-monthly performance hosted by Wildcat; 9 p.m. the second and fourth Fridays, Amelia's, 1235 W. Grand Ave., $10 for advance tickets; 312-718-8311.
Don't Spit the Water: Reminiscent of the old TV series "Make Me Laugh," where stand-ups try to get an audience to give up chuckles, except those holding their laughs also have to hold water in their mouths; 10:30 p.m. Fridays through April 22, the Playground Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St., $10; 773-871-3793.
Fourth Funny Fridays: Comedians hold court on the last Friday of each month; 7:30 p.m., the Holiday Inn, 500 Holiday Plaza Drive, Matteson, $15 for advance tickets; 708-957-8490.
Three-Ring Comedy Circus: A showcase of such local comedians as Robert Buscemi and others; 8 p.m. Mondays, Crush, 2843 N. Halsted St., free admission; 773-528-7569.
The Harmony: Comedy/variety show hosted by Jeff Grace; 8 p.m. Mondays, Bird's Nest, 2500 N. Southport Ave., $3-$5; 773-472-1502.
The Elevated: At more than eight years, the longest running independent comedy review in the city stars organizer Cayne Collier and this week features Eric Acosta, who is performing in Chicago for the last time before moving to Los Angeles; 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Cherry Red, 2833 N. Sheffield Ave., $4; 773-477-3661.
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Kitschy Lincoln Lodge provides an unlikely home for top-notch comedy
By Mark Sinclair
Time Out Chicago
March 10, 2005
When T.J. Miller moved to Chicago to hone his stand-up act, he paid his dues the same way all aspiring comics do: He scrambled for stage time in front of indifferent audiences at open mike nights.
The Washington, D.C. transplant vied for the crowd's attention night after night, battling noisy television sets and drunken softball teams. All the while, he dramed of landing of one Chicago's top gigs.
He wasn't necessarily focused on Zanies, the city's biggest name in stand-up. Instead Miller had his eye on scoring stage time at the Lincoln Lodge, a little-known weekly show in the back room of the North Side's old-school Lincoln Restaurant.
"It's the Second City or Improv Olympic of stand-up," he says. "When I felt I had ten minutes of solid material, that's when I approached the Lincoln Lodge. It was one of the places I looked to and thought, 'I really want to perform there.'"
The brainchild of comedians Thomas Lawler and Mark Geary, the Lincoln Lodge began to take shape six years ago when Lawler was eating dinner at the Lincoln Restaurant and he swore he heard banjos playing. Wanting to make sure he hadn't stumbled into a
Deliverance remake, he snuck a quick peek in to the restaurant's kitschy back room. There, he was stunned to see 15 banjo players entertaining a small, rapt audience.
"I was struck by the vintage quality of the room -- the wood paneling, the Naugahyde, the carpet," Lawler says. "It was so uncool it was cool."
The funky spot fit perfectly with the pair's plans. Geary had been producing an enormously popular open mike night at the nearby (and now defunct) bar the Red Lion, and the two wanted to branch out with their own showcase featuring handpicked comics (unlike at an open mike, where the joke tellers just show up and hope to get on stage.)
Inspired by the tacky room, the duo invented the myth of "Hairy" Heggenberger, a shady lounge owner from Muskegon, Michigan who disappeared mysteriously just days before his restaurant burned to the ground in 1976. According to the legend, a Chicago comedy afficianado found some yellowed remanants from the original club and honored Heggenberger's dream by recreating his variety act in a place where he imagined o' Hairy would feel right at home.
Lawler and Geary invested in curtains, a folding stage, a soundboard and a lighting system. But even these professional accoutrements couldn't hide the truth: "When we first started the show, it was bloody awful," Geary admits.
Over their five-year history, they've refined the production to include an array of audiovisual gadgetry, including a live feed from a camera outside the restaurant that they use for a running "man on the street" gag.
Now, Geary says the high production values separate it from similar shows across the country.
"In comedy, there's a whole subculture of one-nighter rooms," he says noting Luna Lounge in New York and the Un-Cabaret in Los Angeles. "But a lot of those rooms are run with very little production value." It's just performers goofing off. We said, "Yes, the Lincoln Lodge is an avant-garde room with semi-professionals, but it will be run like a business."
Any given night at the Lincoln Lodge will find at least one "joke guy" who does straight-ahead bits, some experimental talent and a host from the Lincoln Lodge "repertory," a group of well-respected local performers who have earned regular stage time. Other acts might include magicians, poets, musicians and anybody else with stage-worthy talent.
"There are some people who don't like stand-up comedy -- the form's been a bit downgraded with overexposure and TV," Lawler says. "And this city's all about improv. We wanted to build this whole experience that's so much richer than seeing three comics doing stand-up for a few minutes each."
The Lodge attracts more than just fresh-faced locals breaking free from their open mike shackles. Fred Armisen did time there during his pre-
SNL days, and Emmy-winning Chicago native Tom Agna, who's written for
Late Night With Conan O'Brien and
The Chris Rock Show, take the stage whenever he's in town.
The level of established and up-and-coming talent regularly gracing the Lodge's stage has earned the show bragging rights, according to Miller.
"It's hipper, edgier, smarter comedy -- it's the A-room of the Chicago comedy scene," he says. "If people know about it and go there, they won't be disappointed. People will walk away feeling like they got their money's worth."
The Lincoln Lodge comedy nights run Fridays at 9pm.
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Two ambitious comedians have used a wacky show formula (and an empty banquet room) to create Chicago's most unique comedy experience.
By Erin Brereton
CenterStage Chicago/Chicago Sun-Times
November 2, 2003
How many comedians does it take to change a light bulb? According to Lincoln Lodge co-organizer Mark Geary, two -- one to replace the bulb (and do other assorted production tasks) and one to handle promotions and marketing.
At least, that's the arrangement Geary and Thomas Lawler have devised to run the Lincoln Lodge, a wildly offbeat weekly Chicago comedy venue that runs from September to May each year. Lawler handles the press kits, the talent scouting and much of the booking; Geary is in charge of setting up the stage, the sound and everything else technical for the Friday night shows. Because, he says -- punchline, please -- "To be honest, Tom found the room, but he can barely screw in a light bulb."
Stand-up Room Only
The room is indeed a discovery. It's located in the back (you have to almost pass through the kitchen to get there) of the Lincoln Restaurant, a diner at 4008 N. Lincoln best known for the giant Abraham Lincoln sign that hangs out front. Red, orange and gray 1970s living room carpet lines the floor; tables and lush black and cranberry leather chairs dot the room; and a dimly lit bar looks like it was lifted from someoneÕs basement, right down to the Becks beer family crest hanging on the wall.
"[I was] just eating dinner there and I heard some banjos and saw the room," Lawler says. "I thought it had a lot of potential and that this was a place a show should be."
Others agree. "It's just surreal," says comedian Steve O. Harvey, a Lincoln Lodge regular who helps out working the soundboard each week. "It looks like a Shriner's Club."
Geary and Lawler have made an effort to get frequent performers more involved in the Lodge work, partially to relieve themselves of some duties and partially to build a more familial atmosphere. Another comedian, Josh Cheney, also volunteers weekly, taking the $7 admission fee at the door.
As Geary prepares the stage for the fourth show of the season, Harvey, who sports dark-rimmed glasses and grown mutton chops that stretch down much of his face, tests the microphones from his station in the bar area.
"The Chicago comedy scene is like a big shark tank and there's no meat," Harvey says. "Your opportunities to go up [on stage] are rare. People are glad to play here because it's such a fun and hip thing to [do]. To do well and be asked back, that's a mark in your cap. That's an accomplishment."
Send in the Clowns
It's their brand of off-the-cuff quirkiness that draws weekly crowds of as many as 50, a mix of older and younger locals who come for laughs and the Lincoln Lodge's mammoth 32-oz. beer mugs. The audience is, Harvey explains, a much better crowd than some local stand-ups are used to.
"They're here to see live comedy," he says. "It's not like a sports club with comedy on Thursday nights."
This was the co-founders dreamÑto create a wholly different venue for Chicago comedians. Lawler, who works in marketing, approached Geary, a business systems analyst at Abbott Labs, with the concept four years ago.
"He says, 'Here's the deal, I'll coordinate, you set it up,'"Geary says. Geary, an energetic Brit wearing hipster jeans and a Lincoln Lodge T-shirt, shares some of the coordination duties. He helps find new talent whenever possible and personally scours kitschy toy store Uncle Fun for the weekly audience prizes (tonight's gems are a
Welcome Back, Kotter folder and
Alf candy).
Chicago is known for being a comedy-friendly town; but with all the emphasis on improv, some say there's not much interest in a guy with a microphone. It hasn't been easy for the Lincoln Lodge either. Though the premise had potentialÑdesigned to look like a Wisconsin supper club, the Lodge even had its own imagined folklore yarn, about a Michigan man who died before fulfilling his dream to start a similar venue -- by the end of the second year, attendance was still spotty and they didn't feel the venture was successful.
The comedians retooled the show's format and the seats started filling.
"We tightened up the comedian rotation in the second year," Geary says. "We were running an open shop. We made a list of people on the comedy scene and the ones who were really committed to the show."
Take My Program, Please!
This year's season, the Lodge's fourth, started out slow because of the Cubs playoff series but rebounded with a full house the following week. Tonight's crowd is almost that, with just a few empty chairs visible in the audience. While Geary and Lawler work hard to fill those seats, the performers are also asked to promote attendance by inviting friends and family.
"What we're trying to do here is to get people tuned in," Geary says. That includes the other talent that appears in the show, everything from tarot card readers to filmmakers with homemade cartoons to folk singers. "Getting comedians is no problem. Variety acts hear stand-up and run a mile the other way."
It may be hard to find, but the non-funny man component is an important part of the Lincoln Lodge's act.
"Basically, our formula is a host and three comedians and two variety acts," Geary says. "For the three comedians, we start with the new guy, give him eight minutes and then have two headline spots. The first headliner, he's the avant-garde guy. The second comedian, we call him the meat-and-potatoes guy. He's the traditional comedian."
The mixture works. Tonight's first comedian self deprecates and rails on the rock band Creed; the second performer makes the audience laugh with jabs at the Snuggles fabric softener bear and stories about injuring herself while high. The third comedian tells a rambling but funny tale of his OxyContin-addicted brother.
Background Laughter
After the scrappy comedians finish their sets and a brilliant musician sings several farcical songs (such as "You Can't Have My Eggs"), the host again appears on the stage to close the show. As the lights come back on, the host yells out, "Tip your waitress! Half of us are waiters!" and the room laughs again.
A tip for Geary and Lawler, who couldn't attend tonight's show, might also be in order. The Lincoln Restaurant lets them use the back room for free because it makes money off food and drink bought during the show, but the two comedians purchase the technical equipment, pay for advertising and all other show expenses out of pocket.
In its previous three seasons, the Lincoln Lodge didn't make a profit. Lawler and Geary don't even break even.
"We're just custodians of this thing," Geary says, "We're not going to make a million dollars. In fact, we're setting ourselves back in terms of [personal] performing time and [money]. Essentially, it's an expensive hobby."
Still, Lawler and Geary are hoping to add an extra weekly show -- a Thursday night extravaganza -- by the end of this season. To them, making money off the Lodge has never been a consideration.
"If we can establish quality stand-up comedy and the people are interested, that's what it's about," Geary says.
The shows run at 9 p.m. Friday, September through May at 4008 N. Lincoln. Cover is $7 and includes a one-drink minimum. For more information, visit the official web site at www.thelincolnlodge.com.
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