BY SUSAN HUBBARD
Mark your calendar. On Thursday, July 19, at The Biograph, for two shows only, Chicago’s fourth annual Chicago Short Comedy Video and Film Festival will showcase 32 short films by local comedy talent. Films range from 30 seconds to 12 minutes in length, with most in the 3-5 minute range. That’s a lot of laughs for each two-hour show.
Saturday Night Live (SNL) filmmaker Adam McKay will open the 7:30 p.m. show with two films, The Procedure starring Andy Richter and Willem Defoe, and Five Finger Discount starring Chicagoan Patrick McCartney and SNL’s Molly Shannon. The two together total less than seven minutes.
Also in the 7:30 line-up are Bill Wards’ Hair of the Dog and a trailer for Dre Robinson’s Pimps. The six-minute Widower about "a screenwriter’s brief escape from matrimony," is a collaboration between Chicagoan Dave Pasquesi, who has appeared in such films as Groundhog Day and Father of the Bride, and festival co-founder Willy Laszlo.
About half of this year’s films were contributed by filmmakers with experience in performing live comedy in Chicago, especially at Second City, ImprovOlympic and The Annoyance Theatre, according to Marion Sours, fest co-creator.
"Our requirement for the festival is that all shorts were made by filmmakers who were residents of Chicago at the time the film was made," says Sours. "The only exceptions are the two Saturday Night Live films, and we made the exception for these films because they illustrate the work of Adam McKay, a former Chicagoan."
Second City alum Tim Kazurinsky, former SNL head writer and screenwriter of About Last Night and My Bodyguard, among others, teamed up with Laszlo to make the four-minute Handicapped Hunters, about "accessible blood sports." Rich Talarico, who appeared in High Fidelity, collaborated with Leroy Koetz to make the 12-minute Stewart.
The festival was launched in 1998 by Laszlo and Sours, who had worked together on a live comedy variety show that included short comedy videos from Chicago filmmakers. The shorts were a hit and the two decided to develop a festival highlighting future Chicago-made comedy shorts. The fest premiered in July of 1998 at the Ivanhoe Theater and filled more than 750 seats during the evening, a major achievement for a first-year film festival.
"People who work in comedy in Chicago are very supportive of each other, and it seems that they keep this same attitude even when they move to jobs in Los Angeles and New York," says Sours. "One factor behind the success of the festival has been the willingness of celebrities to lend their names and talent to it."
The 9:30 p.m. show will open with a short talk by Joyce Sloane, producer emeritus of Second City, who has worked with the company for 40 years. "Second City is responsible for nurturing some of the foremost comedic minds in the world today," says Sloane. "You can hardly turn on the television or watch a film or see a play without seeing the work by someone with a Second City connection. This festival lets the community get together and see each other’s work. And it’s a place to begin experimenting with showcasing comedy work in a film format."
Kazurinsky calls the festival "a grassroots effort" and the "next logical step from making sketch comedy." Adding that, "Filming your work allows you to expand your repertoire for comedy, use visual tricks you can’t do on stage, edit out the stuff that doesn’t work. Like taking improv classes, filmmaking helps writer/performers develop characters and know when a scene is played out. And there are no executive producers calling the shots!"
McKay, originally from Philadelphia, trained at ImprovOlympic with Del Close and Charna Halpern. McKay describes the Chicago school of comedy as "working at the top of your intelligence and still pleasing an audience." McKay was performing in Second City’s Pinata Full of Bees and shooting hand-held video of his Upright Citizens Brigade’s
comedy sketches when he got a chance to audition for Saturday Night Live. He worked first as a staff writer there and then as head writer for three years. Having always wanted to write and direct films, he pitched the idea to Lorne Michaels and got support to switch completely to making shorts for the show.
Filmmaker Koetz has been making commercials in Chicago for 20 years and wanted to do something different. He teamed up with Talarico two years ago for their first submission to the fest. This year they shot six hours of all-improvised material for Stewart. "We are the premiere comedy town but in terms of filmmaking, we’re further down the list," says Koetz. He’d like his work for the festival to lead to creative partnerships for making a comedy feature film. "I like to be part of a collaborative effort and make people laugh," he says.
For a preview of films and ticket information see: www.witsendshorts.com/festival.html. Admission is $10 per show. Tickets are available at The Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln, after noon on July 19. Phone reservations accepted at 312/409-1860.