STEP UP TO THE MIKE

WANNABE PERFORMERS FIND A STAGE - AND AN OUTLET

By Jeff Favre. Special to the Tribune.
Published: Friday, February 17, 1995
Section: FRIDAY
Page: 30

In a city with more wannabe actors, writers, singers and comedians than there are lights in the John Hancock Building, finding room to let your talent shine may seem daunting.

But a resourceful artist can star every night of the week-if you know where to go.

The open microphone, a longtime tradition enjoying new popularity in bars, clubs and cafes, allows unknowns to strut their stuff, network with other performers and work on new material. Once you hand the mike over to anyone who wants it, you never know what you'll find: Performers may bring erotic poetry, jazz memories or even puppet theater to the stage.

For the non-performers, the low (or no) open-mike covers make for a cheap, and often amusing, date.

These open stages showcase some of the city's best undiscovered talents, in between the occasional clunker:

Cue Club, Heckler's Heaven, 8 p.m. Wednesdays, 2833 N. Sheffield Ave., 312-477-3661, $2 before 7:30 p.m., $5 after.

As the name implies, this is not for the weak of heart. Gerald Lott, a talent manager, designed the show after being dragged to other open mikes by one of his comedians.

"Every night it was, `I'll laugh at you if you laugh at me,' and you'll never get better with a crowd like that," Lott says. "I thought, let's make it a hostile audience. And it's a competition where I give the winner $200 out of my own pocket."

The rules allow any comedian to get up and perform, unharassed, for three minutes, until a whistle is blown and the lights are raised.

Then the chips fly. For each comedian, three judges are selected from the audience. They are given a rubber chicken to toss on stage if they are unimpressed. Comedians with three chickens thrown before the five-minute time limit are eliminated.

Deon Cole, a comedian who has toured with HBO's "Def Comedy Jam," frequents Heckler's Heaven when he's in town.

"I love the mixture of the crowd," says Cole, 24. "The comedy doesn't have to focus on one race, which is very uncommon in this city. They allow people to heckle, so it's up to you to make your comedy versatile. And if you succeed then it shows that you can do any kind of comedy at any place."

FitzGerald's, Rhythm & Rhyme Review, 8 p.m. Tuesdays, 6615 Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn, 708-788-2118, $2 (performers receive a free pass to future shows).

Host Scott Momenthy meets with 10 to 14 performers before the two-stage show to determine an order, alternating between mainstage musicians (heavy on modern folk) and side-stage poets.

"I make it very clear before a show that the audience is here to listen, and the crowds are very supportive of it," Momenthy says. "I try to run it like a real show, and there is little down time between acts."

A recent show includes a young poet expounding on the lurid dreams of Freud, followed by Joseph Kostal of Cicero, an amateur singer-songwriter who performs for the attentive crowd of 50, mostly middle-age.

"This is one of the best open mikes because when you're up there, you're being heard," Kostal says.

Each show is followed by a featured artist, some of whom were found during previous open mikes.

Gentry of Chicago, 9 p.m. Wednesdays, 712 N. Rush St., 312-664-1033, no cover.

Beckie Menzie, a professional entertainer with a gift for sight reading, plays guide and mentor for anyone who wants to grab the spotlight and jump into a jazz tune or show off their Sondheim.

"I want to try that again," actress Lisa Menninger tells Menzie after she falters at the climax note of a "Les Miserables" tune. Menzie, smiling with enough confidence for two, backs up a refrain and begins again.

This time Menninger hits it, to thunderous applause.

"I do everything in my power to make sure that everyone sounds as good as they possibly can," Menzie says. "It takes a lot of guts to get up there, and they need all the support they can get."

Although Gentry is a gay bar, all are welcome and encouraged to perform.

"It's great to see someone come in who sits in front of a computer all day but loves Broadway musicals and has always wanted to sing," says Mark Hawbecker, who has been coming for five years.

The main room is small, seating two dozen, and a monitor in an adjoining room allows latecomers to watch the show. The regular bar's thumping disco music detracts from the more elegant numbers, so an early arrival is recommended.

The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, Poetry Open Mic and Poetry Slam, 7 p.m. Sundays, 4802 N. Broadway, 312-878-5552, $5.

As the hippest of the hip and the coolest of the cool, The Green Mill is known throughout poetry circles as The Place to show your stuff to a brutally honest crowd.

Marc Smith, the guru of aspiring poets, has run the open mike and the slam, a cutthroat competition, at The Green Mill for eight years.

"This slam started 50 other slams worldwide and spawned most of the readings in Chicago," Smith says. "The poetry is always changing. It's like a lake filtered by a strong river, and it never get stagnant."

The open mike is first, followed by a featured artist and the slam. Smith suggests newcomers try the open mike-the audience is tough but not as demanding.

"We do not do polite applause here," Smith says to the youthful house of more than 50. "If we think something is bad, we snap our fingers."

The crowd prepares for the worst but receives a dose of solid free-form poets discussing fantasies of heroism and the trappings of loneliness. Numerous eruptions of applause-not snaps-fill the evening.

Hitchcock's, 9 p.m. Wednesdays, 1157 W. Wrightwood Ave., 312-935-3760, no cover.

Hitchcock's allows standups a chance to perform on the big screen-the TV screen, that is. With the aid of a camcorder and a pull-down screen behind the audience, a comedian can perform and watch the act too. Anyone who brings a videocassette can have a tape made.

Standing with his back to the large picture windows overlooking the sidewalk, guest host Cayne Collier opens the show with some of his new material, including a Mick Jagger impersonation.

"It's a polite crowd, a comics' crowd," says Collier, 22, who has hosted the night three times. "I root for them to do well and they root for me."

The crowd of 30, almost all comedians, refrains from heckling even the weakest acts.

Le Cafe, Open & Out, 7 p.m. first and third Sunday of each month, 3343 N. Clark St., 312-665-7300, no cover.

Emcee Dave Ouano bills Open & Out as the city's only open mike with an emphasis on gay and lesbian themes.

Although the stage is open to anyone, the majority of performers on a recent Sunday are gay men. Material ranges from erotic poetry to a short story about a London drag queen.

"We've been here about a year," Ouano says. "There are a lot of regulars, but we have new people come in all the time. It's mostly poetry, but we've also had a cappella songs and monologues."

Tonight's offerings include a short piece of an aria, a gay-themed piece titled "Joan of Arc Stole My Boyfriend" and some Zionist revolutionary poetry.

Tara Moyle, 25, recites a poem about a friend who recently died. "I've been to straight open mikes, but I feel more comfortable here," she says.

The No Exit Cafe, In One Ear, 9 p.m. Wednesdays, also at 9 p.m. Mondays (general) and Tuesdays (standup), 6970 N. Glenwood Ave., 312-743-3355, $1.

Before the rest there was No Exit. The Rogers Park coffee shop has had at least one open-mike night running since 1958.

Next-door neighbor Michael O'Toole has run In One Ear, the Wednesday open mike, for seven years. He suggested it to owners Brian and Sue Kozin after seeing The Green Mill poetry open mike and slam.

"I thought, let's do that, but without the slam and let's open it up for not just poetry but theater and that type of stuff," O'Toole says. "Because this is a non-alcoholic atmosphere, we get a lot of 15- and 16-year-olds. We've had some real good new talent begin here."

Few of the city's open mikes are available for minors, and the In One Ear crowd runs thick with adolescents who spout teen angst on the corner stage to a packed house.

The poor sound system and constant chatter are difficult to filter, but the raw words of youth are a rare find at most mikes.

"If they get out of hand I just get up and tell them to shut up and not act like high school students," says Brian Kozin. "They hate being called high school students, even if they are."

Sheffield's Wine and Beer Garden, No Shame Theatre, 9:30 p.m. Mondays, also 8:30 p.m. Sundays (general), 3258 N. Sheffield, 312-281-4989, $3, $2 for performers.

Hidden in the back room of this Lakeview neighborhood bar, No Shame Theatre has developed an open mike as varied and diverse as any in the area.

While the emphasis leans toward theater, short skits or pieces of longer original plays, directors Oliver Oertel and Meghan Schumacher welcome musical acts, poetry and all types of standup comedy.

The format, which grew from a writers group at the University of Iowa, allows for anyone to perform any original material four to seven minutes in length.

"We were looking for a creative outlet, and we found that this was a way for us to stay motivated in between other projects," says Schumacher.

A recent show, 19 acts in all, kicks off with a singer playing keyboards, followed by a satire on political correctness for the audience of twentysomethings.

Brett Neveu, 24, has developed his own avant-garde puppet theater via the open mike. Tonight's installment includes the seamy backstage life of Kermit the Frog.

"It's a chance to do things that are not being done anywhere else," Neveu says. "If you don't like what you see in local theater you can come here and prove you can do it better, or dare to fail trying."

Where to star

Additional open mikes for budding performers to sample:

Abbey Pub, 9 p.m. Tuesdays (acoustic), 3420 W. Grace St., 312-478-4408.

Be'an Wilde, 8 p.m. Tuesdays (general), 118 N. Main St., Wheaton, 708-510-7000.

Duke O'Brien's, 8 p.m. Sundays and Wednesdays (general), 110 N. Main St., Crystal Lake, 815-356-9980.

Durty Nellies, 9 p.m. Wednesdays (general), 55 N. Bothwell St., Palatine, 708-358-9150.

Estelle's Cafe & Pub, 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays (general), 2013 W. North Ave., 312-486-8760.

The Gallery Cabaret, 9 p.m. Sundays and Thursdays (general), 2020 N. Oakley Ave., 312-489-5471.

Innertown Pub, 10 p.m. Thursdays (general), 1935 W. Thomas St., 312-235-9795.

Morseland Cafe, 10 p.m. Wednesdays (general), 1218 W. Morse Ave., 312-743-5955.

River West, 9 p.m. Mondays (acoustic), 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays (Rock 'n' Roll Jam), 9 p.m. Wednesdays (Blues Jam), 1860 N. Elston Ave., 312-276-4846.

U.S. Beer Company, 8 p.m. Sundays (music), 1801 N. Clybourn Ave., 312-871-7799.

Weeds, 10 p.m. Mondays (poetry), 1555 N. Dayton St., 312-943-7815.