What an unusual event for me! I rarely go to comedy shows – no, it’s not because I have no sense of humor! They just don’t seem to be on my radar, which is a shame if most of them are as good as the performance by the Chicago troupe All of Our Feelings at Once.The troupe auditioned for the right to perform off Broadway in New York City with The Araca Project, and they were selected for a two-weekend slot in a small black-box theatre, the American Theatre of Actors. The members of All of Our Feelings at Once (Feelings, for short) are fairly recent graduates of Northwestern University.The members are Alison Lynch, Britta Rowings, Jesse Thurston, Rebecca Loeser, and Robert Dowling.

This was an evening of sketch comedy with a format somewhat similar to Saturday Night Live (SNL), in the sense there was a band on stage (called Oh! My Blackbird) and the performance consisted of short sketches. Some of the sketches were solos, a few were performed by two members, and a couple were performed by the entire troupe.  According to Feelings’ web site, “All of Our Feelings at Once always gets personal. But that’s the fun.” 

And fun, it was. All the material was original. The sketches that were performed by the entire troupe asked the audience to figure out the title of the list. Each performer listed three or four seemingly disparate things; sometimes the guesses from the audience were very close but most of the time they were amusingly inaccurate.  One of the sketches was a sight gag that continued for several minutes.  Imagine a ballerina in a white leotard, unconsciously experiencing every teenage girl’s worst nightmare. Very uncomfortable and very funny.

Each evening there is a guest performer. On Saturday night, Claire Mulaney, a writer for SNL, was the guest; I enjoyed her sketch.

I like the type of humor they performed – it isn’t sarcastic or mean. It’s just plain FUNNY. If you’re in the New York area, it would be worth your time to see them from October 24-26. And if you’re in Chicago, you can see them perform on a regular schedule. Your support will be appreciated, and you’ll get some M&Ms after the show! Check out their web site!