Windy City comedians: Stars that got their start in Chicago
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A big tip of the hat to Sharon, who pointed us toward a feature in yesterday’s Redeye (an affiliate of The Chicago Tribune) that discussed comedians who’d gotten their start in Chicago. As expected, our favorite Doctor of Fine Arts, Stephen Colbert, got some love.
From Chicago’s Redeye:
Stephen Colbert
Chicago ties: Graduated from Northwestern in 1987, I.O., Second City
You know him from: “The Colbert Report,” “The Daily Show”
Up in ‘08: Since mid-January, Colbert’s portrait has hung in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit will run through the end of March.Before he was a star: Colbert was a good mimic who got laughs when he stuffed a trick ear in his ear canal, said his Northwestern sweetheart Ayun Halliday. Life wasn’t so glamorous back then, she said. “It was really just a golden age of hanging out—in memory every day is warm and sunny. … We went to Ravinia. We saw some bands. Watched movies on the coffee-table-sized VCR my housemate’s parents had handed down when they got a newer model,” Halliday wrote in an e-mail to RedEye.
. . .
Stephen Colbert. Nia Vardalos, who wrote and co-starred in
“My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” is on the far left.“I trained Stephen Colbert on his first improv team, No Fun
Mud Pirahanas. He was so good that he is the only person I
remembered from that team and was recently surprised when
he informed me that David Schwimmer was also on that team.”- Charna Halpern, co-founder IO
There are also some fabulous pictures of Steve Carell and Amy Sedaris, and the hilarious Paul Dinello appears in a couple of the photos, too.
Check out the whole piece here; it’s a great collection of info on a lot of incredible comedians.
Thanks again for the tip, Sharon!
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22 Comments
February 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I’ve been lurking on this site for several months now, but this is my first comment. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see this article during my morning commute. Stephen brought a spot of warmth to an otherwise bleak Chicago winter day. Thanks for sharing the joy!
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February 8th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Aw…they all look so young.
Definitely O.T., but I just wanted to let you know that the picture of Colbert wrapped in the flag on your homepage never ceases to bring a smile to my face.
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February 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Nice work, Sharon! How great were these pics? Unfortunately, Flickr doesn’t like to play — it says “This Photo Is Currently Unavailable”. But, the links provided bring you to the article and photos as well.
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February 8th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Do the pics work any better now? Kina also said they weren’t working for her, but they show up fine on my computer. I re-entered the code, so I’m hoping that clears things up.
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February 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Time machine, please!
Can you imagine seeing all those great people on stage? Why the heck didn’t I go to Chicago in the early 90’s?
Great pictures–I especially love the last one of Steve and Paul
Also, the improv teacher not remembering David Schwimmer gave me a chuckle.
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February 8th, 2008 at 11:34 am
The Pixs are fab! Stephen sure has nice teeth! His charisma pops off the page.
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February 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Okay, who else noticed Stew in one of the Chris Farley pictures . . . : )
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February 8th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Great article! And LMAO at the teacher not remembering David Schwimmer.
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February 8th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
@ Ms. I,
Working perfectly now! I adore that pic of Stephen dressed as a security guard and all smiley. Makes me smile too. : )
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February 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Your coding worked, MsI, thanks :) I love seeing all those young faces.
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February 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Great article and pictures! I can definitely see Bill Murray getting a lot of detentions in school.
I wish Amy and Paul had been included…
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February 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I meant to say that I wish Amy and Paul had been included in the article. Ms Interpreted, thank you for including pictures of them.
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February 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Great article.
but, I gotta wonder if she’s kicking herself, and if so, how hard…..
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February 8th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
thanks for posting this! oh, waitasec… is that his ex girlfriend? in the first pic?
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February 8th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
@ daphne,
That’s Nia Vardolis with Stephen Colbert in the first pic. You may recognize her from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
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February 8th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
What with Karlin’s book out right now, I’m not sure I’d mention being Stephen’s ex…. This is the same one they interviewed when Stephen was Grand Marshal of Northwestern’s homecoming parade.
@ooth – if you go to the article and click on the photo gallery link for the article there is more about Amy.
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February 8th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
@Jennie
Thanks! I didn’t realize that there was more there. The information about Amy was interesting. I also liked the story about Stephen and the car he inherited from his brother.
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February 9th, 2008 at 12:44 am
ahhhhh I’m so in love with Second City AmyStephenPaul. Although I must really express my fangirl rage over Paul always being excluded from the trio *shakes fist* you would think that SWC would make him at least worth talking about but they didn’t talk about David Pasquesi or even Tim Meadows and they were Second City peeps too.
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February 9th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Hey NoFact-ies,
Can anybody confirm if Stephen was part of the Annoyance Theatre, and if so what year(s) he was there?
There are lots of references to him at Second City but rarely anything to Annoyance (except on Wikipedia, which Stephen has taught me not to trust).
Thanks.
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February 9th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
@babybert – The Annoyance Theater was were Del Close started his Improve Olympics and where Stephen performed on a team while at Northwestern. He talks about it in an interview here (Thank you, JerriBlank.com!)
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February 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
@Jennie – big thanks!
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March 6th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
WOW! What an incredibly adorable shot! And what a smile!
Thanks for sharing this great piece of history, glamorous or not, it was needed for all of them to be here today and to be loved by so many!
w
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