Queer Comedy at Zanies 2/24

Queer Comedy at Zanies shows its staying power on Tuesday February 24th with Kelsie Huff, Adam Guerino, Rebecca O’Neal, Rich Kiamco, Mike Lebovitz, Joseph William Reese, Paul Fruhwirth and Alex Seligsohn. $15 tickets are available online or at the door for the 8:30pm showtime at 1548 N Wells. Since its inception in 2011, Queer Comedy at Zanies has been named the Advocate.com‘s “9 LGBT Friendly Comedy Shows You Should Be Supporting,” featured in Chicago Tribune’s “Stand-up Scene,” Timeout Chicago‘s “Critic’s Pick,” The Redeye’s “Do” and included in Chicago Reader’s “The Agenda” and “Culture Vulture” with the praise “More, please.” Headlined by Kelsie Huff. Kelsie Huff is a Chicago stand up comedian, performing at venues such as Zanies, Chicago's Laugh Factory, Mayne Stage, and throughout the suburbs. She has also performed at several comedy festivals including, New Orleans, North Carolina, Boston Women in Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and Chicago Funny Female Festival. Huff's humor has "an infectious joyousness that makes you happy to be alive" and she "makes confident choices and creates loud, defined characters that are both unbearable and hilarious". Kelsie has been described as a "Midwestern American Intangible Cultural Treasure" who makes the audience feel as though they have been transported from a dark comedy club to a private slumber party. Hosted by Adam Guerino. Guerino is a nationally touring standup comedian based in Chicago who has been credited as a “comedian-producer-genius” by Chicago Reader and has opened for comic greats James Adomian, Cameron Esposito, Brad Loekle and Beth Stelling. His sardonic charm makes him an ideal host as he seamlessly interacts with the crowd and comedians to give each show a fun and cohesive pacing as well as blur the lines between audience member and performer. He is the creator of Stand Out: The National Queer Comedy Search which partnered with The Advocate Magazine to give queer comedians national exposure, Outloud Chicago which for over three years has brought queer inclusive entertainment to mainstream Chicago venues and The Rainbow Connection Queer Comedy Tour which combined gay, lesbian, bi and trans comedians for a cross-country tour. He has been featured in comedy clubs all across the country and in Timeout Chicago’s Joke of The Week, The Advocate Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, The Redeye, Gaper’s Block, Huffington Post and WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. For more info, www.adamguerino.com is a great place to start. Mike Lebovitz. Lebovitz's comedy career began at the age of six with clowning classes at the local JCC. He's been delighting and confounding audiences big and small ever since with his offbeat yet accessible brand of humor. As an accomplished actor, director and writer, Lebovitz draws from a broad range of disciplines in constructing his act, using outlandish viewpoints and subversive turns-of-phrase to highlight the inherent absurdity of being. He doesn't point out life's quirks; he revels in them. After earning a BA in Theater Performance from Oberlin College, Lebovitz trained at both the Annoyance and iO Theaters, where he was a member of the house teams Ned Beatty and Roadster from 2002-2007. He is also a member of Comedians You Should Know, Chicago's premiere stand-up comedy collective, whose debut CD recently topped out as the #1 selling comedy album on iTunes. Rich Kiamco. Kiamco is a force of nature that rips across the stage leaving laughter, tears and applause in his wake. His comedy career began with a sewing machine at the Fashion Institute Of Technology where he performed his first stand-up routine at the dorm talent show. Later that year later he met Judy Tenuta and became her costume designer and eventually began performing with her as her back-up dancer in Las Vegas, on The Howard Stern Show and venues nationwide. Rebecca O’Neal. O’Neal is a Chicago based writer/editor and stand up comedian whose work can be read on/in Vanity Fair Magazine, Gawker.tv, Splitsider.com, The Rumpus, Death and Taxes Magazine, and more. She is also a regular guest on Vocalo.org’s morning amp and has appeared as a guest comedy commentator or WBEZ’s Morning Shift with Tony Sarabia. Since she began stand up comedy in early 2012, Rebecca has performed at Portland’s 2013 Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Chicago Underground Comedy, Chicago Women’s Funny Festival 2012 and headlined 2013, Queer Comedy at Zanies, The Comedy Shrine, The Laugh Factory, Zanies Rosemont, The Wasted Plains Rock and Roll Revival, The Ohio Lesbian Festival, Entertaining Julia, NPR’s Brian Babylon’s Bronzeville Comedy Show, Jokes and Notes, The Lincoln Lodge, Navy Pier’s Beer Garden, and many other showcases around the city. She also performed in a video for Just For Laughs Chicago 2012 and currently produces a monthly free, BYOB comedy showcase in Chicago called Congrats on Your Success (for which she does the promotion and public relations) that has been featured in/on WBEZ/NPR, The Huffington Post, Vocalo.org, The Chicago Reader, The Red Eye’s Eat Drink Do column, Time Out Chicago, Gapers Block, Chicagoist, LoganSquarist, Chicago Now, ChooseChicago.com, AfterEllen.com and many local blogs and websites. She was also listed as one of the Huffington Post’s 18 Funny Women To Follow on Twitter alongside Mindy Kaling. Rebecca O’Neal is a hilariously cerebral and confessional young comic whose urban upbringing on Chicago’s southside coupled with her expansive vocabulary and tendency toward introspection endear her to audiences of all backgrounds. By humorously mining her experiences, she makes the esoteric universal. Joseph William Reese. Reese is a bar manager by night and a Facebook stalker by day. He is the co-creator and writer for Megan and Meghan The Series on YouTube. He has previously worked with Just Dickin' Around Comedy, Queer Comedy at Zanies Chicago, The House of Blues Chicago Foundation Room Comedy Showcase, Double Door Chicago Comedy Showcase, The Cubby Bear Comedy Show, The New South Comedy Festival and Solo in the 2nd City storytelling series. You can find him on Facebook: /joseph.w.reese Twitter: @jwreese and on YouTube: JWReeseComedy. Paul Fruhwirth. Fruhwirth is a Chicago-based comedian returning to Queer Comedy at Zanies after his debut in Fall 2014. A relative newcomer to the Chicago comedy scene, Paul is a graduate of the Second City School of Improvisational Comedy, the Second City School of Sketch Writing and the Second City School of Stand-Up Comedy. Paul has been in comedy since he was only four months old, first appearing as Baby Jesus in his church’s Christmas pageant. Alex Seligsohn. Seligsohn is a stand-up comedian in Chicago who has a lot of very important things to say. She's excited to share her opinions on a variety of pressing issues such as feminism, death metal, and how Mark Rothko ruined modern art. She has performed at Zanies for the Female Funnies showcase, at The Fort Lauderdale Improv for the CCFA fundraiser, and also hosts a monthly showcase at the Sedgwick Stop in Old Town. Alex is currently in her final term of the conservatory at the Second City Training Center. She'd like to thank her cats for making her the woman that she is today. Comedians who have appeared at Queer Comedy at Zanies have also appeared on Conan, Comedy Central, Chelsea Lately, @Midnight, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, BET, TBS Just For Laughs, SXSW, Comedy Bang Bang, The Pete Holmes Show, Last Call With Carson Daly, A Night At The Apollo, and Last Comic Standing. The upcoming show will continue to show that whether audience members are queer or straight, laughter knows no sexuality. Tuesday February 24th, 8:30pm, $15 tickets available at Chicago.Zanies.com or at the door. Zanies Comedy Club 1548 N Wells. For more information, hi res photos or a saved seat, don’t hesitate to reach out.