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Last night at the Vic I caught Let Freedom Hum: An Evening of Comedy Hosted by Martin Short, which was very funny indeed. The show was taped, too, and can be seen on TBS Friday 6/26, 10 PM. Rogers Park native and frequent Zanies performer John Roy opened with a solid set, riffing on the brutal Chicago weather (It’s hard to be an environmentalist, he said, in a place where “Mother Nature is trying to destroy you”) and being broke (“Let’s see what the Iron Chefs can do with two Kraft singles, a can of Bud Lite, and a pickle.”)
Short played to the Chicago crowd, joking that he’d just met Mayor Daley, who looked “so damn boyish I thought he was K.D. Lang.” He mentioned he met his wife in Chicago–“that’s true”–then launched into another musical number with the refrain, “Chicago makes me want to cheat on my wife.” Before introducing the next comic, Short acknowledged writer-director-performer and Chicago native Harold Ramis in the crowd. Ramis was given a lifetime achievement award last Tuesday, at the first official event of the fest: a screening of Year One, which he directed.
John Pinette was a great closing act. Like Hotz, he has a shtick–very animated, angrily loud at times–that gets laughs beyond the jokes. The rotund comic isn’t afraid to talk about being bad at sports and loving to eat. On the outdoors: “Hiking is a walk that sucks. . . . When something goes wrong, it usually starts with, ‘Well, we were hiking.’” On healthy foods: “Have you tried gluten-free bread? It needs gluten. I don’t know what gluten is, but apparently it’s delicious.”
