Comedians in quarantine getting laughs

The citywide lockdown has forced people to be resourceful in jobs that require interacting with crowds. 

The citywide lockdown has forced people to be resourceful in jobs that require interacting with crowds.

With a lack of a live audience, comedians are becoming creative in the ways they maintain their skills as they spend time away from the stage during the stay-at-home order. 

Blake Burkhart

Blake Burkhart, a standup who was performing in Streeterville almost weekly, said he was having his best year in comedy when the Gov. J.B. Prtizker ordered the state shutdown on March 21. 

“Everything gets put on hold,” Burkhart said, likening it to an unending halftime in a football game. “All the hard work we do as performers to get better and to get more opportunities, now everyone has to take a pause.” 

Although he was usually performing seven nights a week, Burkhart is now virtually hosting a show on Monday nights via the Comedy Bar Instagram feed. With his sidekick, Fard Muhammed, he interviews a local comedian. To fill his now-free time, Burkhart said he’s been working on a screenplay and dusted off an old guitar to relearn how to play. Watching lots of Disney+ and playing video games, he said he’s “reverting back to childhood but with more booze.” 

Burkhart said he won’t know how the time off will affect his comedic skills until he’s back in front of an audience. He predicted the shutdown will discourage many novice comedians who hadn’t begun to build any momentum while inspiring others to try standup as a life-affirming choice after tragedy. He also said he’ll avoid any coronavirus or quarantine material.

“It will be the most-discussed joke topic for the next twenty years, similar to the way 9/11 was,” Burkhart said. 

Instead, he’s using this time to explore other areas for comedic inspiration since he said audiences will be craving a “distraction.” 

Both approaches to post-corona material are fine, he added.

“This is the way people bounce back from mass tragedies and horrible things in the world…just make fun of them.” 

Prateek Srivastava

Comedian Prateek Srivastava already uses Zoom for meetings related to his work monitoring minors’ social media for bullying and predators. Now, he’s using it for comedy. He recently performed for a company event over the videoconferencing service. 

“It was the first time I got to tell jokes in my socks,” he said.

Currently staying with family in Lombard, Srivastava had frequently performed in the city, particularly around Streeterville at places such as Timothy O’Toole’s and private parties.

“There’s something about Streeterville audiences where it’s kind of like a cross-section of America,” he said. “You get couples, you get international students, and people who just moved here.” 

Srivastava said people are attracted to the Loop in general, calling it “a socioeconomic jambalaya” with a wide age-range of residents. 

With live performances on hold, the 10-year comedy veteran is moving the show online. He’s co-hosting the Fun Simulation 2000 virtual show, created by producer Mark Hornback, and doing an interview show on Instagram Live with a comedian friend who also works at Jewel-Osco and gives reports from the frontline of essential workers. Srivastava’s sketch group Family Dinner continues to work on material and he said he’s using his parents’ backyard space to film personal rants called “Neurotic by Nature.”

Whenever the comedy spaces reopen, Srivastava said there will be a lot of corona-based material, some of it solid, but “a lot of hacky jokes will die at the open mic.” 

He also said it may take a few months for people to transition back to being in crowded spaces

“There’s a need for live entertainment,” Srivastava said. “Comedy will find its footing again.”

Vik Pandya

With five years of experience, comedian Vik Pandya decided to make the leap early this year to devote himself full-time to performance. He admits it was unfortunate timing.

“It sucks,” the Loop resident said “There’s no other way to say it. It’s hard.”

He still does some recruiting consulting remotely during the day but misses his nightly comedy work. He said he was working in clubs such as Zanie’s, Laugh Factory and The Comedy Bar, in addition to opening for national comedians like Roy Wood, Jr., and Michelle Wolf. His production house, Team Us, which he founded with comedians Meg Indurti and Tyler Fowler, was putting on recurring shows, including their monthly flagship show at CH Distillery in the West Loop. Those shows are likely cancelled through May.

“This really hurts,” Pandya said. “Comedy’s all about momentum, so it hurts to stop.”

Despite this, he sees a positive side to the shutdown: it’s forced comedians to get more creative. He said he’s staying busy with writing, making Instagram videos, recording his satirical news podcast and doing corporate gigs over Zoom. 

“It’s not the same, but it’s as close as you can get to standup at this time,” Pandya said. 

He said many comedians are avoiding coronavirus jokes as “too easy.”

“If you do quarantine or coronavirus material, it’s gotta be totally not what you’d expect,” Pandya said. “It would be great if you come out of this with material that’s completely fresh and not about the quarantine”

He also said he’s not as optimistic that live shows will bounce back quickly, since people may not want to be in large groups. 

“I’m very curious to see if people will come out,” Pandya said. “It might take years for it to fully recover.” 

Dario Durham

Dario Durham, a comedian who was regularly performing at venues around the Loop, has moved a couple of shows online that he was hosting at My Buddy’s in Lakeview.

“You still get that same level of practice,” he said. “You still have an audience, people in front of you, even if they’re virtual. They’ve been really attentive and supportive…you have every aspect of a live show without it being live.” 

He said some comedians told him it was weird “talking to a computer” but it makes people sharper. 

“This is still helping,” said Durham, who’s been doing standup since 2016. “We have to write. We have all the time in the world to write.”

He also added he thinks there’ll be an influx of energetic shows whenever social distancing is eased. 

“When we come out of this, the comedy is going to be better, there’ll be a lot of material, a lot of energy, and a lot of togetherness, too,” Durham said. “We are going to need it.”