Hey You Millionaires

BATTER UP Hey You Millionaires swings for the fences (of funny)

Since its reopening almost two years ago, the Annoyance Theatre—the storied improv and sketch beacon known for crazed, irreverent humor and lax restrictions on material—has produced roughly two kinds of shows. There are the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink romps performed by younger talent (An Aerosmith Christmas, Arm Soup) and the dark humor pieces backed by the cachet of longtime company members (Idiot Tango, Messing with a Friend). Everything was starting to become predictable until the arrival of Hey You Millionaires—a show trumpeting a new experimental-comedy generation in Chicago.

The hour-long show’s throughline makes it clear that James Asmus (Love Is Dead), Jim Fath (Impress These Apes) and John Bohan (Second City Cleveland) are going for a sort of comedy deconstruction. They appear in formal attire, carrying a stool with a white sheet draped over it. Then, notepads at the ready, they pull the sheet away, with over-the-top conviction, to reveal a rubber chicken. They hold it up, shove it in people’s faces and reposition it on the stool, trying to determine how to solicit the maximum amount of laughs; when an audience member chuckles, the trio takes meticulous notes, nodding in silent approval. Other “comedy experiments” include a similar baffled exploration of a banana, yelling “snakes!” when an empty peanut-brittle can is opened and a pie fight using sheets of paper—with the pi symbol written on them.

Longer scenes likewise collapse into highbrow shock territory, each sharpened with an Annoyance-style rough edge. An NPR talk show hits the skids when neither host nor guest can say the full title of an album called Pulling the N-word Trigger. Bohan throws a spelling bee on purpose, sharing that this was his tack to hide his dyslexia as a kid; but when he accidentally begins to spell a word right, we start rooting for him…until his dyslexia kicks in.

In its second full-length run in Chicago, Millionaires borrows heavily from the venerable former Chi-town ensemble Brick, which also balanced grounded material with outrageous gags (read: Asmus’s “solo” video segment). The group’s potential to take over the heavyweight title is apparent; given a home to refine its strong but still slightly timid sensibilities, Millionaires will cash in very soon.

Millionaires is on Super Bowl hiatus this week, but runs Sundays at 7pm.