Messing with a Friend

"Messing with a Friend" at The Annoyance Theatre: Susan Messing is the host (and half the two-person cast) of a new Thursday-night improv gig at the Annoyance Theatre that surely will be the hottest improv show in town and costs a mere five bucks. Assertive, vulnerable, eloquent, acerbic and--most important--complicated, Messing is a colossal talent. Why she did not make it big alongside such peers as Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch and Stephen Colbert befuddles me. She's as good--if not better--than any of them. Most improvisers stay in a narrow comfort zone protected by irony, but Messing prefers big, huge leaps from one outrageous situation to the next. And no one in town can deliver emotional off-the-cuff verbosity like Messing. It doesn't matter who Messing is working with on any particular night (partners will change). You'll still be fighting for a seat among the zillions of Chicago improv students looking for a lesson from the mistress.

--Chris Jones