Lakeshore Theater

The Lakeshore Theater’s mission is simplicity itself: To be an artist-driven theater dedicated to comedy as an uncompromising form of expression rather than a simple means to force herds of hapless customers to buy watered-down drinks and scarf down undercooked chicken wings.

A comedic “Art House” if you will, the Lakeshore Theater is, in the world of comedy, what Kurusawa is to Michael Bay, what Daniel Johnston is to Britney Spears and yes, what Doug Stanhope is to Dane Cook. Every other comedy room in the Country plays “top 40” – we play jazz.

The Lakeshore Theater’s artistic director Chris Ritter works year-round with Paul Provenza (director of The Aristocrats) to bring Chicago the very best and most original practitioners of the Art of Comedy from all over the world.

We believe the Comedic Arts encompass many forms. While the Art of Comedy includes stand-up artists, it also includes theater, improv, sketch, music and forms too original and inventive to even be described.

A quick look down the Lakeshore’s schedule for any given week reveals what we might immodestly call the Best and Most Eclectic Lineup of Quality Comedy Shows at Any Commercial Theater Anywhere. Our roster has included established stars like Janeane Garofalo, Dave Attell and Julia Sweeney; current cutting-edge stand-up heroes such as Maria Bamford, Jim Jeffries, Patton Oswalt, Todd Barry and Arj Barker, up-and-coming geniuses like Reggie Watts, Kristen Schaal and Kumail Nanjiani; and fantastic, envelope-pushing theatrical comedy along the lines of Dean Cameron’s Nigerian Spam Scam Scam, Craig Anton & Ron Lynch’s The Idiots and the amazing Billy The Mime.

Our artists aren’t always appropriate for TV. Great Art isn’t like that. We encourage you to support Lakeshore’s comic artists whether you’ve heard of them or not – the ones that you haven’t heard of are the ones most likely to stun and amaze you, showing you things you’ve never seen before.