I just discovered that talented local singer-songwriter John Greenfield — who, by way of mentioning it, performed in the second-ever edition of The Partly Dave Show back in 2003 — has an eloquent writeup of a recent Gordon Lightfoot show in Waukegan over on Gaper’s Block.
I suppose I’ve been a Gordon Lightfoot fan since […]

[Read more →]

If you’re here in Chicago and looking for something fun to do tomorrow evening, I’ll be participating in an award ceremony and “gentle roast” (in the words of Live Bait Theater) for those stalwarts of the Chicago solo performance scene — and my fellow Pansy Kings — David Kodeski and Edward Thomas-Herrera.
The ceremony is […]

[Read more →]

I haven’t done one of these Chicago Fringe scene reports in a while, so here’s what’s on my radar this week:

The Neo-Futurists’ annual festival It Came From The Neo-Futurarium VI: Curse of The Neo-Futurarium, consisting of staged readings of various camp-ready old films, kicks off this Thursday, June 21 at 8pm. The first installment is […]

[Read more →]

I’m still recovering from last night’s Partly Dave Show, which was a blast, and catching up on various things today. I hope to be back up and blogging by sometime tomorrow.
In the meantime, thanks to everyone who came to the show and/or helped promote and support it.

[Read more →]

This is it — tonight’s the night The Partly Dave Show makes its long-prophesied return, at 7:30pm at The Neo-Futurarium.
I’ll dish out one more exciting little fact about tonight’s show: Even in Blackouts will be unveiling* the brand-new Partly Dave Show theme song, hot out of the oven** and never before heard by human ears!
If […]

[Read more →]

First up, don’t forget that the Party Mix Edition of The Partly Dave Show is less than 48 hours away! Wednesday night, May 2nd, at The Neo-Futurarium. All the details are here.
Tonight, Tuesday May 1st, Scott Free’s fantabulous Homolatte Cabaret presents Samuel Park and Aaron Mayer Frankel, at 7:30pm at Tweet (next door to Big […]

[Read more →]

The trees are budding in Chicago this week, and the darling buds of the fringe performance scene are in full crazy spring bloom as well. There’s so much going on that if I’m not careful, I might use up all my item bullets, and then I wouldn’t have any for next week! Well, anyway, here […]

[Read more →]

Continuing the brand-new tradition of breaking news about The Partly Dave Show here on Ocelopotamus first, I can now confirm the full lineup for our upcoming show, and fill you in on why we’re doing it and what’s so goll-dang special about it.
Here’s the deal: the shadowy white-coated figures at The Partly Dave Show’s underwater […]

[Read more →]

My old friend AKMA (from the Billy-Bragg email list back in the 90s) has a short but insightful post up about the etiquette of responding to a straight line when it’s offered. It reminds me of why I used to enjoy talking to him online so much. Go read it. The last time I exchanged […]

[Read more →]

What’s going on in Chicago this coming week? Almost too much for one imaginary tree-climbing pachyderm to blog. But here are a few highlights:

On Monday night, the world’s best acoustic pop-punk outfit, John Pierson’s band Even in Blackouts, will be playing a basement concert in John’s own basement! It’s at [address redacted now that the […]

[Read more →]