Sarah and I went to the iO Holiday Party last night. Charna, the owner, closed down the theater for the night and served free chicken and ribs and offered an open bar (until 11, anyway).

I spent some time talking to Alex (left), from Whirled News, Jet (middle) and Steve. Jet and Steve recently became understudies for Second City's Touring Company.

Steve: We did a show in the Napa Valley.
Jet: Wine country.
Steve: It was amazing.
Jet: Beautiful scenery. Wine tasting. Hot tubs in our rooms. I was just excited to be in a hotel. I was jumping on the bed. "Hotel room!" I grew up kind of poor, so just normal hotel rooms are exciting to me.
Alex: [laughing] Well, I grew up really super ridiculously rich, and I think hotel rooms are great too. They're fucking awesome.
Steve: There were 200 channels on the television.

Later, Sarah and I talked to St. Clair, a performer in the current Second City ETC show.

St. Clair: It's like my theory about Second City shows. The first one you see blows you away and it's always your favorite. For me the first one was, 'The Psychopath Not Taken' and that will always be my favorite.

He used this as a metaphor to explain to Sarah why 'Gears of War,' the first XBox 360 game she'd played was her favorite XBox game.

Odd that so much of the evening was spent talking about Second City (I wonder if they talk much about iO at the Second City Holiday Party). Odd that it's come up so much on my blog. Or at all. Second City is the most famous comedy theater in Chicago and for many it's the pinnacle of a Chicago comedy career, but it has very little to do with my own creative life. I've always been respectfully disinterested. Probably that's just a defense mechanism. If I don't audition, I won't get rejected.

Still, last week I signed up for my first Second City audition. Even if they asked (and who says they would) I wouldn't be willing to give up my job to do TourCo. Maybe sometime down the line, though, when things get less crazy, I could take a sabbatical and do a Second City Cruise. With all the random opportunities the theater offers, it's dumb that over the last six years I've never auditioned there. Plus, it could make interesting fodder for my blog.

See how carefully I've shielded myself from the inevitable rejection? This is an amusing lark for my blog!

What was I talking about again? [sips at beer] Oh yes, Merry Christmas iO.