Food and drinks at Salt and Pepper after the Whirled News show.

Marla told us about a friend who's play had just been reviewed in the Reader. She read some of it to us from her Blackberry.

Marla: It starts, "Wow. This may be the worst show I've ever seen."

Chin, our director, talked about some of the reviews he's gotten in the past. The first show he put up in Chicago got a blisteringly bad review. The reviewer suggested that iO should refund the money of everyone in the theater that night.

Chin: I blew the review up and hung it on my wall so I'd see it every day. A year later I had two shows get great reviews. The day those reviews came out, a handyman was working on my radiator and the knob flew off. I dove out of the way of a stream of scalding water. I looked up and it had melted the bad review off the wall.