Chicago comedy's streak continues: Mort Burke touring with David Cross
Chicago's always been a home to great comedy, but people seem to have been paying very close attention recently. On the heels of Pat O'Brien and Hannibal Buress joining the writing team for Saturday Night Live comes another development: Improviser and sketch comic Mort Burke has been tapped to tour with David Cross and will be performing in sketches between Cross' stand-up bits at the Congress Theater show Oct. 4.
Burke, a 29-year-old transplant from St. Louis, rose through the ranks at iO and the Annoyance Theatre, selling his combination of absurdist cognitive comedy and lanky physical prowess. When Just For Laughs came through Chicago last June, Burke performed in Cross and Bob Odenkirk's anticipated Mr. Show-type reunion show Bob & David And Friends. He was a support player in the sketches Odenkirk and Cross wrote, and managed to impress Odenkirk, who later suggested him to Cross.
Here's Burke attempting to break out of jail:
