It Still Moves Messing With A Friend

On any given day in Chicago, the calendar of events happening throughout the city can seem daunting. It Still Moves looks to separate the wheat from the chaff, spotlighting some of the area’s best and longest-running comedy, literary, and variety shows.

What it is: Messing With A Friend is a two-person, long-form improv show featuring Susan Messing and a special guest performer. Messing’s gleefully anarchic comedic style drives the show, which she describes as “a joyful, uncensored, and improvised romp through hell.” On any given night, Messing’s “friend” could be a Chicago comedy mainstay like T.J. Jagodowski; an alumnus of the scene who has moved on to the big leagues (Andy Dick, for example); or a total wild card, like Kellie Overbey, a recent guest best known for her work on Broadway and the recently defunct soap opera Guiding Light.

Messing With A Friend has been performed around town since 2004, and is now enjoying an open-ended run at the Annoyance Theatre on Thursday nights. The show occasionally pops up in other locales as well, running at improv festivals and colleges throughout North America.

A brief history lesson: Susan Messing is a veteran of the Chicago improv comedy scene. She’s performed with Second City, iO, and is a founding member of the Annoyance Theatre. She bounced around Chicago comedy venues, performing in countless shows per week during the ’90s, before back scaling her schedule to focus on teaching improv and raising her daughter, Sofia.

In addition to her residency as a performer (and teacher) at Annoyance, Messing teaches improv classes at Second City, iO, and DePaul University. Although her résumé is impressive to say the least, she’s down-to-earth and still passionate about her craft.

She sees Messing With A Friend as a way of “proving it” to her students, showing that she can do more than simply teach the form to others.

Why it’s still worth your time: A self-proclaimed “make-’em-up bitch,” Messing’s a fascinatingly talented comedic performer; she’s exuberantly vulgar and willing to explore the most absurd aspects of a given scenario. Her show embraces the Annoyance’s well-documented “anything goes” mentality, often breaking beyond the fourth wall through loud offstage conversations and audience interactions. Messing claims the show’s only guideline is: “If you don’t have fun, you’re the asshole.”

While Messing is at the heart of the show, she’s always in tune with her partner. (“Friend” is the perfect term for the show’s special guests.) Her performance is catered to the particular strengths and weaknesses of whom she gets to “play with” that week (her words). However, it is not unusual, according to Messing, for guests with less formal experience to bowl her over with their skills, causing her to step up her own game.

The show itself is a 50-minute exercise in improvised brilliance, inspired by a single audience suggestion at the start of the show. Messing’s unhinged characters and occasional fits of filth make improv comedy look both effortless and incredibly sophisticated. The Annoyance website lists upcoming friends, for especially curious or impatient showgoers—but really, the $5 tickets and well-stocked Annoyance bar make checking in at any show a smart move.