The Paper Machete
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: Billed as a “live magazine,” The Paper Machete is a free afternoon variety show featuring performances and readings from comedians, musicians, authors, and journalists. Every Saturday at 3 p.m., Horseshoe, North Center’s premier rockabilly dive bar/BBQ joint, plays host to this “salon in a saloon.”
The show feels a bit like a live broadcast of an old-timey radio show, with Chicago personalities speaking on their choice of topics in an intelligent, often humorous manner. This unique but strangely familiar variety show bridges the gap between A Praire Home Companion and Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern.
A brief history lesson: Christopher Piatt created The Paper Machete in late 2009, after he left his post as theater editor at Time Out Chicago in search of another creative outlet. Piatt’s passion for the art of public speaking influenced the show’s unique format, a showcase of sorts for a style of oration known as “after dinner speaking.” A sort of proto-stand-up, an after dinner speech attempts to make sense of a complex or otherwise important topic by using humor.
The first Paper Machete shows were held down the street from Horseshoe, at Ricochet’s Tavern, a friendly, intimate neighborhood bar in Lincoln Square. After about six months, the show relocated to its current space, citing the need for a larger stage and more space for its growing audience. Piatt and his co-producer, playwright Ali Klingler, worked to ensure the change in venues didn’t alter the vibe of the show, which has always been decidedly dive-y in the face of the intellectual topics being dissected onstage.
While the show’s lineup is primarily made up of performers from Chicago’s ever-fertile literary and comedy scenes, occasionally a slightly more high-profile guest will stop by. The Paper Machete has featured performances by famous Chicagoans like Michael Shannon, Paul Brittain, Sad Brad Smith, and Julia Sweeney, to name a few, as well as several A.V. Club staffers, including Keith Phipps and Kyle Ryan. The cast list is usually published on The Paper Machete website a few days before the show, but every week is a safe bet; Piatt’s curatorial skills ensure success for each show.
Why it’s still worth your time: The Paper Machete incorporates the stylistic charm of after-dinner speaking into the current-events-meets-vaudeville style developed by depression-era Living Newspapers into an engaging event featuring smart, funny people talking about important ideas. In an interview with Outside The Loop Radio, Piatt half-jokingly described the show as “drunk church for atheists,” which isn’t too far off, really.
For those who can’t make it out to the salon, the folks behind Paper Machete teamed up with WBEZ to podcast an audio version of the weekly show. The audio from each week’s performance is edited into The Paper Machete Radio Magazine, a digest hosted by Piatt and Klingler. The podcast is always a great listen, and a good way for curious Chicagoans to check out the show before heading over to a live performance.
The Paper Machete dominates its particular time slot, running unopposed at 3 p.m. on Saturdays (after brunch, before dinner), which allows some of the city’s busiest and most talented performers to stop in and share their insights into the topics of the day. The show’s eclectic mix of thinkers, jokers, and music players makes for an incomparable afternoon showcase that utilizes the variety show concept to great success.
