The Reckoning
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: The Reckoning is a 10-person improv team that performs a unique, innovative improv show every Tuesday night at 10:30 at iO Theater. Over nearly 10 years, the group has grown into a powerhouse of improvised brilliance, developing the sort of close interpersonal relationships that result in abundant onstage chemistry.
The lineup varies week-to-week; three members live in Los Angeles, one in New York City, and the remaining six are all extremely hardworking improvisors who perform nearly every night throughout Chicago. Regardless of who’s able to make it out each week, the show is, without fail, a boundary-pushing exploration of improvised comedy.
A brief history lesson: Curated in 2002 as a sort of improv fantasy team by iO co-founder Charna Halpern, The Reckoning incorporated some of the best up-and-coming talent into a single team. It began as a straightforward Harold team (the standard improv form utilized by most teams at iO) before expanding its run at the theater to twice weekly, with the addition of an open rehearsal in the upstairs space at iO that eventually gave way to a series of experimental performances. This avant-comedy show hinted at the more freeform approach for which The Reckoning has been known in later years.
As time went on, a handful of Reckoning members left Chicago for opportunities in Los Angeles and New York, but the team resolved to stay together. The Reckoning’s Holly Laurent cites “a deeper commitment to each other and to playing together” as a base reason for keeping the team together. Rather than recruiting replacements or dissolving the group, The Reckoning resolved to keep its relocated members on full-time.
Laurent sees the group as a collective, rather than an “all-or-nothing” sort of deal: “Even if there’s just one of us onstage performing, that’s a Reckoning show.” For example, three Reckoning members, Eric Hunicutt, Brian Jack, and Brad Morris, live in L.A. and perform a biweekly show at Los Angeles’ iO West as The Wreckoning, and are known to occasionally drop by to perform in Chicago.
The Thursday night Harold show ended its run a few years ago in order to reduce the stress on the performers’ increasingly hectic schedules. The Tuesday night show now acts as a sort of midpoint between the rigid form adherence of the Harold show and the freeform craziness of the experimental show. The show is now focused solely on improv, exploring and revisiting scenes based on feeling, group intuition, and impulse. “It’s sort of reactionary to the previous weeks’ work,” says Reckoning member Jet Eveleth. “If we do things slowly one week, we might try to pick up the pace the next.” The varied structures and lineups of The Reckoning lend themselves to repeat viewings; fans who come out week after week are rewarded with consistently funny, innovative performances.
Why it’s still worth your time: The Reckoning prides itself on its longevity, crediting a powerful passion for improvisation that permeates the group. Often improv is used by starry-eyed dreamers as a stepping stone to a career in writing, acting, or standup; that’s simply not the case for the cast of The Reckoning. While many members are also involved in sketch comedy and other endeavors, The Reckoning acts as a sort of home base, a place to stretch their improv muscles and get back to the basics of their first love. “The show fuels us creatively and helps make everything else we do better,” says Eveleth, describing The Reckoning’s influence on the rest of her work.
The Reckoning has, on occasion, headed out on the road to perform at improv and comedy festivals, and the group is planning on a series of performances in New York and Los Angeles, billed as The Reckoning East and The Reckoning West. The team’s ambitious branding practices and devotion to the form evoke one of the most influential improv collectives, The Upright Citizens Brigade. Both teams boast members who have gone on to various levels of fame/notoriety but remain steadfast in their affection for long-form improv. UCB has a 10-year head start, so time will tell if one (or all) of The Reckoning’s 10 members hit the big time. It’s easy to imagine any of these performers emerging as a sort of comedy go-to guy, like UCB’s Matt Walsh or Ian Roberts (or as an all-out star like Amy Poehler).
While The Reckoning’s more involved formal experimentations may be lost on some audience members, it’s never a bad idea to check out a Tuesday night show at iO. The cult fanbase that has developed around the team and comes out week after week is a smart, exuberant collection of comedy fans and improv geeks whose contagious enthusiasm is enough to win over even the most easily confused iO newbie. The positive environment at iO’s Del Close Theater, combined with the relentlessly funny team of performers onstage, makes The Reckoning a great choice for anyone, Luke the Level 12 Comedy Nerd and Nancy from the northwest suburbs alike.
