Wednesday-Saturday night: TJ Miller
Michael Schwartz
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Traditionally, the arc for Chicago comedians is as follows:
1. They hone their craft.
2. They build up a large enough audience to sustain performing nearly full-time.
3. They leave behind the city that made them in favor of either New York or L.A. to “make it.”
4. They’re never heard from again, and more importantly, they never return to Chicago.
2. They build up a large enough audience to sustain performing nearly full-time.
3. They leave behind the city that made them in favor of either New York or L.A. to “make it.”
4. They’re never heard from again, and more importantly, they never return to Chicago.
Nobody told comedian T.J. Miller this, though. The Colorado-born comic cut his teeth in the Chicago comedy scene rather rapidly: He toured with Second City, performed with iO, and did stand-up at pretty much every club imagineable. He’s also partly responsible for improv theatre iO’s brief stint hosting stand-up shows (a move that triggered a community-wide outlash). After a speedy four years of rising through the Chicago-comedy ranks, Miller scampered off to L.A. to make his TV debut on Bruce McCulloch’s (The Kids In The Hall) sitcom Carpoolers. That’s when the writer’s strike reared its ugly head, making the show a dead duck with clipped wings.
Miller rebounded by appearing in this year’s horror-flick Cloverfield, and he’s attached to appear in Mike Judge’s next film, and he’s also appearing in next year’s The Goods: The Don Ready Story and She’s Out of My League, but the 27-year-old comic makes a triumphant, multi-day return to Chicago via a string of shows at the Lakeshore.
Wednesday night, Miller will be featured at variety-show The Lakeshore Jumble and will then perform five stand-up sets over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
Here's TJ Miller displaying some of his more ridiculous characters during a stand-up set:
