It Still Moves Whirled News Tonight

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: Whirled News Tonight is a current events-inspired improv show at iO, featuring improvised scenes inspired by stories literally taken from the headlines by audience members during an interactive pre-show. Every Saturday night at 8 p.m., a highly specialized ensemble cast performs a show in two acts, drawing from the week’s headlines for the first, and issues from the audience’s personal lives for the second.

The goal of the show is to not only satirize the news, but humanize the people causing and effected by these events. “We might be doing a scene about social or political issues, but the heart of any good scene is depicting a strong relationship,” says Eddie Pina, one of the show’s original cast members. The performers use the show as a venue to get audiences to think critically about the relationships and situations at hand once the laughter subsides.

A brief history lesson: The Whirled News lineup has remained more or less the same since its start eight years ago, featuring some of iO’s most talented and intelligent performers, a group of news junkies handpicked by the show’s creator and director, Jason Chin. The show opened in 2003, originally running on both Friday and Saturday nights for about a year, before donating its Friday slot to the now iconic Improvised Shakespeare show.

The structure of Whirled News Tonight is extremely well-defined and has only become more developed over the years. According to Chin, the show’s format allows the performers to take on one of four main approaches when performing a scene about a given article: “We do direct portrayals of the people mentioned in the article, we do people indirectly affected by the article, the people who decide the news, and also we try to depict abstract concepts interacting; you might see “deficit” talking to “recession” in a bar, and that’s always fun. The rest is up to the cast’s imaginations.”

In addition to its regular Saturday night time slot, Whirled News Tonight occasionally hits the road, performing at benefits, corporate functions, and improv festivals. “We’ve done fundraisers for both Republicans and Democrats, which is rather fun,” says Chin. The show’s versatility is reflected in the ensemble member’s political beliefs, which vary from right to left, ensuring that the show never leans too far in any one direction.

The cast’s versatility and willingness to play for any crowd has put its members in interesting scenarios in the past; Pina recalls a special show at a Christian family camp: “There was a season of Saved By The Bell where they all had a job at a summer camp—that’s basically where we were, the Saved By The Bell summer resort. We did this family-friendly show in a converted airport hangar. To be able to do that is fun, to be part of a group that has that flexibility.”

Why it’s still worth your time: Improv shows are rarely as timely or topical as Whirled News, with scenes inspired by the week’s biggest (and strangest) news stories. Nearly every show at iO begins with the performers soliciting the audience for a topic, but beyond that, audience participation is at a minimum. Whirled News Tonight allows more than just the quick-draw suggestion-shouters to determine the night’s events.

During the more traditional second act, the show transforms into an advice column, becoming a forum for the crowd’s life questions. (“How do I find a girlfriend?” “Should I move to Los Angeles or Boston?”) Numerous questions are taken on throughout the performance, allowing for a quick turnover of topics and a rapid-fire energy throughout the second set.

The depth of knowledge of both improvisation and global events shared by the cast of Whirled News Tonight is the most remarkable thing about the show, the seasoned hivemind which creates rapidly paced, hard-hitting scenes that leave an impact on the audience long after the final bows.