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For all its spontaneity, ImprovOlympic has remained a static part of the Chicago theater scene.

Saturday May 05, 2001.     By Jennifer Allen

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For a group known for its spontaneity, ImprovOlympic has remained a static part of the Chicago theater scene for 15 years now. Yeah, it's moved from place to place and has been attacked by the U.S. Olympic Committee, but it still draws consistent crowds to its performances and often makes them laugh hysterically.

Founded by David Shepherd and Charna Halpern, with Del Close -- then a director for Second City -- moonlighting for them, in 1981 ImprovOlympics began its training/performance program with now-obvious success.

The idea is that people watching their show, who perhaps have never experienced pure improv, want to give it a shot themselves. So, they sign up for classes and begin to learn what makes a good improv session from Halpern and Close. If they "pass," their group performs in the Friday and Saturday night shows, showing off their stuff and perhaps inspiring more people to see what improv is all about.

Perhaps the most successful show was (and to a certain extent is) "Harold," which opened its doors to the public in August of 1985 though its roots stretch back to 1967 San Francisco. It was there that Close began stretching improv, to think of shows consisting purely of improvisation, with a series of sketches based on audience-suggested words or phrases, and the series as a whole held together by yet another suggestion from the peanut gallery.

In 1984 Close quit Second City and began focusing on his other projects, one of them being ImprovOlympic. 1985 saw heavy experimentation with "Harold," which eventually led to its opening, and success. The collection of time dashes, monologues, musical spots, and split scenes has become a staple of Chicago late night fare. No two nights are the same, thanks to different exercises, different audiences, and different improv groups. Thus, the rather chaotic outline has grown to become part of the framework of an evening in Chicago, now simply called "ImprovOlympic."

Oh sure, they've jumped from place to place. "Harold" opened at CrossCurrents (3206 N. Wilton Ave.), which closed on October 31, 1987 after six years in business. ImprovOlympic was allowed to stay for a short time, but soon found itself at the Ivanhoe (750 W. Wellington) and then moved to Orphans (2462 N. Lincoln). Cotton Chicago, the successor to CrossCurrents and ImprovOlympic's next home, closed in August of 1989. June of 1990 saw the group in Papa Milano's (1970 N. Lincoln) basement -- they had seats for 150 and their own entrance. In February of 1995, though, they closed the deal on their own place and in March opened their first show at 3541 N. Clark.

Besides being down the road from Wrigley, their new spot has a 99-seater upstairs theater (The Del Close Theater) along with a 60-seat cabaret area downstairs. The cabaret features a bar, some older tables, and a very simple stage -- essentially a platform. The place is very non-threatening, a good thing when you're trying to relax audiences and get them to put themselves on the line with suggestions and more daring escapades.

Speaking of threatening, perhaps the oddest trial for the troupe has been their run-in with the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1987-1988. In seems that the committee owns the word "Olympic," at least in the United States. By federal law, the committee owns the rights to decide how the word should be used. Odd? Yes. While the intent -- to hinder its misuse in fund-raising -- makes sense, there are thousands of "olympic" companies, many of them with stronger ties to the tradition of Ancient Greece than Pepsi-Cola and IBM. As Halpern told Sports Illustrated at the time, "If I can own a word, then I want to own the work the. I'll sue everybody. I'll sue The Tonight Show. Who owns words? What is this, Wheel of Fortune? Can I buy a vowel?" Halpern had actually begun considering changing the name before this battle -- she wasn't so hot about it. As soon as the first letter arrived, though, she was ready for battle.

Well, ImprovOlympic is still around under the same name, so it's safe to assume that not much came of that legal mess. In fact, things are going well. To honor their longevity, they're having an anniversary party ( Saturday, August 14, at the Vic at 8pm), and are expecting many of their alumni to come and join in the festivities. Among them are a couple from Saturday Night Live (Tim Meadows and David Koechner), one from News Radio (Andy Dick), another from Late Night with Conan O'Brien (Andy Richter), and yet another from Murphy Brown (Pat Finn) -- quite a number of graduates that have gone on and made a name for themselves on little boxes across America after their nights competing against each other on little stages across this city.

Yep, in an eclectic and precarious medium ImprovOlympic may have a few wrinkles, but shows no signs of deteriorating. -- Jennifer Allen

You can get your tickets either from The Vic Theater (312) 472-0449 or from Ticket Master (312) 559-1212. If you actually buy your tickets at the Vic's box office, (we think, though the regulations are somewhat complicated) you'll save the service charge. The show is general admission, 18 & older. Doors open at 7pm.