Although the Stella Comedy Show will perform live in Chicago for the first time Friday, the three guys on stage will not be strangers to most comedy fans.
Stella members Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain all hail from The State, a sketch comedy ensemble known for its MTV show in the mid ’90s, years of live comedy and the cult hit movie “Wet Hot American Summer.”
And though Stella’s 10 p.m. show at the Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie Blvd., follows its first major tour, the group has been a fixture of the New York City comedy scene since 1997. While hosting other ‘alternative’ comedy acts in a weekly show at the Fez Under Time Cafe, the actors developed their own brand of three-man comedy, which they have now taken beyond their home turf.
“We’d been hearing quite a lot about the stuff they’ve been doing,” said Bruce Finkelman of Empty Bottle, the presenter bringing Stella to Chicago. “We were like, hey, let’s bring them in! We’re very excited.”
Before the tour, few outside New York had seen Stella perform, but the group’s short films, available on its Web site, offered a little taste of the actors’ style. It was these films that brought the group its first followers outside a circle of downtown regulars.
The shorts borrow from the fast-paced hand-held “guerrilla style” filming and editing that was key to The State’s series on MTV.
The trio’s humor can be described as crude. Simple yet witty. Excessive. And still very funny.
Wain said “anyone who enjoys comedy will enjoy what we do,” but some audiences likely will take exception.
Will everyone enjoy their brand of sexual absurdities and unpolished, college-aged excesses? Will everyone appreciate Mrs. Claus endowed with a particular male organ, or think eating a Sherpa guide on a South Pole trek is funny?
Occasionally the show is off color, but what the humor lacks in sophistication it makes up for in effort. The State was more subtle, but Stella packs a raw comic punch that hits the mark most of the time.
Stella is one of many projects that have grown out of the 11 original members of The State. Founded in 1988 by a handful of New York University theater students, The State began performing around New York City.
Five years and many pilots later, they finally landed a show on MTV after members who interned there made popular episodes for Jon Stewart’s “You Wrote It, You Watch It.”
After four seasons on MTV, The State switched to CBS for a single Halloween special. A new show never materialized — “crashed and burned, for lots of reasons,” Wain said — but members continued live shows, and some moved on to new projects.
In 1997 Showalter and Wain wrote “Wet Hot American Summer,” and joined forces with Black to create Stella.
