For many students, Monday nights are spent doing piles of laundry, completing assignments that were due the prior weekend and attempting to prepare for the week ahead. For Communication senior Jackson Heller, Mondays are entering the crowded attic in his off-campus house on Pratt Court and performing stand-up.
The Prattic is a comedy show featuring student performers who sign up for three to seven minute stand-up sets in a makeshift attic comedy club. Aside from the time limit, the comedians have no rules or guidelines for their sets. Admission is a $3 Venmo charge, and the shows typically run for about 40 minutes.
Last winter, Heller founded The Prattic alongside Weinberg senior Mateo Garcia-Bryce, Weinberg senior Livia Salituro, Communication senior Luca Hirsch and Communication senior Ainslie Wilson.
While studying overseas in Prague, Heller said he was finally in a comedy club environment where he could experiment and get comfortable with his stand-up. The Prattic is an attempt to build such a community in Evanston.
“It could have just been an attic,” Heller said. “But we looked at it as a space to continue to pursue our passions, and it unlocked our ability to do more.”
Heller grew up listening to comedy specials like Jim Gaffigan’s “Mr. Universe” on shuffle in his dad’s playlist. His parents — an avid comedy loving school principal and a non-profit worker — are not performers, but they helped teach Heller the art of humor and good jokes.
He first performed stand-up at The Green Room, a comedy club in De Pere, Wisconsin, the summer after graduating high school. He brought his two best friends and said he bombed it, getting only one or two laughs total. As he was leaving the venue, an employee caught him outside and told him he should come back again, a gesture that drove Heller to continue. During his first two years of college, Heller would trek to Chicago to practice stand-up sets.
“I hated going to Chicago,” Heller said. “The jokes cross the line of what’s okay. We can be better than this. We don’t have to punch down on every vulnerable community to make jokes.”
Heller saw The Prattic as an opportunity to create his own comedy scene. He and his roommates shaped the environment and its values themselves. They always remained true to jokes that didn’t bring people down in order to make others laugh.
What started as a few folding chairs and one microphone became homemade wood benches, crowds of over 70 people and a full lighting setup. Garcia-Bryce gushed about his roommate’s creativity throughout the construction of what The Prattic is today.
“It’s nice to have someone who’s as committed to this as anyone can be,” Garcia-Bryce said. “He is a super moral person. That’s what fundamentally drives him — wanting to be nice to people and make everyone have a good time.”
When asked about the future of The Prattic, Heller revealed that he is unsure whether it will continue after his roommates move out in the summer. How the next lessees will choose to use the space is out of their control, but Heller hopes it continues to be an artistic attic.
Dozens of students have discovered comedy and community there. Communication sophomore Libby Nook tried a stand-up set after encouragement from Heller. Nook said Heller helped her tap into poking fun at herself, specifically her big family and their chaotic dynamics. Thanks to The Prattic, Nook said she hopes to continue stand-up at NU.
“It’s this unique moment, I don’t think it would be the same if there’s other people running it,” Nook said. “It is such a reflection of them as friends and as people, and it’s even more special, knowing that it’s coming to a close.”
While The Prattic may be ending, Heller said his career in comedy is just beginning. After he graduates, Heller hopes to move to New York or Los Angeles to continue to perform stand-up and make films.
When Heller approaches the center of the room to perform at The Prattic, he’s taller than the mic stand, his head almost hitting the ceiling. Heller speaks with a slow voice and a laid-back demeanor, and the audience laughs from the first punchline to his exit.
“It’s terrifying, it’s scary, and I’m still not good at it,” Heller said. “But I owe it all to The Prattic. It’s the perfect space that has allowed me to grow as a stand-up comedian.”
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