The Comedy Clubhouse Highlights the Hilarity of Group Improv

At the Comedy Clubhouse, improv duo Tricky Mickey opened by asking for “something that isn’t a color but should be.” 

“Cabbage,” an audience member said. That’s how a Tricky Mickey improv show begins.

The 18-plus venue Comedy Clubhouse is a cozy theater nestled on North Ashland Avenue in West Town. Their Sept. 11 night show was composed of two parts — One Group Mind, a 12-member improv team, and the dynamic improv duo Tricky Mickey. 

Both shows began by requesting a prompt from the audience. One Group Mind requested a menial chore as a central topic and received “laundry” from an audience member.

As such, the performers used the concept of laundry as a tethering point for their wildly varying, endless strings of bits, avoiding any lull in their humor.

Member of Tricky Mickey and teacher of One Group Mind Mike Abdelsayed opened the Comedy Clubhouse in 2015, but closed it during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Abdelsayed has built the establishment back up, taught classes, performed and ran a bar and restaurant on the side. 

The other half of Trickey Mickey is Charley Arksey, a comic of 15 years who shined in his performance with enthusiastic performances of his various characters.

Fellow performers One Group Mind are a collection of Abdelsayed’s students, training two months before they started performing. 

That training showed in their performance. The group of 12 worked together seamlessly, as if they were one person, truly living up to their name. While two to four performers engaged in silly antics center stage, the remaining comedians stayed by the side.

Without cues, performers from the sidelines would step in, adding onto any given bit with their own improv, including but not limited to pretending to be a dog, Bob Sagett or the Olsen twins.

Each table at the venue was suited for two, making a Friday night at the Comedy Clubhouse fit for a pair to enjoy a night of hilarity.

Tricky Mickey’s performance was both riveting and funny, covering a wide range of topics including financial concerns of a frat leader, father and son struggles and fighting a pig at a hockey game.

With both performances together, the show lasted until late in the night without feeling drawn out. 

After the show, their jovial nature and chemistry wasn’t confined to the stage. When asked about their idiosyncratic crowd favorite “vegan pussy games” bit, Arksey and Abdelsayed started riffing just as they did in their performance.

Arksey, who got to know Abdelsayed after his landlord moved them in together, ​was eager to point out the uniqueness of Abdelsayed’s encouraging teaching philosophy.

“So many of the big theaters out there that are doing improvs are teaching vibes,” Arksey said. “But really what you’re being taught is that teacher’s preference for what happens on stage.”

Abdelsayed compared his teaching process to that of a chef. While other programs teach specific recipes, he said he teaches about each comedic ingredient’s taste and effect on the meal — in this case the performance. 

“Miss an ingredient or a step, and you just adapt the meal,” Abdelsayed commented later over email. “I teach adaptation.” 

One Group Mind is the first unionized group of comedians in Chicago. Abdelsayed said his ambitions are “to provide a home for One Group Mind, the first union, and to establish a business model where the venue partners with the talent, not treat them like a customer.” 

“Once the mortgage has been paid, we will be the first to pay improv comedians to perform,” he added.

As a performer and a teacher, he said he wants his apprentices to know they’ll become his peers as they develop their comedic skills.

To his comedy partner, this selfless approach is surely appreciated. 

“This whole theory that lives and dies with this one guy, when he’s gone, his theory will be gone, and it’ll just be echoes from the people he taught,” Arksey said.

The Comedy Clubhouse, located at 1462 N. Ashland is open 7-11:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets start at $12. 

Correction: This article was updated Oct. 7. to include the link, location and hours information of The Comedy Clubhouse. An update was made Oct. 9 correcting the address from 462 to 1462 N. Ashland, and removing “Mondays.”