On October 9, comedian Peter Kim left Second City’s E.T.C. revue show A Red Line Runs Through It. During the course of the evening, harmless heckling had turned into vitriolic hate speech directed at both the performers and the audience, and Kim had had enough. In a personal essay published by Chicago magazine he wrote: “Since September 2015, people in the audience have hurled increasingly racist, homophobic, and misogynistic comments at me and my castmates: comments demeaning my Asian ethnicity, using the f-word to degrade my homosexuality, and shouting ‘whores’ at the women. But this time, [someone] was attacking another audience member, and that felt like a whole other level.”
Stand-ups begin the performance by joking around with the audience and playfully picking on people, but that approach has made a lot of the participants connect more seriously and emotionally. While Kim’s armed with a microphone and prepared to confront anyone in the crowd who turns to hate speech, the sets so far have turned into meaningful interactions wherein the performers and audience members open up about things they might not normally talk about.
Through 11/28, Wed 8:30 PM Judy’s Beat Lounge
230 W. North secondcity.com $10
