Last June the comedy open mike at Cole’s Bar in Logan Square—widely considered to be the best comedy open mike in the city—celebrated a decade of consistent weekly shows. Due to stay-at-home orders across the state, Cole’s is currently closed and cohosts Alex Kumin and Carly Kane know they are unlikely to celebrate the mike’s 11th year on the stage in the back of their favorite dive bar. But they’ve found a new outlet for gathering the Chicago comedy community together to try out new material in front of eager audience members on Wednesday nights: Zoom.
Even in the best of times, comedians help the rest of us process the world. And right now there’s a lot to process. While every comedian had a unique voice, the current quarantine popped up frequently. Esposito joked about leaving her car running in a hospital parking lot for an hour and being thankful no one was around to steal it, Rima Parikh pondered the merits of cutting her boyfriend’s hair herself, and David Drake admitted that he didn’t take advice to stock up on food seriously and ended up in a grocery store facing empty shelves.
