Hyde Park residents Lisa Beasley (seated, third from left) and Aasia LaShay Bullock (seated, second from right) star in The Second City e.t.c.’s 40th Revue, “A Red Line Runs Through It.” Now playing at The Second City, 230 W. North Ave. For more information visit www.SecondCity.com. The cast of “A Red Line Runs Through It” includes: (Left to right) Katie Klein, Julie Marchiano, Beasley, Scott Morehead, Bullock and Peter Kim.
- Todd Rosenberg
By DASCHELL M. PHILLIPS
Editor
Hyde Park residents Lisa Beasley and Aasia Lashay Bullock are part of the six-person comedy group in The Second City e.t.c.’s 40th Revue, “A Red Line Runs Through It.”
In “A Red Line Runs Through It,” which is now playing at The Second City e.t.c. Theatre, 230 W. North Ave. (2nd Floor of Piper’s Alley) through Nov. 26, the diverse cast of comedians explore issues including the new mother blues, black girl magic and salacious local news. Jeff Award-winning director Matt Hovde is the director of the show.
Beasly, who has lived in Hyde Park for five years and Bullock, who has lived in Hyde Park four months, spoke with the Hyde Park Herald about their favorite places in the neighborhood, African American women in comedy and their excitement about “A Red Line Runs Through It,” which they helped write and perform in with Peter Kim, Katie Klein, Julie Marchiano and Scott Morehead.
Q&A with Lisa Beasley
HPH: How long have you lived in the neighborhood?
LB: Five years. It’s the only neighborhood I’ve lived in since I moved to Chicago from Gary, Ind. in 2011.
HPH: What are some of your favorite things to do in the neighborhood?
LB: When the weather is nice, I love strolling my baby around and going to The Sit Down Cafe. I love going to the best Walgreens in the world – 55th Street and Lake Park Avenue. I work a lot so I also love chilling inside of my apartment with my family and ordering GrubHub specifically from The LiteHouse Grill. I love the Lite House Grill.
HPH: Who inspired you to choose to become a comedian and how did you get your start?
LB: As the “baby” of the family, I was the entertainer of the household and always tried to make my family laugh. Whether I was successful or not, I don’t remember. I was also voted Class Clown for my high school’s Senior Year Superlatives and that is a trophy I am very proud of. I was always a good student, but I was easily bored and took to always cracking jokes that only my closest neighboring desks could hear. When I began working as an actor in Chicago, all of the roles I got were comedic characters in dramatic plays. When I began working at Black Ensemble Theatre doing kid shows, I had more freedom to create silly characters and improvise. I started working at The Second City as an understudy for theatricals produced for Up Comedy Club – Second City often seeks out black women in the acting community to understudy Second City talent. In 2014, Second City created The Bob Curry Fellowship, which is a program geared towards giving comedians of various backgrounds the opportunity to study at The Second City. To me, it felt like a crash course in understanding the different components of what makes a “Second City” performer. We learned archive scenes, improvised together, learned how to pitch a scene and performed our showcase at the end of the 16 course program. Then I was hired as a member of the touring company and then became a member of the e.t.c. stage – where I am currently running “A Red Line Runs Through It.”
HPH: Who are some of your favorite comedians past and present?
LB: I get asked this question a lot and my answer will never be famous icons. I’ve marveled at the stage presence of Richard Pryor, I grew up with Bill Cosby -yikes, am I right?-, and there are more but I currently work with some of the funniest people I have ever met. My family is full of characters and when we are all together we laugh a lot. My very close friends crack me up over facetime just about everyday. There are so many comedians in my life that don’t take to the stage and test out material to be judge by a select few – they are just naturally funny and a joy to be around. And if I can make them laugh, I feel very successful.
HPH: Do you think that comedy is still a tough industry to break out in as an African American woman? If so, what are some of those obstacles and how are you working to overcome them?
LB: There was a recent article that resurfaced that proved that black women are the most educated group in America, yet we are still paid the least. We are overshadowed, ignored, and often disrespected in subtle ways that mainstream America doesn’t care to acknowledge. I think every industry, performance based or not – is tough for a black woman to break into because we are not given the same opportunities as our male and/or white counterparts. Often to look to a woman of color for inspiration you have to look outside of your industry just to prove to yourself that a black woman is being super successful somewhere I can look up to Shonda Rhimes and Beyonce all day long, but I’ve never seen them perform a tight five of stand-up featuring three to five distinct characters. With that being said, I personally know so many hilarious black women in the Chicago comedy scene and they don’t get the recognition they deserve.
When you work as an understudy at The Second City, you are doing archive material written by past Second City alum. So if it wasn’t for Claudia Wallace, Christina Anthony, Nyima Funk, Angela Shelton, Tawny Newsome, and a handful of other black women - I wouldn’t have had much material to perform. The obstacle is won when you continue to create work for other black women. So now, Rashawn Scott, Aasia Bullock, and myself now have the advantage of creating material that only black women can perform while also lending our 3 very distinct point of views allowing for a more diverse pool of black women. The obstacle is overcome when we prove our worth in the comedy community. Just like there are four hundred and seventeen billion white men charged with the task of making America laugh, Black women in comedy are not interchangeable – we are each different, unique and magical but we all share the desire to be heard. The stages, the networks, the Netflix Original Series, the Hulu’s and most importantly The Writer’s Room of American would be blessed to have us on board.
HPH: Tell me about the show you are currently doing at Second City. How would you define the show and your part in the show?
LB: A Red Line Runs Through It is an exciting show and I think we give a lot of our energy towards making it a fun ride for the audience. It’s six comedians from very different backgrounds and we each contribute special skills unique to our personalities that create a unified theme of awesomeness and revolution.
HPH: As a co-writer of the show, what inspired the storylines and characters you created?
LB: On the resident stages at The Second City, we write and perform our own material. We test out material every night – if the audience doesn’t laugh we either never talk about it again or we rework it until the audience laughs. It’s called process. When process begins we have about 12 weeks to create a brand new show. We come to rehearsal and pitch scene ideas to each other and try them on stage in front of a paying audience that night. Sometimes they are fully written and get edited along the way or we improvise our way into a written sketch.
Living in the moment helps me shape my characters. The characters I create only live in a scene for about two to three minutes, sometimes even less than 10 seconds but each character is a full and complete person with a history, a dirty little secret, and a motive.
Q&A with Aasia Lashay Bullock
HPH: How long have you lived in the neighborhood?
ALB: I’m from Dallas I moved to Chicago to the Ravenswood area and I attended DePaul University. I just move into my condo in Hyde Park in March.
HPH: What are some of your favorite things to do in the neighborhood?
ALB: I like Pizza Capri, visiting the [Museum of Science and Industry]. I have a dog so I love the dog park and walking around Jackson Park. It’s nice to meet other dog lovers in the neighborhood.
HPH: Who inspired you to choose to become a comedian and how did you get your start?
ALB: I was an only child so I was always desperate for attention. My mom worked a lot so once I got her attention I felt I had to make it worth her time. Also, in school I was a class clown and a nerd. I’d finish my work first then tell jokes.
I went to an arts high school it was the best experience of my life. I was able to create my own work and collaborations. In high school I studied where the [Saturday Night Live] cast went to for training. I found out that they came to Chicago so that’s why I chose to go to college in Chicago.
I performed musical theater and comedy and in while in college I started taking classes at Second City.
HPH: Who are some of your favorite comedians past and present?
ALB: Wayne Brady, when he was on Whose Line Is It Anyway he would make up songs off the top of his head and I thought I want to be in a place where people have faith in me to come up with something so quickly. Dave Chapelle, his comedy is so silly and it pushes the envelope. It’s smart in a silly way. Maya Rudolph, she’s musical and funny. Sarah Silverman, she is a very smart person who understands oppression and a keen knowledge on how things work in society.
HPH: Do you think that comedy is still a tough industry to break out in as an African American woman? If so, what are some of those obstacles and how are you working to overcome them?
ALB: The hardest part is trying to find your network and meeting others with your point of view. I often have to explain what I’m doing when I improvise. Working at Second City has built that muscle up for me and I’m getting better at it and can also put on a show.
HPH: Tell me about the show you are currently doing at Second City. How would you define the show and your part in the show?
ALB: It’s a Chicago focused show the director is great to work with. He was very open-minded. There are skits on “Code Switching” and “Black Girl Magic,” in which he allowed a magician to come in and show us how to do magic tricks.
d.phillips@hpherald.com