PRESS ARCHIVES
10/17/04 - Chicago Reader

4/29/04 - Daily Herald

3/16/04 - Chicago Tribune

PRESS:

10/17/04 - Chicago Reader
The current incarnation of director Jason R. Chin's Argos Agency is smart. On the night I attended the show, based on audience contributions of news stories, a sketch involving Bipedal Locomotion Enterprises would have taken a prize for vocabulary alone. The ten-member ensemble also makes casual references to Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, and William Golding. And how many twentysomethings can do an accurate Alfred Hitchcock impression extempore? Instead of going for the broad and vulgar, these folks more often opt for the microcosmic. A patriarchal defense of polygamy is transformed into a wife lamenting the responsibilities of having multiple husbands. A report about terrorists plotting via Internet cafes sparks visions of subversive activities impeded by spam, pop-ups, and IMing. The players exhibit a genuine rapport; articulate dialogue unfolds logically, swiftly, and concisely. And despite the news whirling just outside ImprovOlympic on Saturday night, the Cubbies were not allowed to intrude on the action until the appropriate moment. - Mary Shen Barnidge

4/29/04 - Daily Herald (Chicago Suburbs)
" THE NEWS IS REAL. EVERYTHING ELSE IS IMPROVISED" Audiences needn't know every Tom, Dick and Condoleezza in the George Bush administration to appreciate the wit of Whirled News Tonight's "Newspeak." But it helps. Politics and current events underscore much of WNT's weekly improvised revue, and newsmakers like Homeland Security Secretary Ridge, Vice-President Cheney and National Security Advisor Rice figure prominently in the show, whose title comes from George Orwell's "1984." However, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in political science or a steady diet of C-SPAN to get the puns. Pop culture savvy will do. For example, Saturday's show referenced "Fight Club," "Casablanca," "The Shawshank Redemption," Ben Affleck, "Rent" and Internet porn, as well as last week's train crash in North Korea, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and abortion. "I don't think it takes dedicated C-SPAN watching, because most people aren't watching that," said ensemble member Sarah Haskins, a Harvard University graduate, who began improvising in college. "With a show like this, it's key to be aware of American history and world history, and to be aware that what happened in the past informs what's happening now."

"We reward people for being smart, as opposed to TV, which rewards people for being dumb," said WNT founder and "Newspeak" director Jason Chin, who came up with the idea for the news-based show last year. "I'm a newspaper and political junkie," said the 10-year veteran of Chicago's improvisation scene. "I love politics and improv, and I thought, why not try to merge them?" Chin decided to have audience members clip newspaper articles and pin them to onstage bulletin boards before the show. Cast members then select articles, from which they improvise scenes. "We'll read the headline and the first couple of paragraphs and that's all the background (audience members) need," explained Chin, who hopes "Newspeak" will help push improv beyond humor into satire. Having devised the format, Chin, an ImprovOlympic instructor, invited the smartest improvisers he knew to join the cast. "Watching them perform, I knew they read two newspapers a day and Tivo-ed the State of the Union Address," he laughed. "He (Chin) was great in that he wanted our input," said John P. Glynn, WNT's self-styled resident Republican. "It was his premise, but we all got to mold the direction of the show."

"Newspeak" debuted in September at ImprovOlympic, although it is not an ImprovOlympic-sponsored show. Initially, it consisted of just scenes, said Haskins, but has become more unified, with recurring themes and characters and scenes that refer to and build upon each other. "It's exhilarating to get up on stage with an ensemble of people and try to create something," said Haskins. "It's almost addicting." Except for a member who moved to Arizona, the original cast of Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives and middle-of-the-roaders remains intact. Here, political persuasion matters less than a quick mind and a cooperative attitude. "John's a Republican and I'm a Democrat, but it's not important what our personal politics are," said Haskins. "John and I have commonalities that outweigh our political differences." "There's an inherent trust there," she said. A balanced cast ensures characters don't turn into caricatures, said Glynn, a Xavier University graduate who studied improv at Second City, The Annoyance Theater and ImprovOlympic.

Ultimately, the Whirled News team consists of equal-opportunity satirists. "I've done 30 shows in Chicago and this is the funniest and smartest," said Chin, who will unveil a scripted version of the show in June. "It makes fun of everything and everyone." Initially, the cast relied on the "George Bush is stupid" crutch, despite Chin's attempts to deter them. "It became like Chevy Chase doing Gerald Ford," said Glynn referring to Chase's famous "Saturday Night Live" sendup of the former president. "It was a parody of a parody, so we put on the brakes." Chin didn't want the group going for the easy laughs, so he insisted they not portray George Bush as stupid. " He's inattentive. He's indifferent. He has different priorities, but he's not dumb," said Chin.

Also, while they don't shy away from serious or tragic topics, they don't make fun of victims. For example, an article about the tornado that killed eight Utica residents last week might lead to a "Wizard of Oz"-inspired scene about a tornado touching down during a joint session of Congress. Of course, not every scene soars. "In every improv show, some scenes are going to bomb," said Haskins. One, inspired by the college student faking her own kidnapping, started out slow "until Padraic Connelly entered and started mugging himself," said Haskins. The rest of the cast joined in committing crimes against themselves, and the scene was saved. "To say it's a well-oiled machine is cliché, but it's a good description," said Glynn, adding that the biggest compliments come from people leaving the theater wondering if the show was really improvised. That doesn't happen by wit alone, he said. It's a result of the chemistry between the 10 ensemble members and the connections they make onstage.

Chin calls the cast "a director's dream." "They're very seasoned improv people, but not so seasoned they're jaded," he said. Mostly, they're funny. "Everything right now seems so serious and sad," said Haskins. "Maybe getting to laugh about it is good enough." - Barbara Vitello

3/16/04 - Chicago Tribune
"Newspeak" comes from a troupe calling itself Whirled News Tonight, and it falls squarely into the "something new" category. As audience members file into the ImprovOlympic, they are invited to grab a pair of scissors, clip out a few newspaper articles and tack them to the bulletin boards attached to the stage. The 10-member troupe then uses these various articles as a springboard for [long-form] improv. It is occasionally political - Bush got a hefty satirical whacking the night I attended ... this is a brainy, quick-witted group (directed by Jason R. Chin), and the show's basic concept, that the news is ripe with improv fodder, feels surprisingly fresh. - Nina Metz

Email WNT