Chicago, Arlington House, Sunday October 23,2005, 6:30 am
Hello from Chicago - Chinatown and Second
City
After thoroughly exploring the Pullman
Historic District, we decided to check out Chinatown, one of
the many ethnic neighbourhoods that Chicago has to offer. The weather
had turned from cool and grey with the occasional peek of sunshine
to dark, rainy and cold, so rather than walking around we decided
to have an early dinner at a Chinatown restaurant called the Lobster
King.
Both my friend Linda and I had ordered vegetarian dishes, but after
taking our order the waiter returned and informed us that he was
going to charge us $2 extra for each dish since vegetables are much
more expensive during the winter months. I decided to have a look
at their takeout menu and saw that the same low price was listed
on the takeout menu as on the main menu. As a result I put forward
an argument that if both the dine-in and the take-out menu are stating
the same low price for both dishes, I would not agree with being
charged an extra $2 for each dish based on a verbal announcement.
Either change the menu to include the higher price or charge the
prices that are shown on both menus. I am not usually a difficult,
picky guest in any hospitality establishment, but to try to charge
$2 more for a dish that is listed at a lower price on both menus
did not seem a proper business practice to me.
Chicago's Chinatown
The waiter / manager finally agreed to charge us the prices listed
on the menu, and the food was indeed delicious. After exploring
the Chicago Cultural Center and
the Historic Pullman District
we had gotten quite hungry and we really enjoyed our early dinner.
After reviving ourselves we hopped on the subway because we wanted
to check out Little Italy. So we got on the Blue Line and were told
to exit at the UIC (University of Illinois) Campus and walk southwards.
By that time it was raining and it was a rather inhospitable clammy
day. We actually never ended up finding Little Italy, but walked
around for about 40 minutes in the rain and after this exercise
of futility we decided to pursue our evening plans: to attend a
live performance at Second City, Chicago's famous comedy venue.
So we took the subway back downtown to Jackson and we waited for
the Purple Line until we realized that this line only runs during
rush hour on weekdays. So we inquired which line we had to take
and we found out that the Brown Line (to Kimball) would take us
to Second City. At that point we realized that we had also been
waiting on the wrong side of the platform. I guess in the Loop el-trains
only run in one direction and we had already been wondering why
we had seen 3 brown line trains go by on the other side of the platform,
but none of them had arrived on our side.
I'd say we spent a good 45 minutes waiting on the wrong side of
the platform until we finally had enough and went downstairs to
ask a CTA employee who directed us onto the correct platform. In
the rainy clammy weather this wasn't the most exciting part of our
trip, but we managed to entertain ourselves with lots of insider
jokes in our original Austrian dialects.
Entrance to Second City
Finally we caught a brown line train and made our way up to North
Wells Street, into the Old Town Neighbourhood, home of the Second
City Comedy Club. Since 1959 Second City has established itself
as a Chicago landmark and a national treasure. This theatre has
launched the careers of such comic geniuses as John Belushi, Mike
Myers, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and others more. It offers nightly
comedy shows, as well as a variety of other programs and services.
The theatre has two main stages, both of which were sold out yesterday,
so we headed up onto the 4th floor of the building which houses
Donny's Skybox Studio Theatre which is affiliated with Second City.
This theatre features an eclectic mix of student productions as
well as other alternative shows and at $10.00 per person, the tickets
were a steal.
The Outreach & Diversity Program produces two to three original
shows each year that are performed at Second City’s studio
theatre, Donny’s Skybox, on the fourth floor of Piper’s
Alley. At least one of these productions is an original revue written
and performed by the Outreach & Diversity ensemble, a group
of African American, Latino or Asian actors cast through annual
auditions.
We bought tickets for the 9 pm show: "Six Degrees of Reparation",
a hip comedy revue featuring improv, original material and Second
City classic scenes with an urban multicultural twist which was
put on by 6 young comedians which included 5 black and 1 oriental
performers.
Image of the Old Town Neighbourhood
The show offered a lot of physical comedy and a variety of different
sketches. One of the funniest ones was a sketch entitled "Osama
bin Laden could be anywhere", where one of the female comedians
donned a big black beard and kept popping up in different everyday
situations. The "superior Asian girl" sketch played with
A, B, C (Asian, Black, Caucasian) stereotypes and demonstrated how
we all have pre-conceived notions of one another. In the "Black
Black Awards" sketch the troupe made fun of famous celebrities
such as Whitney Houston, Maya Angelou and even Martha Stewart.
One of the most poignant sketches was set in an imaginary Office
Depot store, where the black and Asian store employees were giving
very shoddy and unfriendly service to a variety of customers. At
the end, the young black shopkeeper explained that with a wage of
$6.50 an hour, after all her costs (food, rent, bus passes, doing
her nails, etc.), she was $189 in the hole, and at that price a
smile would not be included in the service.
We both enjoyed the live performance of these gifted comedians
immensely as we both love live theatre and comedy performances.
As far as culture is concerned, Chicago has something to offer to
everyone.
Well, today is our last day here in Chicago, and the weather is
forecast to be quite cold with a 60% chance of rain. Fortunately
Chicago has many indoor venues to choose from so I am sure we won't
get bored.
Useful books about Chicago:
Related Articles:
Hello from Chicago - First Impressions
Hello from Chicago - What a fabulously
photogenic city!
Hello from Chicago - Multiple Austrian
connections
Hello from Chicago - A personal tour
of the Chicago Cultural Center
Hello from Chicago - A visit to the
Pullman Historic District
Hello from Chicago - Chinatown and
Second City
Hello from Chicago - The Field Museum
and "Pompeii - Stories from an Eruption"
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