Twitter sweet

dantelfer I understand that not everyone can open a .docx document. But can we please learn what they ARE? Stop acting like I emailed you alien guts.

bethstelling Sometimes it takes 2:05min into a 2:35min Chipmunks song to notice you’re annoyed when it plays in your iTunes shuffle.

nickvatterott Ive an unhealthy obsession with the underwhelming music video ‘That’s not my name’ by the Ting Tings. It may become my ‘Catcher in the Rye.’

According to local stand-up Cameron Esposito, “Strawberry Pop-Tarts are the only Pop-Tarts that matter.” Meanwhile, resident joker and Columbia College alum C.J. Toledano muses, “I don’t need textbooks when I have Wikipedia. Here’s to barely passing college.” And somewhere else around town, comedian Prescott Tolk quips, “Doesn’t Hamas on a flotilla sound like something you’d get in a tapas bar?” How do we know what random thoughts are darting in and out of Esposito’s, Toledano’s and Tolk’s heads? Because all three comics have entered the Twitter universe.

Whether you’ve realized it or not, going to school in Chicago means you’re also living in the center of one of the world’s great comedy cities. Between top-notch sketch and improv venues like the Second City, iO and Annoyance as well as a growing alt stand-up scene that includes stellar rooms like the Lincoln Lodge, Chicago Underground Comedy at Beat Kitchen and Entertaining Julia at the Town Hall Pub, we really do live in a comedy mecca. But free time is limited, and more important, so is your student-loan money. That’s why following a comic on Twitter is a great way to suss out his or her vibe and also find out when and where he or she is performing.

Comics know this. Former Chicago stand-up Nick Vatterott, for example, joined Twitter last year at the urging of another ex-Chicago comic, funny guy T.J. Miller (Cloverfield). Vatterott twitters specifically to showcase new material. “Having people spend time on the Internet looking at stuff involving your comedy is almost becoming essential to having a successful career,” he says. Local comic Dan Telfer agrees. “It’s a way to remind people you’re still out there trying to be funny, and it’s so disposable that if a joke fails, it isn’t going to hang in the air for very long. It tumbles down your followers’ feed and fades from memory.”

Telfer, a self-described nerd comic, recently had this comment to tweet: “I wish that literal badgers would walk up to you all the time harassing you for a favor. Being a talking animal overrides being annoying.” Meanwhile, Vatterott recently tweeted this clever quip: “I think a pun about a cemetery is a grave mistake.”

An added benefit for comics is Twitter’s immediacy. In between gigs, stand-up comics can respond to topical news items such as the Gulf Coast oil spill or midterm elections. “I love it when really funny people use it as a way to comment on a big event,” Telfer says. Toledano, for example, used Twitter to update his readers recently regarding this pressing event: “It’s free donut day at Dunkin Donuts. I got one at 3am, went to sleep and now I’m going to get another. This lifestyle pays off.”

Most important perhaps is the up-to-date information that tweeting comedians offer their followers. The Second City updates its Twitter feed to let folks know where to spot alumni when they’re in town. Bootleg Comedy, a stand-up night at Cagney’s in Lincoln Park, recently updated its Twitter feed to let followers know that SNL writer and former Chicagoan Hannibal Buress would be performing that night. “For a comedian, it’s a great way to promote your shows,” Vatterott says, “and perhaps, by word of mouth, be known as someone funny to follow and not someone who just updates the world on menial tasks like people do on Facebook. If I read one more person who tells me, ‘Nap time for Meg!’ or ‘John’s having soup!’ it might be enough for me to go outside and interact with real people.”

Local comedy Twitter hounds
Brian Babylon
Blewt! Productions (@Blewt)
Bootleg Comedy
Adam Burke (@atpburke)
Chicago Underground Comedy (@ChUComedy)
Bill Cruz
Cameron Esposito
GayCo Chicago (@gaycochicago)
Adam Guerino
Joe Kilgallon
Laugh It Up Kid (@laughitupkids)
Red Bar Radio
The Second City
Beth Stelling
Dan Telfer
C.J. Toledano
Prescott Tolk

Twitter handles are full namesunless indicated in parentheses.

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