{image1}Comedy Sportz has a new home on 420 S. First St., but don't worry, the troupe's competitive improv insanity was packed in the move.
The lease was up, and Comedy Sportz needed a more productive site for the shows.
"The columns all over the place (at the previous location) made it hard to etch out a good performance space," says founder of Comedy Sportz, Dick Chudnow.
"In the old place I'd say we had about 8,000 square feet of useful space, here we have 10,000," he adds.
Occupying that extra space will be a new auditorium, private banquet hall, a bigger bar and a full kitchen.
"The show will be more technically pleasing," says Chudnow, a Shorewood High School grad. "The TVs will add to the show, the sound and the lights will be more professional."
The show's times and days will not change, but some of the original tactics will.
"Instead of the 'Brown Bag Foul' we're going to have the 'Potty Mouth Foul,' where they'll be putting a toilet seat over their heads," Chudnow says.
"We're changing little things so that when people come see the show they'll feel like they're seeing a newer show," he adds. Along with the porcelain head gear, players will be wearing more sports-oriented uniforms and encouraging more audience involvement.
"We're adding fun things all over the place, not just with the show," says Chudnow. "There are going to be some funhouse mirrors and more games in the lobby, more insanity. Two ballet parkers, not one!"
Chudnow's ultra-enthusiastic nature isn't unfolding just because of the new location. He's a man who truly thrives on his work.
"I think any time you can make a living doing what you want to do, you're lucky," he says.
But 20 years ago, Comedy Sportz was just a dream stemming from a worn out career of screenwriting and acting in Los Angeles. After living and working there for 14 years with high school pals, David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrams, Chudnow knew it was time to return to his hometown.
"I figured this competitive show type of thing would work in Milwaukee," says Chudnow. "Improv wouldn't have worked here because no one knew what improv was. I was even told that comedy wouldn't work in Milwaukee.
"But we made it into a sport, and that made it a lot more fun for us and a lot more fun for the audience."
How did it survive in a city that put on comedic performances only once a month? "I think the saving grace of the whole thing was that it was a family show, most of the other comedy was pretty raunchy," Chudnow says.
Whatever the concoction was, it blended into supreme success. There are now Comedy Sportz teams in almost 20 U.S. cities, and it has even gone international to the United Kingdom and Ireland.
So, Milwaukee and Comedy Sportz or Hollywood and films?
Chudnow answers, "If I had to choose between that life and this life, doing this or doing films, I'd do this in a second."
They're shooting for a July 15 opening, "but as long as we're completely functional by the international tournament on Aug. 3, we'll be OK," admits Chudnow.
