The 10-day Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival wrapped on Sunday, after 100 international troupes put on 150 shows at the Theatre Building Chicago. During its run, the event followed a packed schedule. Each hour, three performances took place simultaneously on stages throughout the building, and as many as 24 acts went on each day.
Between shows, volunteers had only a few minutes to clean out the performance spaces, usher out 500 audience members, and bring in the next batch of ticket holders. But according to executive producer Brian Posen, at no point did his crew succumb to stress.
"I have a very strong philosophy of what theater's all about," he said. "The split second patrons enter the theater, the vibe they get from staffers should be a sense of 'Welcome home, come on in here, let's celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.'" As such, one of Posen's missions throughout the festival was to keep his team "vibrant and happy," he said, and to achieve that, he employed plenty of comfort food and alcohol.
Thanks to sponsors, the festival's 50-some staffers got a steady stream of free treats. "Sam Adams gives us beer, and Chipotle gives us burritos, and it feels like a giant party," Posen said. Those working outside the theater building also got rewards. "We link in the valet guys and give them pizza and beer. We want to make them feel a part of everything too," Posen said, pointing out that a rude parking attendant can instantly sour a guest's impression of an event.
Of course, it wasn't only pizza and beer that kept the festival running smoothly. In the nine years since he founded the event, Posen said he's learned to stick to strict deadlines for everything from sending out press releases to having passes made—and he spends a full year on planning efforts.
He's also studied patrons' traffic patterns and knows to ready his team for a huge surge of audience arrivals less than 10 minutes before each show. "We've got it down," he said. "My crew is a machine. You go to other festivals and shows run an hour and a half behind schedule. The latest we've ever been is 12 minutes."
In the end, Posen said, keeping the happy vibes strong helps make the event appealing for patrons. For the past three years, attendance has stayed steady at 10,000; previous years saw crowds of 5,500. "The festival has this wonderful sense of community," he said. "I had a little old lady come up to me at the event and say 'I wish my church felt like this.'"
