An exciting history of the improv group you’ve never heard of that changed comedy in America—this is the story of Boom Chicago in Amsterdam as told by its founders and most famous alumni! Featuring a foreword by Seth Meyers and a backword by Jordan Peele.
Featuring interviews with Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Amber Ruffin, Jason Sudeikis, Ike Barinholtz, Greg Shapiro, Kay Cannon, and many more; and a sixteen-page, full-color insert with both behind-the-scenes snapshots and images from live performances.
What do Ted Lasso, Get Out, Late Night with Seth Meyers, 30 Rock, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Russian Doll, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Office , Breaking Bad, Saturday Night Live, Girls5Eva, The Colbert Report, Inside Amy Schumer, Pitch Perfect, Key & Peele, The Daily Show, MADtv, Rick and Morty, The Amber Ruffin Show, Horrible Bosses, Portlandia, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Suicide Squad, Superstore, How I Met Your Mother, Wicked, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Broad City all have in common? They all feature writers, creators, directors, or stars who got their start at Boom Chicago.
Having risen roughly to the middle of Chicago’s cutthroat comedy scene, Andrew Moskos and Pep Rosenfeld decamped the Midwest for Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1993 to start their own improv comedy troupe, Boom Chicago. In a foreign land with zero tradition of English-language humor, Moskos and Rosenfeld unwittingly created the finishing school for some of today’s most groundbreaking comedic talents. They (along with coauthors Matt Diehl and Saskia Maas) document this journey in the definitive oral history Boom Chicago Presents the 30 Most Important Years in Dutch History.
From its stages, Boom Chicago went on to launch cultural game changers like Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Amber Ruffin, Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Ike Barinholtz, Kay Cannon, and Tami Sagher (and that’s just a partial list). At Boom, these young upstarts honed their craft in front of unsuspecting foreign audiences and visiting dignitaries like Burt Reynolds, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, Dutch royalty, and the Netherlands’s prime minister—all while navigating a world with legal weed and prostitution, annual holiday celebrations involving blackface, cookies with weird racist names, and football that has nothing to do with the NFL. From this culture shock, this collective created a more topical, inclusive, tech-savvy humor that would become the dominant comedy style of our time.
Staff Choice: Luke
Book Launch: Boom Chicago's The 30 Most Important Years in Dutch History
Tuesday, July 11th 15:00
ABC Amsterdam, Spui 12 1012XA
https://boomchicago.nl
Join Boom Chicago and us at ABC Amsterdam for the book launch of The 30 Most Important Years in Dutch history!
Special guest Brendan Hunt and authors Andrew Moskos, Saskia Maas and Pep Rosenfeld will share some hilarious stories from the book. Afterwards they will sign your copy with a personal note.
It was 30 years ago when Boom Chicago introduced improvisation comedy to a mainstream Dutch audience. Since then, the successful comedy ensemble has made more than a million people laugh while continuing to innovate in and out of their theater. Alumni of Boom Chicago became some of the biggest names in American comedy.
read more