04 May, 2008

Boom Chicago in Amsterdam




One of the most fun things I had done in Amsterdam when I visited the city on several occasions in 2000 was to visit the Boom Chicago comedy club. The club seems to be modeled after the Second City comedy club in Chicago which is a sketch comedy club with improv. Boom Chicago has the added bonus of basing alot of their shows on Amsterdam and the Dutch culture which is very interesting. It is probably best appreciated if you have visited there but the shows are funny none the less. The actors are mostly American but clearly live in Amsterdam or a nearby city as they are in tune with the wackiness of Amsterdam and Holland.


Paula and I decided to have dinner at the club before the show as they had a package deal that lets you have a 3 course meal before hand and then you get priority seating near the front of the stage. All the food that we had was excellent and the endless drinks were also a bonus.


At about 10pm we were all escorted down to the theatre from the restaurant area. We originally were seated at a 2 person table right at the front of the stage but they later moved us to a side booth along with another couple. This couple would later be picked on for the show, Miles and Tracy from London. The show we saw was called "The Last Person to Leave the Planet, Turn Off the Lights" and as you may imagine, it was about the environment. They had somewhat of a set plan for the show in general but they took tons of suggestions from the crown that they had to use in their skits or songs that sang. It was really, really funny.

The couple we sat next to got picked on for the show. Thank god we didn't get picked for this because they asked the girl what she hated most about her husband Miles and she said he farts! After asking them a few more questions, they used some of what they said in the show and they also brought Miles onto stage and we got a kick out of that.

At some point during the show they asked for some suggestions and some drink idiot from I think England or Scotland yelled something out that was not so funny and he kept egging on one of the actors. The actor made a bit of fun of him and eventually went down into the crowd and threw the guy out and everyone loved it. Eventually about 5 of his friends got up and left.

Overall the show lasted for about 2 hours and during that time we were served drinks as we wanted them. If you end up in Amsterdam for the sites, the culture, the red light district or the "coffee shops", be sure to check out Boom Chicago because it is a great deal of fun.

Check out this video on You Tube which is from Boom Chicago, they played this during the performance.


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