The Home Comedy Theater

Conception and Founding (2023)

Cesar Jaime, a performer, teacher, and administrator at iO Theater for more than twenty years, began searching for a suitable space approximately three years before the theatre opened, motivated by the loss of iO's intimate long-form environment during the pandemic. In July 2023, Jaime signed a lease on a century-old building at 2843 N. Halsted Street in East Lakeview, assembling a founding circle that included veteran iO instructors Liz Allen, Peter Gwinn, and Susan Messing. Noah Gregoropoulos, another named co-founder, died in December 2022 before he could be told about the space.

Opening (2024–2025)

The Home Comedy Theater was publicly announced in early 2024, with an initial projected opening in spring 2024. The venue operates an 80-seat theatre with a full bar and restaurant, offering long-form improv shows, classes in improv and sketch comedy, a Spanish-language ensemble (HERALDO), and an improvised puppet show (FELT). Jaime also serves as a cast member on NBC's Chicago Med.

The Home Comedy Theater is oriented around the Harold and the long-form teaching tradition associated with Del Close and iO Theater. Jaime trained under Close and Martin De Maat and has framed the theatre as a recovery of the intimate, workshop-centred performance environment that iO lost when it moved into a larger venue and when the pandemic forced its closure. The HERALDO Spanish-language ensemble reflects a deliberate effort to extend the Chicago long-form tradition into the North Side's Latino communities. The 80-seat, bar-and-restaurant format is designed to recreate the informal social environment of the earliest iO shows.

The Home Comedy Theater was conceived by Cesar Jaime, Peter Gwinn, and Norm Holly following the pandemic closure of iO Theater, the legendary Chicago long-form venue where many of the founders had spent decades performing and teaching. When a subsequent deal to purchase the iO Theater space fell through, the group spent several years offering online classes and performances while searching for a permanent location. They signed a lease on a space at 2843 N. Halsted Street in Chicago's East Lakeview neighborhood in July 2023, opening an 80-seat theater with a full bar and restaurant in the 2024-2025 season. The founding circle also included Liz Allen, Susan Messing, and the late Noah Gregoropoulos, each of whom brought decades of iO Theater lineage to the new institution.

The Home Comedy Theater assembled a teaching roster that represents a significant concentration of Chicago long-form improv experience. Liz Allen, with 32 years of performance and teaching, performed with iO Chicago house team Frank Booth and is credited with taking the first-ever long-form show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. TJ Jagodowski, one half of the acclaimed improvisational duo TJ and Dave, brings 30 years of Chicago performing experience. Susan Messing has taught and performed at Second City, The Annoyance, and iO Theater. Norm Holly served 25 years as Artistic Director and Conservatory Head at The Second City, and Eric Hunicutt is a member of the acclaimed ensemble The Reckoning, formed at ImprovOlympic in 2002. The theater positions itself as a continuation of the intimate, teacher-led Harold tradition developed by Del Close, offering the Chicago improv community a venue and faculty that carries direct lineage from the form's foundational institutions.