Improvised Shakespeare Company

Every Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm– since 2006! Inspired by one audience suggestion, these dazzling players create a brand-new Shakespearean masterpiece right before your eyes.  Come witness the shows critics have called “staggeringly brilliant.”

Improvised Jane Austen

Every Saturday at 7:30pm, Improvised Jane Austen is a comedic ensemble that creates unscripted performances using Jane Austen’s tropes, themes, and language. Playing in Austen’s world, Improvised Jane Austen’s stories delight 21st century audiences with a modern sense and sensibility. Come for the humor, stay for the heart! Throughout the show’s run, Improvised Jane Austen’s has been Chicago Reader Recommended, named a PerformInk Critics’ Pick, voted Best sketch/improv troupe 2019 in the Reader’s Best of Chicago, and was featured on WTTW playlist, in Time Out, on WGN’s Daytime Chicago and most recently on CBS News Chicago. 

Whirled News Tonight

Every Saturday at 7:30pm. Twenty years running! The audience provides inspiration by picking their top stories from the day’s news. From these journalistic suggestions, a team of experienced improvisers create a fast-paced, topical, intelligent, & hilarious show.

Devil’s Daughter

Every Friday at 7:30pm! Devil’s Daughter features a cast of seasoned comedians who have performed together in Chicago and around the country for over a decade. This award-winning team has their own unique spin on a classic improv form, The Harold, and is known for their solo scenes, artistic style, and dastardly sense of humor.

Cook County Social Club

THE RE-NIG: The Best of The Spades Table

Fridays at 7:30pm in February! The Spades Table presents The Re-Nig! This is a sketch revue where we are reneging and bringing back your favorite sketches from the hit show The Spades Table! Starring and written by a talented all black cast, this show is certain to leave you laughing and wanting us to renege again.

Hot Seat

Saturdays at 9:30pm, starting Feb 1,  the 2019 Reader-Recommended show is back featuring some of iO’s best players! Hot Seat invites the audience to ask the questions that we’re afraid to answer. Get ready for some good old-fashioned truth telling and improv that’s sure to melt your face off!”

Beverly Saves Your World

Fresh from the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she got a FIVE STAR REVIEW THANK YOU VERY MUCH, BEVERLY Saves your World! is an exploration of Beverly’s new life in California at age 70 (ish). She is learning about everything from sound baths to how not to get canceled. She even has a BELL system in place to “ding” her every time she says something “problematic”.

Voila! The Improvised Musical

The most polished made-up musical strikes every Friday night at iO! From cabaret to comedy, heartfelt scenework is intermixed with improvised musical numbers in this two-act fully improvised musical. Every show is unique, so come back each week for the opening and closing night of a brand new theatrical production.

Sink Or Swim

Duluth: An Improvised Midwest Murder

Based on the hit FX show “Fargo”, Duluth takes audiences into the world of true crime in the Midwest. Each week, the cast of Duluth will improvise a story of murder, malfeasance, and general mayhem, all set against the backdrop of an audience member’s hometown.

The Armando Diaz Theatrical Experience and Hootenanny

Mondays at 7pm! Created in 1995 by iO alum Armando Diaz (not the Italian general), the Armando is a historic improvisational form where actors improvise a series of interconnected scenes based on the true events and life experiences told from a guest-monologist. Featuring new players and a surprise celebrity guest each week, come watch the longest running comedy show in Chicago at it’s originating home, the iO Theater!

Kohl’s Cash presents: TGIF

Start your weekend off laughing at one of the hottest improv shows in Chicago! Every Friday at 9:30pm , iO house team Kohl’s Cash presents a completely original show based on your suggestions. With different openers every week, drink specials, and clean restrooms, you’ll for sure be saying TGIF (That’s Good Improv Fridays).

The Creamboy Show!

Every Saturday at 9:30pm. Comedy so good you’ll lick your lips and pat your belly. Longform improv from iO House team CREAMBOY, featuring different opening acts each week. Don’t miss this show, who knows, you could become the lucky audience member chosen as the Cream of the Week. Get your tickets now!

Thursday Night Thunder

Feel the power every Thursday Night Thunder with iO house teams Kismet and Big Deborah. Sit back and let the professionals steer you through an evening of high energy, eccentric, emotionally charged sets guaranteed to leave you feeling blown away.

Lil Sluggers: In The Dugout

Catch home team Lil Sluggers in The Dugout every Thursday night as they present a grand slam showcase of improv, bits, and slugs! Each week is a unique run around the improv bases featuring an all-star visiting team and a set by Lil Sluggers inspired by your life.

Trapped In A Musical

Saturdays at 8pm! Present by Malarkey Comedy, Trapped In A Musical is a completely improvised Broadway-style musical that the cast finds out about in the moment.

ComedySportz

Presented by Malarkey Comedy. Chicago’s longest running short-form improv show (founded in 1987) and the only comedy show in Chicago EVERYONE is welcome at – from age 8 to 80, our inclusive ‘everyone is welcome’ approach to comedy makes us perfect for patrons of all ages. Fridays and Saturdays!

Prom-A-Llama-Boom-Boom – An Adult Prom Dance Party

Kick the winter blues and relive your glory days with this adult themed prom dance party featuring live music from Kid Copter, Okay Kiddos, and Roseloft. Formal attire encouraged! Drinks, snacks, photo booth, king and queen, and more!

THE FREE SHOW

Every Wednesday at 7:30pm– A free weekly show featuring Dumb John, Birdlady, and other iO House Teams. Never been to an iO show before? This is a great way to check out longform style improv from some of the best!

Thawed Out

The iO Theater, in collaboration with Truth Zone Records, announces a new single day music and arts festival: Thawed Out. On April 26th, 2025, the festival will be held at the historic improv comedy theater’s Lincoln Park location, located at 1501 N Kingsbury St, and will feature two stages, one indoor and one outdoor, and will feature the mixed media visual art of 15 iconic Chicago artists.

Phony Award Winning presents: Improvised Company

Phony Award Winning Musical presents: Improvised Company! A fully improvised musical with singing and dancing in the style of Stephen Sondheim’s Company based on an audience suggestion Directed by Mick Napier with musical Direction by Lisa McQueen & Laura Hall

Coweboy Joe

Cowboy Joe is a hilarious and heartwarming tale about the fastest gun in the west, who faces a battle he can’t win with bullets—loneliness. In the midst of a gunfight, he’s suddenly summoned to the year 2025 to help his great-great-great-great-great grandson, Timmy, defeat his middle school bullies. As the gritty outlaw collides with the pathetic 10-year-old, Cowboy Joe discovers Timmy has a lot to learn if he’s ever going to be a true gunslinger!

Late Night Slice presented by Wet Pizza