Jim Belushi spent two years on Saturday Night Live, starred in over 75 films, and put eight seasons into ABC’s According to Jim — but the show he’s bringing to North Tonawanda on Saturday, January 9, is not a highlight reel. It is improvised sketch comedy, roughly nine games per night, different every time, and by Belushi’s own telling: “less a ‘show’ and more a party.”
About the Show
The Board of Comedy is Belushi’s return to his roots. He trained at Second City Chicago before landing at SNL, and this project pulls that improvisational foundation back into the spotlight. He brings a formidable ensemble: Megan Grano is a Second City alum whose credits include Parks and Recreation, Weeds, and Bridesmaids; Larry Joe Campbell reunites with Belushi after eight seasons as his co-star on According to Jim, and Belushi has called him “the funniest man I know and he is effortless on stage”; Joshua Funk is an award-winning Second City director who composed for Comedy Central’s Key & Peele; and Trey Stone, who spent 15 years as Second City’s musical director, rounds out the group as jazz pianist and recording artist.
The format is roughly nine improv games per night, each launched by audience suggestions, with audience members potentially invited onstage. Content can run rated-R; the show is intended for mature audiences. What this means practically: no two performances are alike. As Belushi has put it: “Every performance is different and unique…when there’s success in the scenes, there’s nothing like it.”
Beyond the comedy stage, Belushi carries a deep resume into this room: Broadway productions of Born Yesterday (earning critical acclaim in 2011) and The Pirates of Penzance; film credits past 75 titles, including a role in Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel alongside Kate Winslet; and fifteen years performing with the Blues Brothers alongside Dan Aykroyd. His own band, The Sacred Hearts, has produced four albums and toured worldwide.
Venue & Logistics
Riviera Theatre sits in North Tonawanda, about 20 minutes north of Buffalo in the western New York corridor. At 1,100 capacity, it is a well-scaled room for this kind of show, large enough to generate the crowd energy that makes improv feed on itself and close enough that the back rows feel part of the conversation when Belushi starts pulling suggestions from the room. The show starts at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $79. Buy tickets