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No Pressure
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Getting the Call: Inside iO's 'SNL' Auditions

by | March 22nd, 2013

The website called Monday night’s show at iO — a Chicago improv institution — a “special solo showcase,” but word-of-mouth said it was really an SNL audition.

On a wall leading into iO’s downstairs Cabaret Theater, there are pictures of famous people who either took classes or performed at iO during some point in time. I wanted to make a mental note of whose faces were outlined by the gold picture frames, but the energy in the theater was buzzing and the only picture I can remember is of Mike Myers and iO’s cofounder Charna Halpern.

In the Chicago improv scene, Charna Halpern is the Oracle. As the iO website states, "Halpern’s theaters are the meccas of training in the art of improvisation and act as a recruiting stop for television shows like Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and MADtv." She’s been teaching performers for over 25 years and is iO’s director. It makes sense that a showcase would happen here.

At first, I was worried that the details of the showcase would be super secretive and I wouldn’t be able to get much information on how people got in it — these types of things always feel mysterious. But I asked Halpern about the process of getting into this particular one (which had a specific call for male writers) and she told me: READ MORE

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