Open TikTok and in seconds, a clip from a comedy show materializes. The proliferation of videos featuring comics’ jokes, crowd work or takedowns of rowdy hecklers may lead the average person to conclude that the road to comedy success runs through the Internet. But Chicago comedians understand that despite the allure of a viral post, true success is found on the stage. “People want time. They want the opportunity. There’s more hunger,” says comic Josh Cahn, who has performed across town at clubs like the Laugh Factory, Comedy Plex and the Lincoln Lodge. He credits his success to time in front of an audience. “I think what makes you the best stand-up is not sitting down with your notebook. It’s getting reps.” This appetite is nothing new in Chicago. For decades, the city has been a training ground and home base for performers who would go on to change American comedy — comedians like Kumail Nanjiani, Tina Fey and Amber Ruffin, to name only three. And with theaters in seemingly every neighborhood — from stalwarts of the scene like Zanies in Old Town to newer arrivals like The Revival in the South Loop — Chicago comics don’t have far to look for the stage time they crave. Before offering up their material to a paying audience, comics often test their jokes at one of the myriad of open mics in bars and clubs across the city. While Cahn does see the value in that method, he cautions that an audience response at an open mic is not always the best barometer for how well a joke will land — as the audience is often made up of other comics also working out their material. For performers looking for an audience that won’t be writing their own jokes the whole time during a performance, Cahn points to a show called “Vouch.” This new show is run by Jerry Hamedi, the mind behind webzine the Comedy Gazelle. Twice a month, comics get three minutes to perform their best material for Hamedi and fellow comic Brandon Kieffer. The top comics from these auditions perform at a monthly showcase at Lakeview’s Laugh Factory. While large stages like Laugh Factory hold an obvious appeal, Cahn says some of his favorite shows have been in smaller venues where “the audience is right in your face.” In rooms that size, Cahn says, it’s easier for comics to give audiences what they can’t get online: something real. In smaller rooms, the riffing and audience interaction of live shows “feels spontaneous,” he says. “People love a unique moment that’s just for them.” And while Cahn does not ignore the importance of having an online presence, for him, the end goal is always making a live audience laugh. Across town, the iO Theater offers five nights of laughs every week. With its four performance spaces and myriad classes, iO is an improv comedy destination. (A disclosure, this writer takes comedy classes at iO.) People attend a comedy show at iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St. in Chicago on Dec. 7, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) The stages at the longtime iO came close to a permanent blackout in June 2020 when, after over 30 years in operation, then-owner Charna Halpern closed the theater after months without box-office revenue at the height of the COVID pandemic. But like any good improv scene, a twist awaited. Real estate executives Scott Gendell and Larry Weiner bought the building and the brand about a year later. to ensure the comedy institution wouldn’t vanish. In 2022, they hired Adonis Holmes and Katie Caussin as co-artistic directors and reopened. While Holmes has since departed to join The Second City’s mainstage, Caussin remains, and has nothing but praise for his guidance during those early days. “He’s a Black queer man in his 20s. I am a middle-aged white lady in her 50s,” she says of their pairing. “We came at it from different ends of the spectrum.” One of their early decisions was to create a diversity, equity, and inclusion board to guide them that first year, a response to a 2020 Change.org petition accusing the theater of institutionalized racism. (Halpern has denied the closure was due to the petition.) Caussin hopes these efforts will allow players to express themselves and also bring in new audience members, with offerings like the Latine variety show “Escàndalo!” and the drag-heavy “Improvised Housewives.” Daryn Robinson, right, and Fee Basanavicius perform in “Improvised Jane Austen” at iO Theater in Chicago on Dec. 7, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Other titles, like “Improvised Shakespeare” and “Improvised Jane Austen,” offer a familiar hook to both comics and crowds. Daryn Robinson, a member of iO’s “Improvised Jane Austen,” says that she and her team bring audiences into one of her favorite genres every Saturday night, and while each show features a new story of matches made, she says audiences love the familiar comforts of the evening’s contours. “We come out in the costumes and people — they lose their minds,” she said. Robinson has also performed at Second City and in Lincoln Lodge’s variety show “My Best Friend is Black.” She says live shows are the best way to hone the skills every actor needs. “If you have an online following, a lot of times it’s because you’ve built a very ‘specific to you’ persona,” she says. “But if you want to be a working actor, you need to be able to jump into a lot of different roles and different personas.” Robinson cautions that online personalities may not play the same in a live show. Caussin agrees. Once, while the crew of Saturday Night Live was holding auditions at the theater, Caussin asked if they look to TikTok when hiring. Their response? “It doesn’t translate.” Allison Black, center, dances with Hannah Perez at “Improvised Jane Austen” at iO Theater in Chicago on Dec. 7, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Caussin does not dismiss performers who come to prominence online, and Chicago has provided plenty. Vinny Thomas’ viral Twitter sketches such as “Pigeon at the Pride Parade” helped him land roles on television’s “Platonic” and “Ahsoka,” while Megan Stalter followed a similar path to “Hacks.” But both got their starts in Chicago theaters. “Those are the people that do break through,” Caussin says. “They do the work.” Cahn, Robinson, and comics across the city agree: that work begins and ends on stage. Ryan P.C. Trimble is a freelance writer.