A musical to save democracy from Bryce Halliday & Ben Auxier. RANK! is a Schoolhouse Rock inspired explanation of ranked choice voting, an electoral system that allows voters to choose multiple candidates in order of preference. Don’t you want another choice? With a score that nods to public education musicals going back to the 1960s, RANK! will have you toe-tapping your way to the ballot box.

Come play the game with us...When you enter our haunted theater, YOU have the power to control our resident ghost, The Petite Boy....Write down some secret suggestions for how you'd like to possess one of our cast members....Then as our longform improv show goes on, we all try to figure out which one of us is being possessed.

New forms. New Players. Big Laughs. Every week is a new and different show. So what you see, no one else will see.

An LGBTQIA+ themed variety show featuring some of Chicago's strongest and most diversely hilarious voices!

Mentalism meets improv comedy in the entirely unique form created by Annoyance founder Mick Napier. There is truly nothing else like it.

Hank & Tim’s 90-Minute Charity Hour is a night of joy and community. Featuring standup by Jessie Greatorex and Ellen Dunn, magic by Dan Feltey, drag performance by Miss Translayxion, and improv from Pavlov, this show celebrates all forms of art from Chicago. Headlined and hosted by Tim Perry and Hank Bobillo, you are cordially invited to enjoy yourself and make some friends! All proceeds will be donated to Nourishing Hope, Sheridan Market. If able, we encourage a donation of non-perishable food items which will be collected at the door.

Open Sketch is the best open mic for sketches in Chicago! If you are looking to try out a new sketch, bring a group, a 4-5 minute sketch (with less than 4 tech cues), and a barrel full of laughs! Please bring the barrel. We only have one barrel and we keep fighting over it. Hosted by Andrew Sulfsted and AJ Hernandez-Sortore

See how short form improv works and even try it out yourself! This short form jam is open to Annoyance students and other improv performers. Join us!

The Best of Annoyance Improv main ensemble, made up of veteran Annoyance improvisers and joined by an opening cast of current Annoyance students, brings you the best weekly improv the Annoyance Theatre & Bar has to offer. In honor of the theatre's upcoming 40th anniversary, we’re bringing back the tradition of “pay to leave”: the show is free to enter, but just like in the early days, we’ll kindly take a cash donation in return for your escape. The opening student team performs its own original form, is coached by ensemble members, and is cast through auditions and refreshed with new players every eight weeks. If you’re a current Annoyance student interested in joining, follow @bestofannoyanceimprov on Instagram for audition announcements and updates!

The Annoyance's very own musical ensembles. Every Tuesday at 8pm, two groups improvise brand new musicals based on audience suggestions. Featuring Musical Director Lisa McQueen and starring the Annoyance Musical Ensembles. Follow us on instagram: @tuesdaymusicalimprov

It's Christmas at Steamworks, and all through the baths, all the queers are celebrating... and there might be ghosts?! Join us for a queer take on A Christmas Carol as your favorite characters from Steamworks the Musical navigate Steamworks' past, present, and future while trying to save the building from being destroyed by an evil Grinch! We promise you lots of raunchy reimagined holiday tunes, all while keeping the yuletide gay!

Each month, the Annoyance's best performers transform themselves into new, original characters. When they get onstage, You never know what will happen but one thing is for sure. There will be WIGS.......

Out of Key is a short raunchy comedic play about love, ego and classical music. It focuses on an arrogant high school football captian named Crew who misses his shot with the theatre girl he desires. A head injury sends him into 1800’s Vienna where he meets Beethoven. Beethoven takes Crew on a journey to meet the greatest composers of the time (Chopin, Liszt, and the Schumanns) to guide him to discover what true love actually is.

This format might seem similar to Jubilee's hit show Surrounded but this is most certainly not that because they seem litigious. The format is simple: one person gives their hot take and has to go up against 20 people tearing their take (and them) down for 8 minutes. The heart of Arounded is clip farming and ragebait, not changing minds. So, in that way, it's exactly like Jubilee's Surrounded. We, however, aren't in the business of platforming divisive right wing politics because we don't need politics to make people upset online.

A One They/Them Show brings Soloway back to the stage with an irreverent and deeply personal exploration of identity, family, gender, desire, aging and the strange business of becoming oneself. Part stand-up comedy, part storytelling and part theatrical confession, the show finds Soloway turning their own life into an unpredictable evening of laughter, music and revelation.

A new two act play set in Jerusalem, Indiana on the week of Christmas. What happens when the hard working man about town has a downward spiral? What happens when his Guardian Angel isn't enough to guide him? Can a a group of townies, a pastor, and his not-gay-friends help save Christmas? All this and more in "Thank You for letting us say Merry Christmas again, Mr. President!'

A one man comedy show blending music, sketch, standup and more as one man (Andrew Shipman) grapples with the existential crisis that comes with his looming 30th birthday. The catch? He’s still got a year. This show takes place on Andrew’s 29th birthday, serving both as a reminder of the dread he feels for what’s coming, and a celebration that it’s not happening to him now! Andrew is a comedian and actor in Chicago and has previously co-produced "Open Mic Night at a Bowling Alley" at the Annoyance Theatre.

Teams of improvisers frankly go up against each other to please Caesar. If he is unpleased they will be punished physically and mentally.

WARNING: Don’t Try This At Home. Inspired by the bond of true friendship, Not4Kidz presents a Jackass-Style Variety Show. Guests will take the stage with a twist. Maybe you’ve got 8 minutes to complete your set, but you also need to finish an entire sheet cake before the lights go out? Maybe everyone on the team is blindfolded? Maybe your set is interrupted by a rodeo clown? Anything that would make MTV’s most lovable idiots proud. We’re Not4Kidz, and welcome to whackass!

Deep in the heart of a volcano, Crash Test Labs is hard at work creating the funniest sketch ever. Join Gus, David, Jonah, and their robot sidekick for an hour of outrageous laughs and non-stop fun. Featuring original songs, characters and the best alternative stand up comics in Chicago.

A Chicago based improv comedy show and drinking game based on the works of Alfred Hitchcock. Based on an audience suggestion, the cast weave together an intricate Hitchcock-like drama, while holding true to the amount of drinking shown in his movies. You'll barely be able to stand the suspense, and the cast will barely be able to stand.

How queer... From the minds that brought you the holiday sensation A Very Steamworks Christmas comes a new murder mystery! Tucked away in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado is the sleepy Hoggy Log Inn and Ski Resort, where there have been no murders... Until a rich daddy brings together his dearest friends (and enemies) for a big announcement. Was it his sweet sugar baby? The jealous brother? The spoiled daughter? The bitter ex? In this farcical, chaotic, and very queer play, find out Who Slaughtered Daddy Dearest, written and directed by Noah Lanos and Connor James Hirsch.

An hour long comedy show featuring some of Annoyance Theatre’s best and funniest.

Screw the algorithm! Sketched Out is a bi-monthly digital sketch comedy showcase rebelling against short attention spans. Too weird for your average feed, this is the gold that never makes it past the social media gatekeepers. Join us for a night filled with digital sketches on the BIG screen and meet some of Chicago’s boldest sketch artists, from up-and-coming voices to seasoned comedy pros. Have a sketch you want to submit? Check out @SketchedOut_Digital for submissions

Are you and your improv team looking for another place to get on stage? We've got a warm and supportive room ready to give you laughs and claps! Bring your own team to Annoyance on Tuesday nights to get a rep in and giggle. If you don't have a team to bring, no worries! There's a mashup team and we're happy to throw you on it! Signups are at 8:30PM and we'll hit the stage at 9:00PM. See you every Tuesday!

The mean streets of Barrington, Illinois. Home to several small businesses, nationally ranked public schools, and a seedy criminal underbelly threatening to destroy it all. DEREK ARATE, a 16 year old schoolboy who has devoted his life to learning the ways of karate after losing his father in a freak karate accident, is on the cusp of realizing that he may be the key to unlocking Barrington’s villainous secrets. UNCLE CHARLES, his uncle, stepped in to raise the boy along with his deceased brother’s wife CHRISTINE. Uncle Charles has a vested interest in Derek’s journey, keeping his nephew from the same freak karate tragic fate that took his father. What Derek does not know is that his uncle may have had more to do with his father’s untimely passing than anyone could know...

WOAH! NEW EVERY MONTH. A raucous. raunchy, sometimes juvenile but always funny sketch show that will make your daddy give your mommy a pearl necklace... to clutch. Get tickets now, they're selling faster than a Stewie doll at Spencer's. DM: @Antivirginclub proof you bought tickets and we will draw you boobs.

Lipstick Lounge is a monthly immersive night for queer Latinas, sapphics, and the whole queer community, brought to you by DAMA Productions. Every last Saturday, we transform the space around a brand new theme, from Punk Party to Kiss the Bride, complete with a lookbook so you can dress the part. Expect two rooms of music, a tattoo parlor, vendors, coloring stations, a photoshoot room, themed spaces, a chill area, and cabaret-style performances. We can all be the main characters, and we take care of each other. 21+.

Just like your favorite snack, Comedy Chex Mix serves up a crunchy combo of comedy styles that keeps you coming back for more. Each show features two dynamic high-energy improv teams whose sets are inspired by performances from two local Chicago stand-ups. It's the perfect blend of killer stand-up, spontaneous scenes, and that unpredictable flavor you didn't know you needed. Every show is different, every laugh is fresh, and every bite-sized bit hits just right.

You've been summoned...to laugh. Jury Duty is a fully improvised courtroom comedy where the only thing on trial is sanity itself. Each night, the cast creates a brand new legal disaster based on audience suggestion, questionable logic, and total chaos. Watch as the foreperson loses their mind, evidence makes things worse, and deliberations go off the rails. No script, no rules, no justice. Just comedy The trial is fake, the laughs are real

Penguin Publishing is under new control as the Fitzgeralds, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Pisscaso, and Owen Wilson try balancing their life with their art in Paris, 1925. The new ownership over the publishing company values money over art, and needs their authors to produce a return on investment, or else they are gone. Join us for this staged reading to see how the writer's that shaped literature in the 20th century got their footing through sex, drugs, alcohol, and art.

Missed Call is a premiere Chicago comedy group that writes and performs an entirely new sketch show every Friday.

See a collage of character studies, scenes, songs and maybe even some audience interaction, all written in a week by some of Chicago’s most accomplished comedians. The “Holy Fuck Comedy Hour” is a curated hour of eclectic, comedic material written in a week with no rehearsals. Featuring a powerful collective representing a wide cross-section of the Chicago comedy community, the material varies every week.

Enjoy an evening of off-the-cuff improv with some of the best emerging talent in the Chicago area. Fire & Beer is a fully improvised comedy show that explores the dark sides of life, relationships and human beings. The show features the Annoyance House Ensemble who excel at both long- and short-form improv. You can expect lots of laughs during this unpredictable improv show.

They take edibles. Then they improvise. There's a 'too-high' button, for when it gets too crazy.

Joe Harrington and Eric Greenbaum, Disco Horses, make their return to Chicago with their absurdist sketch comedy duo. Showcasing new and classic sketches they've written and performed around the country and UK over the past 4 years, alongside performances from their very bestest and funniest friends in the Chicago comedy scene, this show is bound to make you laugh, guffaw, and want to write a long social media post about how live entertainment is back! Come check out Disco Horses if you know them, or if you know nothing about them. You'll be sure to laugh.....we hope. Please laugh.

You’re (un)invited! Uninvited is a fully improvised event-based disaster in three acts. The audience supplies the suggestion of why we’re gathered, and then we show you what wackiness and whimsy unfolded before, after, and then during the event. Join us for a one hour chaotic descent into why we got ourselves Uninvited.

Back in the days when Annoyance was in a loft on Lincoln Ave. "Grabass" was a secret show that had a cult following. Every week the cast would create new weirdo bits and have 24 hours to bring them to life with a different strange character hosting the evening. Now the show is back with new friends, a new host each week and it's called Whiskey Dog! Tuesdays at 7:30 PM starting Sept 21.

Open Stage is an opportunity for anyone to get on stage and try out whatever they're currently working on - standup, sketch, songs - you name it. At Open Stage anything can happen and it usually does!

This Thursday! Kentucky Dirty and their friends are bringing you an hour of characters, stand up, improv, and more! Come get BUCK WILD with us this Halloween!!

Dave Stewart brings his hilarious show to The Annoyance - one night only!

This family-friendly comedy adaptation of the beloved classic lampoons a new Scrooge each night, teaching a new lesson in charity and compassion through laughter every single show. The players take an audience suggestion and craft a fully made-up comedic saga on par with Dickens’ yuletide classic. Through the power of love, laughter, and maybe even music, each show’s uniquely grouchy senior citizen might just learn the true meaning of Christmas!

ANYTHING BUT DRAGONS is a live tabletop roleplaying game with live dice & barely any table 🫦 A brand new TTRPG is created each night using 30 audience suggestions and two 30-sided dice. One game master and three onstage players bring the roleplay to life while you control the party's luck from your seat. Anything But Dragons mixes the best parts of improv, TTRPGs, and interactive theatre to bring you something never before seen each and every night.

Tyler DeLoatch returns to Chicago and performs a one man play... or concert... or variety show... or he just monologues for some reason. Is there a plot? Is there a point? Come find out!

Hail and well met, traveler! Grab a drink, put up your cloak, and I’ll tell you a tale. Escapades is a completely improvised choose-your-own adventure. Sprinkled throughout each story are opportunities for the audience to vote on what happens next. Whether we’re riding jetpacks on Mars or a unicorn through a gumdrop forest, you’re guaranteed a night of gasps, laughs, twists, turns, and daring rescues. Excelsior!