Sandy Benefit Show at saki TOMORROW!

saki has the privilege of hosting a variety show tomorrow night, November 16th at 7pm to benefit the family of Joe McAdam (producer of our monthly variety show, Creative Control), whose home in Brick, NJ was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. To the right is a photo of their house shortly after the storm.

saki will host a night of music and comedy, with special raffle prizes from Second City, The Owl, The Music Box Theatre, The Empty Bottle, Provenance Food & Wine and more. McAdam will host the show, which features comedy from Junior Stopka, Joe Kwaczala, Will Miles, and CJ Toledano, with music from Gabe Liebowitz (Dastardly). 

We’ll be taking donations at the door. If you haven’t yet contributed to those affected by the nightmare that was the last two weeks on the East coast, here’s a great chance to help out!

McAdam recently checked in with a short piece about his memories of Aunt and Uncle's home at The Steamroller, Chicago comedy scene-focused blog run by saki's event coordinator, Matt Byrne.

Here's a list of all the raffle prizes we've rounded up so far:

• $50 gift certificate for the Owl
• Old Town School of Folk Music one-year membership ($125 value)
• 2 passes to Second City Main Stage
• 2 passes to UP Comedy Club
• $15 gift card from Uncharted Books
• 2 pairs of tickets to see Titus Andronicus at Metro on 11/25! (Includes Metro tote bag & t-shirt)
• 1 card good for 1 free cup of coffee a week for a year from the Book Cellar
• 1 card good for 1 free glass of wine a month for a year from the Book Cellar (must be 21 to redeem)
• 2 bottles of wine from Provenance Food & Wine (Vinas de Balbo, Malbec 2011 & Tilia, Torrontes 2011)
• 2 passes to see Miami Connection (includes coupon for free popcorn and soda) at the Music Box Theatre
• 2 passes to see Monty Python & the Holy Grail (includes coupon for free popcorn and soda) at the Music Box Theatre
• Guest list with +1 for any not sold out December show (musical performances only) at Schubas/Lincoln Hall (We recommend The Babies, Netherfriends, James Iha, Prince Rama, Maps & Atlases, Future Islands, Os Mutantes or Charles Bradley)
• Guest list +1 for Hannibel Buress' Night of Thanksgiving Chaos at Schubas
• Guest list with +1 to see King Khan and BBQ Show at the Empty Bottle on 11/26
• Guest list with +1 for early Ty Segall show at the Empty Bottle on 2/9 (7pm)
• $30 gift certificate for Cleos
• 3 DVD prize pack from Everything Is Terrible
• FREE garden consultation from Summer Sweet Garden Design
  

... and possibly more to come! 

Hurricane Sandy Relief Benefit Show at saki

Friday, November 16. 7pm. Free. Donations encouraged at the door.

Hosted by Joe McAdam. Performers include: Junior Stopka, Joe Kwaczala, Will Miles,

CJ Toledano, Gabe Liebowitz (Dastardly)

Be Our Friends :: Your saki-Oriented Weekend Plans!

Creative Control, Santah, Brother George, Burlington, Psychic Twin, Old Style Light, Netherfriends, 1972, Everything Is Terrible!, BIGCOLOUR, 312 Urban Wheat Ale, Father John Misty, The Orwells, Aquarium Drunkard. You have 100,000 ways to show saki how much you love us this weekend. Comedy, new records, live music, costumes, the 70s. And half of these events involve gratis beverages. There is no reason not to be our friend this weekend.

Friday, October 26th :: 8pm at saki | A Very Creative Control Halloween w. Joe McAdam, Soft Candy, Chad Briggs, Rebecca O'Neal, Martin Morrow, Think Tank, Jamie Campbell, Joe Fernandez, Kris Simmons, & Angela Vela. We will also be giving away two pairs of passes to see Kyle Kinane courtesy of Up Comedy Club.

Friday, October 26th :: 9pm at Burlington | Santah You're Still A Lover Release Show II w. Psychic Twin & Brother George. Old Style Light hosted bar 9pm until it runs out. saki is releasing the vinyl version of YSAL next month! Pre-order the vinyl here. 

Saturday, October 27th :: 8pm at saki | 197BOO! Halloween Party: Netherfriends, Everything is Terrible!, BIGCOLOUR (as Can). Beverages provided by 312 Urban Wheat Ale. Attendees will be transported back 40 years to an alternate version of 1972, one seen through the eyes of the record store canon.

Monday, October 29th :: 6pm at saki | Aquarium Drunkard presents: Father John Misty and The Orwells. Free, all-ages in-store.

Creative Control is TONIGHT!

Guess what you guys, this month's edition of Creative Control, saki's in-house variety show hosted and produced by Joe McAdam, is happening tonight! How about THAT?

This month, the lineup includes standup from Bill Cruz (Chicago's self-proclaimed premier queer comedian), Mikey Manker, Stephanie Hasz, Goodrich Gevaart, and Andrew Smreker! We'll also have sketch/character pieces from Marlena Rodriguez and Chris Stephens, with musical guest Rock Falls.

We like to give things away for free at Creative Control. This month, we're raffling off tickets to see Bobcat Goldthwait at UP Comedy Club, as well as a pair of passes to a sold out screening of Mike Birbiglia's new film Sleepwalk With Me at the beautiful Music Box Theatre (the screening may or may not be hosted by whose name rhymes with Elmira Glass. We'll see!).

For this month's poster, we were lucky enough to work with the amazing Paul Hornschemeier, a graphic novelist and illustrator whose work might have seen during the opening credits of IFC's Comedy Bang! Bang!. If you're lucky, you might walk away with a copy of the poster. You can see it directly below this sentence!

Look at that thing.

Here's some videos of people from this show for you to look at until the real thing happens tonight.

Joe McAdam's new web series The Joe McAdam Show!

Mikey Manker doing standup!

Stephanie Hasz also doing standup and then being interviewed on a couch!

Chris Stephens as Toblerine on the last season of The Late Live Show!

Annie from Rock Falls!

Creative Control is FREE and open to all ages. The show starts at 8pm on Friday. I hope you can make it!

What a weekend we had at saki

We could hardly keep up with everything last weekend at saki! Even though we're pretty exhausted today, we have plenty of new memories to kick off our week thanks to ROOKIE, Tavi, Tiny Fireflies, everyone who came out for Creative Control, Joe McAdam, Owen, everyone who participated in the After Hours Concatenating Pedals show, especially Ben from Glad Cloud, Human Elephant, Jack & Ace, and Rob from Numero Group! And definitely everyone who came out to twiddle knobs, zine with us, or take in some music. It was really pretty cool. Read the nitty gritties and check out some pictures after the jump!

Creative Control at saki 5/25/12

Creative Control at saki 5/25/12, a set on Flickr.

Joe McAdam and crew put on another great show. Last Fridays at saki!

Creative Control-- a new variety show at saki

We're happy to open our space up to Creative Control, a new variety show hosted and produced by local funny dude Joe McAdam. The show, happening the final Friday of each month, will feature comedy from local standups, sketch groups, and filmmakers, capped off with a musical guest to close out the night.

The first show is Friday, April 27th at 7:30pm, and will feature standup from Cameron Esposito, Joe Fernandez, and Andrew Smreker, with musical guests Mannequin Men. If you're familiar with any of the above proper nouns, you know how awesome that lineup is; if not, trust us! They're great!

As if the overwhelmingly solid lineup isn't enough of a draw, that night, we'll be giving away passes to a couple of awesome comedy shows taking place at two of our favorite venues: Kumail Nanjiani at Up and Jon Benjamin at Schubas! Seriously!

Check out some sweet Youtubes featuring stuff from some of our guests:

Just like every saki show, this event is totally free! You should come!

Win Jon Benjamin or Kumail Nanjiani tix @ Creative Control!

Creative Control is a comedy/variety show at saki, run by & hosted by one of our favorite Chicago comics, Joe McAdam! Not only will the first show include stand up, sketch comedy & music from Cameron Esposito, Andrew Smreker & Manniquen Men, among others, but we'll also be giving away a pair of tickets to see Jon Benjamin at Schubas & Kumail Nanjiani at UP Comedy Club (at Second City)!

RSVP on Facebook!