Seth Meyers had no idea what was going to happen in 1997 when he landed a job performing at a new comedy club in Amsterdam called Boom Chicago. He was in his early twenties and had never traveled outside the United States. He had to apply for a passport.
“I knew nothing about Holland,” he said in a recent interview. “My first thought was to buy him some good hiking shoes. I think it was because I thought I was going to Switzerland. rice field.”
Although Meyers received little training, he had plenty of comedic practice, doing improvisational shows four or five nights a week, challenging a large number of material in front of a live and often skeptical Dutch audience. .
The club, which now has its own theater in the heart of Amsterdam, still retains its original appearance. It is the venue for his two-hour improv comedy show and sketch comedy show with his five performers performing comedy games and stunts based on audience suggestions. . The cast creates scenes and songs on the spot, collects names and words from the audience, and builds a scenario based on that.
Boom founders Andrew Moskos and Pep Rosenfeld met in elementary school in Evanston, Illinois, and both attended Northwestern University. These would-be comedians were in the right place at the right time: 1980s Chicago.
They attended late-night improvisation sets at the famous Second City club where Joan Rivers, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert launched their careers, and took many improvisation classes. and stood on stage as much as possible.
But improvising in Chicago didn’t pay the rent, Moskos said. In 1992, the pair traveled to Amsterdam and, like many young tourists, visited one of the city’s legal marijuana cafes, The Coffee Shop. “We had one of the best Stoner ideas ever, and it was to quit my job in America and come here and start a comedy club,” Moskos recalls.
This thought didn’t go away even with my hangover. After returning home, they wrote a letter to the city of Amsterdam outlining their business plan. The reply was faxed almost immediately.
“Your idea doesn’t work,” the city official wrote. “Dutch people don’t want to see shows in English and tourists don’t want to see shows at all. No. Please think about your plan.”
Moskos said they kept the fax, which is now framed, but thought it over and decided to send it anyway.
However, they would not have progressed without meeting Saskia Maas, a liaison, interpreter and business partner in Amsterdam. She and Moskos fell in love and got married. She, Moskos and Rosenfeld are co-owners of Boom Chicago.
They held the first auditions for club performers in Chicago, promising full-time paid employment. Myers ventured out with his friend Peter Gross and later won an Emmy Award for writing “The Colbert Report.”
Myers and Gross both passed and shared an apartment in Amsterdam with future Emmy-winning comedy writer Alison Silberman for The John Stewart Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Another cast member at the time was future MADtv star Jordan Peele, who won an Oscar for his original screenplay for the movie Get Out.
“We had to be on stage four or five nights a week, which wasn’t the case in Chicago,” Myers said. “Also in my early twenties I was in Amsterdam and surrounded by other talented people.”
Ruffin first joined the cast in 2004 and made intermittent appearances through 2011. “Boom. Her learning curve in Chicago is steep, but once you get the hang of it, it’s the most fun a person can have,” she said. “It was a great place for young people to learn. It’s the perfect combination of party and service afterwards.”
Myers explained that performing in front of a Dutch audience provides a high comedy bar. “The Dutch don’t give it away for free,” he added. “There’s really no language barrier, but I think they’re insightful. I have a huge affection for the audience there, because it was the most true bounce you’ll ever get.” Because.”
Hunt, co-creator of “Ted Russo,” who worked at Boom Chicago from 1999 to 2005, said “always working” helped him forget about demanding audiences. “In Chicago, if you have a bad show, you have to wait a week before you can taste it in your mouth,” he said. “Boom has another show the next night.”
“Ted Lasso” seeds were also planted in the last few years, he added. Jason Sudeikis worked with Hunt on Boom Chicago for six months in 2000, and the two remained close. At the time, it was difficult to follow American sports from abroad, so Hunt said he started watching soccer and eventually became a soccer “enthusiast.”
Hunt and Sudeikis came up with the concept of “Ted Lasso”. He is an avid American football coach who has accepted offers to coach an English “football” team with little knowledge of football, and is now a four-time Emmy Award winner. Paying homage to the boom era, Hunt and Sudeikis set the season 3 episode in Amsterdam, pumping their love of Amsterdam to avoid the pitfalls of clichés, Hunt said.
At the end of the episode, Hunt’s character, Coach Beard, emerges from the van wearing a ’70s David Bowie outfit and a fake pig nose, “Piggy Stardust,” which Hunt mastered during the Boom Chicago era. speak Dutch.
Hunt and Myers will return to Amsterdam next month for the Boom Chicago Comedy Festival, a two-week festival of improvisation, stand-up, variety shows and cabaret in both Dutch and English from July 5 to July. is planning to sell out his solo show. 16. This is a kind of victory lap.
Myers, who is scheduled to perform at the festival on July 6, said, “The hardest thing about coming back to Amsterdam is that I miss Amsterdam so much.” It’s very sad,” he added. “It felt like an ascension time, not just for me, but for everyone around me. It felt like something really special that we were doing.”
