When Guy Van Swearingen co-founded A Red Orchid Theater with his pal and fellow actor Michael Shannon, he couldn’t have known that 25 years later they’d still be at it, still taking on challenging and uncompromising material in that same thrillingly intimate space. There may be better known theaters in Chicago, but none more exciting to watch. And …

There are any number of ways that you might know Dag Juhlin. Maybe you were a fan of The Slugs, the underdog, hard drinking, fist fighting band Dag co-founded with his brother, Gregg. Or maybe you know him from the innovative Poi Dog Pondering. Or his good-time party band of crack musicians, Expo 76. Or his new band, Sunshine Boys. Or his day job a…

“We should open a bar.” Many have thought it, but Bill FitzGerald actually did it. And now 37 years later, he seems genuinely surprised at the emotional response to the news that he’s retiring and possibly selling his legendary nightclub, Fitzgeralds. In our far flung conversation, Bill talks about how it all started, how a trip to New Orleans open…

The New York Times called her "The Hidden Architect of Modern Comedy." She's nurtured the careers of the likes of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, Chris Farley, Andy Richter, Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant. The lord and master of SNL, Lorne Michael regularly looks to her for new talent. She's gone from having IO (formerly Improv Olympic) kicked out o…

Part 2 of our 2-Part discussion with Chicago actor and Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, In this installment we talk about what a cool guy Paul Newman was to be around, what a magician producer Dick Wolf is, what it’s like to be part of an ensemble on a hit television show, and how oddly fulfilling it is to be a star, co-writer and co-creator of …

Chris Stolte comes from St. Louis. But he’s a Chicago actor if ever there was one. Since the early nineties, he’s been a veteran of theaters like Steppenwolf, A Red Orchid, Goodman… For years, he seemed to appear in every movie that was shot in Chicago- “Road To Perdition”, “Stranger than Fiction,” “Public Enemies “…. And maybe most memorably, “Law…

Second City Mainstage cast member Rashawn Nadine Scott’s story plays like one of those great, classic show biz tales of a girl with a dream. "I made a plan, and then a few months later, here I was with four duffle bags," she told the Chicago Tribune when they named her one of the hot new faces of 2015. From the minute she stepped off the bus from h…

It’s hard to believe that when TJ Jagadowski moved to Chicago from Holyoke Massachusetts in 1992, he had never heard of Second City or, for that matter, improvisation. That’s like hearing that when Michael Jordan moved to Chicago after college, he’d never heard of basketball. Today, while most people probably know TJ best as half of the Sonic comme…

You’d have to search far and wide to find someone with more hyphenates than artist-actor-poet-playwright-columnist-raconteur and all-around amazing character Tony Fitzpatrick. And the thing is, he makes good on all of them with his acclaimed collages, his shows like “The Midnight City” at Steppenwolf, his album cover art for the likes of Steve Earl…

Andy Kaufman, Johnny Carson, Warren Beatty, David Letterman… Author and celebrity profile writer Bill Zehme has never shied away from enigmatic subjects. In fact, he’s always been drawn to the seemingly unknowable figures in our popular culture. In today’s episode we talk to the man that Cameron Crowe called “The King Of The First Sentence” about h…

"I grew up a queer son of a Southern Baptist minister in South Carolina, and that’s where a lot of this comes from." That's writer/director/actor Stephen Cone telling the New York Times where he drew inspiration for his latest film, a current festival favorite, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party. His other films include the provocative and enigmatic Bla…

For over 20 years, the WGN Morning News has ruled morning television in Chicago. More than that, it’s stood as one of the last bastions of live local television. Our guest today is one of the stars of that show, Paul Konrad, who along with the rest of the WGN morning team brings intelligence, humor and an abundance of personality to the ungodly hou…

In Episode Two of the Hog Butcher Radio Hour, Ron talks with filmmaker Steve James. From Hoop Dreams to last year’s documentary adaptation of Roger Ebert’s best-selling memoir Life Itself, Steve has established himself as one of the world’s top documentarians. Here, he talks with Ron about his amazing body of work, about why he sometimes finds hims…

For The Hog Butcher Radio Hour’s maiden voyage, Ron talks with his friend and sometime collaborator, the great David Pasquesi. One of the world’s most acclaimed improvisers, half of the legendary improv team Dave and TJ, a Second City mainstage alum, a veteran of films like Groundhog Day and Angels and Demons, stage producitons like Steppenwolf’s G…