“I can’t wait for this to be done,” Charna Halpern says. “I’m so exhausted.” The matriarch of the iO Theater is hurriedly walking through what will soon be the remarkable new home of her renowned improv comedy enterprise. But right now, it’s a construction site. Halpern pauses for a moment, scans the dusty floors and plywood piled around the room, and exhales deeply.
As a performer, Smith is impressed with the size of the designated space for the green room—and with the bathrooms, of which Halpern is particularly proud.
A few weeks later, during the final performance at 3541 N. Clark, an examination of the bathroom stalls revealed that Smith was onto something; they displayed a wealth of knowledge, everything from secret confessions—”I have a huge crush on Jimmy Carrane and haven’t told anyone yet!”—to sound advice—”Give yourself permission to be the funniest person here”—to what might be the most recent scrawl, a heartfelt love note to the theater—”Thanks for everything ‘old’ iO. We’re all slowly learning to be unafraid of being ourselves.”
Nearly two decades later, Armando would be the fitting final performance in iO’s hallowed halls, with a cast built of past and present performers, students, and teachers who considered the space home.
And so Chin became the venue’s de facto janitor. “Class was at 7, I would get here at 5:30 and sweep and mop the entire room so it would smell like bleach instead of the vomit-inducing alcohol. In many ways I like to think of myself as iO’s first intern.”
As she did at the Clark Street location, Halpern honors Close’s influence at iO’s new location with a theater dedicated to the improv giant. She named another theater in memory of Chris Farley, one of iO’s most famous alums. “I really wanted to do that,” Halpern says. “I dream about my Chris all the time, and sometimes I really think he’s coming to me. They’re really funny dreams where he just fucks with me. It’s so hysterical, and I laugh so hard.”
