• Lorenzo Tassone
  • Josh Zagoren (Chad the Bird) and Paper Machete founder Christopher Piatt will keep August’s newbies in line.

On a Saturday in late July, Christopher Piatt, a bald gentlemen in a plain white T-shirt and a pair of sparkly studs, took the stage at the Green Mill to hilariously lip sync Betty Hutton’s jazz standard “Murder, He Says.” Piatt is the ringleader of the weekly variety show the Paper Machete, and he’s a pro at perfectly setting the tone for the next two hours of anything-goes performances. For the past four and a half years (the last year and a half of which have been stationed at the Green Mill), Piatt has brought together a mix of veterans and newbies from the worlds of journalism, comedy, and live lit to produce a “live magazine” reflecting on the week’s events. August, however, is gearing up to be a “cherry-popping, fresh-meat month,” according to Piatt, who proudly bears the title of the Machete’s editor in chief.

The Paper Machete, 3 PM, Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, thepapermacheteshow.com, free.