Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Gimmick comedians are easy to love, but hard to watch for more than a minute. "Don't Spit the Water!" a live game show that runs late on Saturdays at the Playground Theater, has found the perfect format for these marginalized jokers. Finally, Chicago audiences can get exactly as much as they can stand of comics like the Interrogator, who delivers one liners in the accusatory tone of a television cop, or El Choco Loco, who knows that stupid potty jokes cross all language boundaries.

Here's the set up: Three audience members are plucked from their seats to act as contestants. They fill their mouths with water. One by one, they face a rotating cast of weirdos, each of whom gets 60 seconds to make the contestants do a spit take. It's a simple, brilliant combination of comedy for all and danger for the people in the front row.

Despite the game-show format, "Don't Spit the Water!" is essentially a variety act, and variety acts rise and fall with the talents of the host. People like El Choco Loco, the Interrogator and Nicky Mouse are only around for a minute at a time, but the host will be with you all night. Luckily, the MC is a character named Sasha, an inept Russian comic with a curiously motionless face; Sasha is perfect (there's nothing funnier than an inept Russian comic).

Sasha has a passel of sidekicks, including the urbane Big Dummy (a light board operator) and The Noob, a sweet-faced mute whose childhood traumas form the material for most of Sasha's comedy. Sasha and the Noob are also pretty good "bad" dancers. Their chemistry keeps what could become too much of a mainstream show satisfyingly off-kilter.

On the night that I went, the usual audience participants were replaced by three comedians from NPR. Although the radio guys were witty and game, "Don't Spit the Water!" is probably better on a normal night. Besides, half the appeal of a show like this one is the chance to see your friends get humiliated. The other half is the comedy. And the final half (or is that the final third?) is that the Playground is a BYOB theater, which pretty much guarantees a good time no matter what's playing.