Writers/performers
Payton Brown
Dropped out of college. Co-founded Claymore Productions. Made funny web videos. Started a show every week at Playground Theatre called "The Free Improv Show." Got on a Harold team at i.O. called The Burnham Plan. Etc.
John Tell "J.T." Butler
John Tell "J.T." Butler is a seven year veteran of the audio visual
industry. In addition to his formidable acumen concerning all things
sight and sound, J.T. has also been performing improv since 2005, when
he started with and later directed Freudian Slip, Texas A & M's only
source of improv comedy since 1992. A resident of Chicago since 2007,
J.T. can be found lifting heavy things in a business suit at the
Chicago Hilton and Towers, or performing improv and slam poetry at the
Naperville Christian Romance Writers Association. He is currently in
the process of writing a sketch show with writing partner and life
coach Cameron Goldapp.
James Chase
James started writing and performing sketch comedy in college, and kept it up after moving to Chicago in 2007. He has been a part of Exquisite Corpse since its tender inception, and he's quite pleased to have found such a talented group of coattails to ride to inevitable fame and fortune.
Eric Eyerman
Eric was born and raised in Newark, DE for no real reason. Eventually he escaped to the similarly meaningless University of Virginia, where he discovered careers come to those who wait. Uninterested in waiting, he moved to Colorado for a year to hike aimlessly, but with great meaning. Reasonably meaningful experiences prompted his move to Chicago, where he started waiting ever more intensely (see photo). Now, the wait is finally over: he is writing for Claymore Productions, and his life has meaning.
Shawn Flickinger
"Flick" remembers what it was like to laugh. That's why he spends every moment of every day (or a lot of them, anyway) trying to get back to his happy place. Perhaps if he can succeed in making someone else laugh it will fill the emptiness that he carries around with him. It's something to hope for, in any case. He also enjoys music, baseball and popcorn chicken.
Jared Jeffries
Jared Jeffries is 1/9th of Inkling (named Best New Improv Group 2011 by Chicago Magazine) at the iO theatre, where he also directs a Harold team called Doctro. Additionally, he performs with a team called Meow Meow Ruff at
Cemically Imbalanced Theatre, with Jeff Rukes as Jeffrey Jeffries on special occasions, and has an on-again/off-again relationship with Emily Harpe in a show called Boyfriend/Girlfriend.
He also writes and wears most of the hats on his comedy detective serial podcast,
Trouble's Up in Alphabet Town.
Brian Hurwitz
A graduate of the University of Maryland and its prestigious improv group Erasable Inc., Brian co-founded Claymore Productions in 2007 and soon after moved to Chicago with his fellow founders. He is a graduate of the iO and Annoyance Improv Training Centers and the Second City Advanced Writing Program. Brian produces and headlines the weekly show "Claymore presents: The Free Improv Show (Admission $5)" at The Playground Theater.
Drennen Quinn
Drennen came here from over there. He works and sweats and bleeds like any other man. He thinks he's pretty great. Also, you're welcome. No really, don't mention it.
Jeff Rukes
Jeff Rukes is an improviser, musician, and graphic designer who has lived in Chicago since 2006. He plays regularly at iO Chicago with the Harold team Inkling, and sporadically at other venues as one half of the sketch duo
Jeffrey Jeffries.
Josh Segovia
Josh Segovia was supposed to be a writer, that's what his parents wound have liked. Josh wanted to be a performer, this is what he liked. The tension growing up was palpable. "If only a forum existed where i could do both," Josh would write and then act out behind closed doors. He watched Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show and The Upright Citizens Brigade with bated breath. He knew his time would come. Now is that time. With ink on his hands and a funny hat on his head, Josh through the power of Claymore's Live Internet Sketch Comedy Show, quiets the demons of his youth.
Tyler Smith
Tyler co-founded Claymore Productions in 2007. Since then, he has written, directed, acted in, and produced several Claymore videos and sketches. With Claymore, he produces and headlines "Claymore presents: The Free Improv Show (Admission $5)," a weekly improv show at The Playground Theatre that has been running for over a year. Tyler is also a member of Gandergoose, a sketch group that recently performed at the 2010 Chicago Sketchfest. Tyler is an alumnus of the iO Training Center, having trained with Noah Gregoropoulos, Craig Uhlir, Rachel Mason, Bill Arnett, Greg Hess, and Jason Schotts. He has also trained with Mick Napier, Susan Messing, Joe Bill, and Mark Sutton.
Production
Junella Carla Gabriel
Not being able to speak a lick of English when she landed on Ellis Island did not stop Junella from achieving a BA in Religious Studies and a minor in Theatre from George Mason University. After 7 arduous years of indentured service to higher education and hours of District of Columbia traffic, she liberated herself and began the life-changing journey to the land of deep-dish comedy; Chicago. Here, she hopes to continue experimenting with all mediums of the entertainment field in any creative capacity. Since arriving, she has assistant directed, lighted, appeared in, and stage managed several stage productions, as well as crewed numerous independent film productions. She looks forward to directing her first Exquisite Corpse episode this season. She also loves gyros. And you too.
Matt Rice
An unintended side effect of the Large Hadron Collider, Matt Rice walks the earth in search of his bizarro twin (rumored to have survived a plane crash on an island in the South Pacific). When not sleuthing, Matt is planting evidence and bearing false witness...thus ensuring future generations of the Curious and Misled a hobby. Speaking of hobbies, Matt has but one: you. Sometimes he considers it a full time job, but after a good night's sleep he is able to put things into a better perspective.
Steve Sullivan
Steve Sullivan has not yet begun to fight, and is progressively becoming more beardlike each day in order to do so. He mires his rampant cowardice in literary and filmic renditions of steam and clock punk narrative. His hobbies include coffee, general fun, exceptional fun, sidling, and Whiffleball®. He has been assured, by varying forms of modern entertainment, that technology (robots) will handedly usurp man's control of life's most common interactions sometime in the near future. His epitaph will read: "Whatever, I told you so".
Previous Collaborators
Zachary Hanes
Zach has been knocking around the Chicago comedy world since 2007. He originally hails from Neenah, Wisconsin, but people sometimes question that because he really doesn't have much of an accent. After performing improv while in college at the University of Wisconsin, Zach decided to give Chicago a shot. He improvises regularly at iO, is a member of the sketch group Gandergoose, and is contributing writer and graphic designer for The Best Church of God. In 2009 he co-wrote and directed his first sketch revue The 2009 Middle American Existence Expo at the Playground Theater. During the day, Zach writes, and animates cartoons for a website that will hopefully someday be launched. Until then, you'll have to trust him that they exist and they're wonderful.
Eric Rutherford
Eric has been acting, writing, and directing in Chicago since 2001.
He has performed and is pleased to be currently unaffiliated with the
Second City, iO, and Annoyance theaters. He currently performs with
the improv group "Cakewalk" at the Playground theater. He is also
currently directing the groups "Germans," The Burnham Plan (the show,
not the defunct iO team) and The General Slocum.
Barry Schneiderman
Graduate: Second City Improv & Writing Programs,
average height.
Jo Jean Scott
Jo Jean Scott (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, MI and raised in Kentwood, LA, Scott first appeared on national television as a contestant on the "Star Search" program in 1992 and went on to star on the television series "The New Mickey Mouse Club" from 1993-1994. In 1999 Scott signed a recording contract with Jive Records, releasing her debut album "...Baby One More Time" in 1999. Scott is ranked as the eighth best-selling female recording artist in the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America with 31 million certified albums and one of the world's best-selling music artists having sold an estimated 83 million records worldwide. Scott was named as "Most Searched Person" in the 2007 and 2009 editions of the Guinness World Records.
