Yuks for Youth4

Come sing, dance and laugh with us at the "Howl at the Moon" World's Greatest Rock and Roll Dueling Piano Show for the benefit of the Naperville Education Foundation!

This event will be held March 20, 2009, from 7-11 PM at Bobak's Signature Room in Woodridge. Tickets are $1000 for premium seating per table of 10 or $75 per person for reserved seating. Two drink tickets per person are included; ticket holders must be 21 years of age or older.

Proceeds will benefit NEF projects such as Kid Boosters, an emergency fund for students in need to allow them to keep learning effectively; the Study Skills Academy, an after-school program that gives students a boost with homework and learning strategies and the annual Grant Program, which funds innovative enrichment programs created by District 203 teachers, parents and students.

To purchase tickets to Yuks for Youth4, print the flyer linked below and mail the response portion to the address indicated.

Yuks for Youth4 flyer (PDF)

For more information, contact Nina M. Menis, Naperville School District 203 Director of Community Relations at 630-420-6475 or email mdvorak@naperville203.org.

Read on for stories about previous NEF Yuks for Youth events...

Yuks for Youth3 Sold Out!

The auditorium shook with laughter during the Broadway production of Rob Becker's "Defending the Caveman," starring Chris Sullivan. Thanks to over 800 wonderful friends of the Naperville Education Foundation, Yuks for Youth3 was sold out!

This event was held November 10, 2006, with an optional pre-event cocktail party (cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, cash bar) from 6-8 PM at Mesón Sabika and the comedy show from 8:30-10:30 PM at the Naperville Central High School Auditorium. David Navarro, of Fox 32 Morning News, served as Master of Ceremonies for the evening.

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Zany Yuks2 Delivers ‘Good Clean Fun’ for a Great Cause

by Barb Ceruti

With more audience members on stage than improvisation artists, the March 18 Yuks for Youth2 at the Naperville Holiday Inn Select proved an uproarious evening of the wacky and unpredictable. Professing a penchant for education fundraisers, performers in the 11-year-old Chicago Comedy Company delivered non-stop interactive improv as wholesome as it was hilarious. Fueled completely by the words, noises and movements of the audience, the show benefiting the Naperville Education Foundation’s (NEF) Study Skills Academy hit the ground running and gained momentum as the evening progressed. Indeed, even when Yuks2 committee member and NEF Trustee Suzyn Price tossed the word “pulchritude” at the whip-sharp comedians during a fill-in-the-blank skit, they didn’t miss a beat.

Yuks for Youth isn’t all about the laughs. “Yuks is our primary fundraiser for the Study Skills Academy, and we are all very passionate about it because we are directly impacting District 203 students,” said Yuks2 Co-Chair and NEF Trustee Lori Montgomery. Prior to the show, guests watched a video highlighting the dramatic impact of the SSA on the math and reading performance of students in grades 3-5 at Ellsworth Elementary. Raising over $14,000 toward the signature NEF project that provides after-school academic support to District 203 elementary and junior high students in need of extra help, Yuks2 also gained the new sponsorship of 4th Floor Investment Group, LLC and Carriage Club of Naperville at Naperville Crossings.

“Yuks for Youth is an evening of comedy in Naperville,” said Suzyn Price, who, along with her fellow committee members, purposely sought a different comedy company for the second annual event than that which performed in the first. “I think if we shake [the event] up a little every year, current friends will come excited to see something new, and new people might be attracted by that year’s performers.”  

Special thanks to Yuks2 Co-Chairs Anita Mraz and Lori Montgomery, event sponsors Comcast, Citibank/Citigroup, Lucent Technologies, Naperville Jaycees, SBC, 4th Floor Investment Group, LLC, Carriage Club of Naperville, Gail and Don Neirmeyer of Coldwell Banker, who provided dessert at intermission, and the Brown family for the donation of a football jersey (auctioned the night of the event) from Tennessee Titans running back and NNHS alumnus Chris Brown.

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Chicago Comedy Company Headlines Yuks for Youth2

Chicago Comedy Company, Yuks for Youth2 featured entertainment, was highlighted in the following story from the Naperville Sun on 1/19/06.

What's clean, funny and family friendly?
Suburban improv company proves 'clean' comedy can exist

By Mike Mitchell - SUN STAFF

A member of the audience was sitting in a chair in the middle of the stage. He was reluctant to share the events of his day, on stage in front of a dozen people.

But, improv performer Mardy Baker was persistent with her questioning. She wanted all the minutia. Little by little, audience participant Phillip Semon, began to smile and giggle as he described his uneventful day: he went to work, visited Chipotle Grill, requesting sour cream with his burrito and called a "female" friend that has a reputation for partying and drinking.

In less than a minute, the cast from the Chicago Comedy Company had re-enacted his day, but through the horrors of a nightmare. It was purposefully sloppy, loud and backwards — a sequence that had about the dozen in attendance laughing.

Cast member Melissa Cathcart pretended to be the annoying friend who persistently screeched on every syllable over the phone, James Hestop pretended to be an employee at Chipotle who wouldn't serve the man sour cream on his burrito despite repeated requests and Jay Olsen was at the center of this nightmare.

Not a single special effect was used, and nothing was scripted. This was improv and it had found a home at the Improv Theatre at the Streets of Woodfield in Schaumburg after opening for the first time in November.

Improv is a craft that has often been coined a "Chicago style" of comedy. It is a brew that has created Chicago comedy greats like Bill Murray, John Candy and Dan Aykroyd.

But improv in the suburbs? It's almost like bringing B.B. King tunes, Machine politics and deep-dish pizza outside of Chicago.

"You know, there's a lot of development this theater needs to go through and meanwhile we can give them a little culture into these suburban parts," Hestop said jokingly.

The opening weekend was delayed for months until a facility was decided on, according to owner Steve Matuszak. Matuszak said the Chicago Comedy Company has had "incredible" success in corporate events in past years, performing in Chicago since 1996. So creating a facility near one of the busiest malls in Illinois was inevitable.

"Obviously you are not trying to make a lot of money in corporate entertainment," Matuszak said. "We've had the background of working in Chicago, so expanding out here (Schaumburg) was a nice fit."

But what makes improv in Schaumburg unique? It's squeaky clean. No, it's not the facilities. There's not a dirty word, a sexual innuendo, a racial or cultural epitaph in the vicinity of the stage.

There have been decades of profanity in comedy, most prominently the work of stand-up legends Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Sam Kinnison and Chris Rock — whose hand gestures and language often make nuns quiver. Improv has developed an adult theme in some its work as well, according to Matuszak, which the Chicago Comedy Club has steered clear of.

But it's hard to ignore the amount of profanity used in comedy and it's yielding success. Mixed with some truth, there's humor in vulgarity. So, can "squeaky" clean comedy do the same? Can it put people in stitches?

"You know, it's interesting because I think it's hard for people to believe that it can be done. We walk around all day in our lives not using four-letter words, so why not in comedy?" Baker said.

The question is not a matter of theory, it worked on a Friday night, on Nov. 18. One audience member, a high school girl, participated. She was instructed to shift both Jay Olsen's and Baker's posture and body parts in conjunction to a "Lord of the Rings" dialogue. She had to manually direct their legs by grabbing the calf and shifting it while the actors talked, sometimes purposefully putting them in awkward positions to make the dialogue look ridiculous.

At one point she had directed Baker's index finger into the nostril of Olsen's nose and vice-versa. It looked liked they were picking each other's nose and talking in folklore. But the two remained true to character, by suggesting they were casting a spell on one another via the nostrils.

"The whole show is 100 percent improv, so the writing of the show goes along as the show takes place," Matuszak said.

Even so, that doesn't guarantee audience members will laugh. Many people have become accustomed to mainstream comedy, particularly sitcoms, which are scripted. But the popularity of shows like "Whose Line Is It Anyway" on ABC has helped spur some interest into improvisational comedy.

And the greatest advantage clean comedy offers is the diversity of its audience.

"Doing performances in Chicago you get locked into doing skits for a certain audience type, usually older and more adult," Hestop said. "Here in the audience, you'll see four, five kids — and there's grandparents — and to see them laugh, to get those laughs out of them, you get the feeling that these people think, 'This is fresh, this is funny.'"

Hosting family-style comedy is also a relief for management. Matuszak said he wanted a nonalcoholic theater because alcohol would interfere with the comedy on the stage and would conflict with having young children in the audience.

"We just don't want a big drunkard comedy show," he said.

Nevertheless, landing a home base in Schaumburg marks the first time that the Chicago Comedy Club will have its own theater. Before then, the club performed at private venues and did training for students. It is a sign that improv is growing, even after it became famous in Chicago at Second City during the late 1950s.

"When we first came out here (Schaumburg) we were shocked at the number of people who don't know what improv is," Baker said. "Still, that's wonderful that we can get so many involved with this art and laugh."

Contact Mike Mitchell at mmitchell@suburbanchicagonews.com or (630) 416-5279.

First Annual Yuks for Youth in March 2005

Following is a story published in the Naperville Education Foundation newsletter, NEF News, February 2005, detailing last year's first annual Yuks for Youth benefit comedy night.

‘Yuks for Youth’ Draws Laughs, New Support of the NEF

The laughs came fast and furious at the first annual Naperville Education Foundation “Yuks for Youth” comedy night March 12, 2005, but the lighthearted event benefited one of the NEF’s most significant endeavors to date. Featuring the improvisational genius of the Second City Comedy Troupe in Naperville’s Holiday Inn Select grand ballroom, Yuks for Youth garnered $13,000 towards the Study Skills Academy, a sweeping after-school initiative designed to equip District 203 elementary-level students with constructive, lifelong study habits. The evening also generated the support of several first-time NEF contributors.

“We wanted to go [to the ‘Yuks for Youth’ event] because it was a chance to relax, be with friends and have a night out,” said Patricia Danielsen, the mother of three District 203 students who, along with her husband, attended an NEF fundraiser for the first time. “It was something we would want to do anyway, and the fact that it raised money for students made it even better.” Danielsen was joined by about 100 other new supporters of the Naperville Education Foundation, representing nearly one third of the event’s 332 guests. “The NEF’s goal was to invite individuals who have been our long-time supporters as well as those new to the Foundation,” said District 203 Director of Community Relations Nina Menis. According to NEF Trustee and Yuks for Youth committee member Suzyn Price, new sponsorship of the NEF was a major goal of this fresh addition to the Foundation’s calendar of events.

“Yuks for Youth was the right idea at the right time,” said Price. “It helped attract new donors and friends and introduced the NEF and its programs for students to a new audience.” Ray Kinney, former Trustee and long-time supporter of the NEF, borrowed the notion of a comedy night to benefit students from a similar effort in Downers Grove called “Laughter for Learning.” “Education can and should be fun!” stressed Kinney, who served as Master of Ceremonies of the jovial, often tongue-in-cheek affair.

Following cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and acknowledgment of Yuks for Youth and Study Skills Academy sponsors, guests watched a special video presentation highlighting the many ways in which the SSA has already made an impact in our schools. The film featured Kingsley Elementary Principal Kitty Ryan, Superintendent Dr. Alan Leis, Jim McCarthy (an active District 203 parent and SBC employee who worked diligently to gain his company’s sponsorship of the Study Skills Academy) and grateful SSA students testifying to the success they’ve begun to achieve as a result of their participation in the program that offers them after-school academic assistance from staff, older students and community volunteers.

When the Second City comedians took the stage to perform their first act (a musical tribute to the comedy troupe’s 45th birthday and skits about the “real truth,” including brutally honest wedding vows and a hilarious look at corporate meetings), the evening transformed from suburban fundraiser to metropolitan night club. After intermission, which included tasty complimentary treats from Gail and Don Niermeyer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the troupe’s second act showcased the quick-witted, audience-inspired improvisation for which Second City is famous. Asked to shout out random topics of their choice, guests generated a side-splitting, seamless play of such hodgepodge subjects as the SAT tests, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Ethiopia and Oprah. 

While the entertainment may change from year to year, Yuks for Youth is expected to remain an adult night of levity and fellowship in support of the District’s expanding Study Skills Academy initiative. “Not only did Yuks for Youth allow us to support an important new project,” said Suzyn Price, “it also allowed us to have some fun.”

Grateful thanks to Yuks for Youth sponsors Comcast, Holiday Inn Select, Ray Kinney-Minuteman Press and Ron and Nancy Nyberg as well as Study Skills Academy sponsors Comcast, SBC, Lucent Technologies and Citibank/Citigroup. The Naperville Education Foundation would also like to acknowledge Don and Gail Niermeyer, the NEF Board of Trustees, Yuks for Youth Committee Members Suzyn Price, Tom Althoff, Faith Behr, Maureen Dvorak, Deanne Fulner, Joe and Julie Lichter, Nina Menis, Lori Montgomery, Anita Mraz, Nancy Nyberg, Sandy Shamburek and Melea Smith, the volunteers who assisted in addressing event invitations and all of the fine parent, staff and community supporters of the NEF.

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