For the longest time, I’ve lived two lives. One as an aspiring blogger/journalist who tells it like it is. Another, a very old alderman from a very old and fictitious Chicago ward. If you aren’t aware of my background, I am a member of the sketch comedy group Schadenfreude. Schad is Chicago’s indie-rock comedy group. Except we don’t play instruments, we just tell jokes about mayors, aldermen and parking meters.
We’ve been together for 13 years. One of the first characters we developed was a old-school, machine alderman named Ed Bus. We made up a ward (53rd) and a geography (you know where Elston/Damen and Diversey come together? You know that little triangle of concrete in the middle? That’s the 53rd). Bus became a major part of our stage show and our radio show here on WBEZ from 2003-2005. The short-sleeved, polyester panted man has been alderman for over 35-40 years. Oh yeah, and he always wears a hard-hat to let everyone know he is returning from the latest ground-breaking ceremony.
So essentially, he’s like every alderman from the 1980s. So Schadenfreude has gone away from shows since our run this past summer, but we have been busy, working on a web-series called “The 53rd Ward.” We’ve shot a few fun shorts following this fictitious alderman mulling a run for mayor. We are producing them in trailer form, just for fun.
Here is the first one, featuring 32nd ward Alderman Scott Waguespack (we changed his ward to protect his identity). If you don’t mind, I’ll post up the new ones here. Let’s have some fun during this campaign season. We have til February. For reference, I found a few old Ed Bus bits from WBEZ past (our show, 848) and put them in the related section. I don’t know if they work or not, but it’s funny they are in the archives.
Disclaimer: No actors, writers or filmmakers were harmed or paid while making these films.
