By Jack Helbig
And as adults they’ve often performed together in Chicago’s crowded improv scene. (Both have put in time at the ImprovOlympic.)
“For the rest of the trip,” Rosenfeld recalls, “all through Europe, we wrestled with the idea: What is our first step? How do we get others to join in?”
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They decided they’d open their theater, called Boom Chicago, in May 1993, giving themselves one summer to make it happen.
It was either run-down or romantic, depending on your view of things,” says Rosenfeld. The Dutch have a word, gezellig. On the positive side it means cozy and warm: good drinking, good conversation, a good vibe. It also means small. Iboya was very gezellig.”
Iboya’s manager, still bitter about their going over his head, wouldn’t let them rehearse in the space until the second the lease went into effect.
“I slept behind the refrigerator, wedged under the stairs,” Schaefle remembers, “and every 20 minutes the refrigerator cooling cycle would kick in and wake me up. Every night I tried to fall asleep within that 20-minute cycle and achieve REM before being startled awake.”
