I remember looking at him as he was telling me this and thinking I’ve never seen anybody his age tell me what they were going to do in a way that sounded like it might be cool or great and that they were excited about it. “I never met an older person who was excited about what they were going to do next. “He made it seem possible,” Odenkirk said. A two-hour conversation transpired from that question, where Odenkirk heard him “ramble about his career and it inspired me so much, that interaction, maybe I could do the same thing for some young people.” Odenkirk ran into Close in Chicago during his college years and asked to interview him. He also mentioned his interactions with legendary actor, writer and teacher Del Close. When Meadows asked what made Odenkirk decide to write a memoir - “What made you think that anybody cared?” - he named several show business-related memoirs that he enjoyed. With Meadows as the moderator, the two discussed their time working together both in New York City and Chicago, as well as some of the stories mentioned in Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama. Odenkirk started his Illinois portion of his book tour at the historic Music Box Theatre with fellow Saturday Night Live alum Tim Meadows.

Bringing him home to celebrate his career and the city’s legacy in comedy felt like a great way to start the year. Bob Odenkirk began here in Chicago, from the stages of Second City to so many other comedy clubs. But, we’re also very much committed to highlighting the incredible voices that come from Chicago and celebrating our city’s home-grown talent and creativity. “Our programming often brings leading artists, authors and thinkers to Chicago.

“CHF is first and foremost a Chicago institution,” Chicago Humanities Festival Executive Director Phillip Bahar said.

They present more than 100 annual events in venues across the Chicagoland area, including a recent event to support the release of actor, comedian, writer, director and producer Bob Odenkirk’s memoir, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama. The Chicago Humanities Festival started as a single day celebration of the humanities and quickly became a year-round festival of arts and ideas.

Photo courtesy of Chicago Humanities Festival/DT Kindler

Comedy comedy comedy drama a memoir