Chicago comedian Pat McGann is making his Rialto Square Theatre debut.
McGann has been to the Rialto before — he saw Jerry Seinfeld there when he was younger — but this time he’ll be the one onstage making people laugh.
He takes the stage at 8 p.m. May 17 at the Rialto in Joliet.
“That place is pretty well-known. It’s beautiful,” he said.
McGann’s comedy career is a second act, job-wise. He was in sales when he decided to do a 180-degree turn and give standup a shot. He got lucky that a fellow Chicago comedian by the name of Sebastian Maniscalco liked him enough to take him out on tour as his opening act back in 2017. That included four sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden.
McGann is nearing the end of his own “Let’s Go” tour which kicked off at the Chicago Theatre a year ago and included an East Coast swing. He’ll wind this tour up before heading back out on the road this summer for a string of dates opening for Maniscalco.
“It’s been a lot, but it’s been fun,” he said of headlining this tour.
His humor isn’t Midwest-centric; people on the coasts get it, too.
“People seem to relate to raising kids and all that madness,” he said. “Playing sports and managing their (lives) and the different pace of the world. This seems to resonate wherever you are.”
He’s got three kids — ages 12, 10 and 9 — and is in the trenches of kid activities.
“My son’s playing hockey. He had a tryout; he was 8 years old. The tryout was, ‘can you come up with $2,500?,’” he deadpanned. “They’re playing games out of state, which is crazy.”
McGann recently went through a divorce, which is more relatable material for his act.
“That’s what I’ve been doing — talking about my life and my experiences,” he said. “That’s how you stay original and develop a point of view.”
He was influenced by comedians like Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey and David Letterman. Later on, when he got into standup himself, he found he was influenced by the people he was sharing the stage with, like Chicago comedian Mike Toomey.
“I grew up around funny people that were telling funny stories,” he said. “It was part of my life, always. I was never the funny one who stood out, everyone was funny.”
He was 31 when he started going to open mic nights downtown, he said.
“I started late. Before that, I was just putting stuff into notebooks,” he said. “I had a real job. I was in sales. Going to open mic nights made it real. I thought, if these people could do it, I could get up there for a few minutes.”
Standup is more than just telling memorized jokes; it’s actual performing for people onstage, he said.
“I learned a lot about that from Sebastian, performing and the approach to it,” he said. “There are no shortcuts, you really do have to go through the process of struggling onstage.”
He was performing at showcases at Zanies in Chicago when he caught the owner’s eye and was offered the job of house emcee.
“He saw something in me and gave me this opportunity that kind of changed everything for me,” he said. “Hosting there, I got so much stage time. I feel like I made up for the late start. I got to catch up to a lot of comics. Zanies is open seven nights a week and I was only off on Monday nights.
“I (was) doing nine months in a row, doing 14-15 shows a week. They wanted me to talk to people and welcome them and find out if they were coming from out of town. I started getting away from the material and doing crowd work and getting more comfortable onstage and that was huge for me. That’s where I met Sebastian.”
That led to honing his own material and performing in bigger venues. He found he was able to grow a career without leaving Chicago and moving to New York or L.A.
His resume also includes performances on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival, Gilda’s LaughFest, The Great American Comedy Festival and the Nashville Comedy Fest.
He writes continuously and inserts new material and cycles the old out, he said.
“I’m always adding new stuff,” he said.
Up next is his road trip with Maniscalco on his arena tour.
“It will be incredible. We get to do Madison Square Garden again and we get to go to all these incredible cities. I’ve gotten to see so much of America. It is a real special thing; it’s not lost on me at all,” he said. “There are only a few comics in the world who are doing what he’s doing. So to be in that orbit is pretty insane.”
Joliet audiences will hear about raising three Gen Alpha kids as a newly single, Gen X dad.
“It’s always nice to be close to home and I can do some south side-south suburban material. This is like a home game for me,” he said. “The Rialto is like a gem. It’s like one of those palace theaters. It’s going to be really cool to check that box and say I was able to perform there.
“I think that people more than ever are connecting to live performances. The feedback I’m getting at shows is that people are genuinely enjoying being at a theater with other people and having a communal experience. The south side audiences always bring a special kind of energy and there’s always that feeling of connection and comfort. I’m looking forward to it.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Pat McGann
When: 8 p.m. May 17
Where: Rialto Square Theatre, 102 N. Chicago St., Joliet
Tickets: $33.25-$50.25
Information: 815-726-6600; rialtosquare.com
