After asking around the city and to friends and some people in the know (who you would never guess are in the know), I’m cancelling tours the weekend of NATO and the Pedway Tour on that Monday.

I figure the pedway is going to be a strange place during those days, wondering if it’s even going to be open at all right? Or has anyone even though of it? Of course they have…right?

I was talking to one of my building friends and he mentioned that all tours might be rough that weekend. Just even groups of people standing around are going to look suspicious.

SO! No tours the weekend of May 18,19,20 and no Pedway Tour on May 21st.

What’s it going to be like? Should I be nervous? We’re even thinking of getting out of town. Do you have any special plans?

So this post is to honor the two men we have lost and a celebration of two of our theaters and then one extra celebration that’s just for me:

This week we lost Mike Enriquez. I’ve been doing improv now for close to 20 years (18 to be exact) and I met Mike right in the beginning of this, so he was old school, like me. I didn’t know Mike all that well, but I knew him enough to know that he had to be the kindest of all of us. I always said so, so this is not just me speaking well of him. He truly was the nicest person in a community filled with people being snarky to be funny. Mike always had a huge hello, a huge smile, a hug…whatever he could give. And he was funny, oh so funny. Behind that kindness was a brave and terribly dry sense of humor. We’ll miss Mike. A lot. It’s a big hole he left.

We also lost Frank Payne. Frank. Oh Frank. Frank was in my first ever, real improv show. The show was called “Newsflash” and it was all of us improvising a newscast. It was awful. It was so awful, we called it Shitflash just for fun. But my god, I had the best time doing that show and Frank was a big part of it. He was a big guy, with a big personality and a dirty, dirty mind. (My favorite.) He was your classic big guy improviser, loud and obnoxious and funny as hell. I hadn’t talked to Frank in years, but I would always see his FB posts and it just pleased me to know he was out there in the world. We’ll miss you too Frank.

Rough. Rough week for a lot of us comedians, my heart goes out to you all that knew these great men. Their loss shocked me and scared me and also made me so proud to be a part of such an amazing community.

So in the space of looking forward, we have two theaters to celebrate. The Playground Theater is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary this year. Whoopee! The Playground is an excellent place, a place of freedom and play. I met my husband there, he proposed to me there. I made some of my best friends there. The great thing about the Playground is that…a lot of other theaters watch your shows very closely, you follow their creed, their style of improv. It’s necessary, not a bad thing, but the Playground doesn’t really do that. There’s no dogma, there’s no overlord watching your every move. You are encouraged to play, to stretch, to experiment – and this we know, is what Chicago is all about.

Also celebrating an anniversary this year is the Annoyance Theater, it’s their 25th anniversary! Wow. Oh man, the Annoyance. Thank you guys for everything you gave me. God I had fun there. When they were at their old place on Clark across from the Gingerman, I hung out there ALL THE TIME. Talk about freedom to say or do anything you want. Guh. I’m still recovering from nights over there. I was in one of their shows “Tippi: Portrait of a Teenage Virgin” and countless improv shows. I kissed many of the boys there and am friends with them all still. Mick Napier, Joe Bill , Susan Messing and Mark Sutton taught me more about improvisation than almost anyone (take care of yourself first, it makes it so much easier) and they have influenced comedy in this city more than they probably even know. Mick wrote the forward to my book and I can’t imagine it any other way. Thank you guys too.

And one final improvisation type thing I’m really looking forward to: Do you  know Steve Gadlin? Yes, you do. You may not know it, but you probably have seen or laughed at something that he has touched. Steve Gadlin started Blewt Productions and then proceeded to produce some of the greatest comedy shows in the city. Impress These Apes, Don’t Spit the Water, The Nairobi Project and Talkin’ Funny are just some of the Blewt Production shows. One thing I love about Steve is, he is STRANGE and he’s a prankster and he’s also fantastic at making his weird little improv shows available to a more commercial market.

Which leads me to “I want to draw a cat for you,” Steve’s latest. Steve will draw a cat for you, any kind of cat you like and then he’ll mail it to you. That’s it. Steve has done Groupons for this, and my guess is, he’s even made a little cash from it.

WELL, on January 27th (please don’t let me die before I see this), Steve Gadlin is going to be on Shark Tank. SHARK TANK! STEVE!

I can’t believe it. What’s he going to say? What’s he going to ask for? What does he need as far as an investment for “I want to draw a cat for you”? How awesome is he for getting on prime-time TV and peddling this crazy business?! I can’t wait. Congrats Steve, this is one of the most hilarious and excellent things I’ve heard of in a long time and I’m proud to have been a part of your business too.

Thank you to Mike, Frank, the Playground, the Annoyance and Mr. Gadlin for making my life fuller and more smiley than it would have been without you all.

A few vids:

Steve’s ad for “I want to draw a cat for you.”

And yours truly was actually in the 2nd season of Impress These Apes (a kind of Project Runway for comedians) and I thought I’d post a few of my vids. Here’s my intro song (we had to write a song introducing ourselves and play an instrument):

1. Waxwing Puzzle Co.

I met Andy a few weeks ago, he is awesome. Waxwing Puzzle has created a game called Labyrinth. What is so freaking awesome, besides creating a goldang game, is that this game takes place exclusively in the pedway! How cool. Now, Andy won’t divulge too much to me, because he wants me to play the game which I will do later in January. But it sounds wicked excellent. It’s like a scavenger hunt, but from what I got from Andy, it’s not just a scavenger hunt. Andy studies games, internet games, alternate reality games, this is going to be so cool. I highly recommend checking them out.

2. Tour Through A Lens

I’ve met so many awesome other guides doing awesome things. This city is filled with tour guides to show you everything you could ever want to know or have an interest in. My friend Teresa started her own and it’s called Tour Through A Lens. Now, I’m no photographer, I forget I even have a camera on my phone, but Teresa and I had a day a few weeks ago where we shared our tours with each other. It was a sparkling day and Teresa came on the pedway tour and then she took me out to walk her tour and I was totally blown away. Teresa took me where I hadn’t really been before and heck, I’m a freaking tour guide! She showed me things about photography, about scale and size and color and space and shape and it was all so neat. She wants to take photographers through lesser traveled parts of the city. And she’s not necessarily teaching you how to use your camera, but she’ll teach you how to get a better shot every time.

3. Chicken in the Car and the Car Won’t Go

My friend Melisa wrote this book “Chicken in the Car and the Car Won’t Go.” Now, I’m from here and I had never heard this, but it’s a thing – Chicken in the car and the car won’t go, that’s the way you spell ChicaGO! It’s totally cute. Melisa’s book is about awesome things to do in Chicago with your teenager. Which is pretty freaking brilliant. And Melisa is not messing around here, she knows her stuff. She loves the city, is always coming to make sure that the things she recommends are still awesome. Her book should be bought because it was written with care and love and because well, yours truly makes an appearance.

That’s it for now everyone! There’s going to be more blogging in the future next year, so I look forward 2012!

It’s okay, it really is. Winter is never a surprise but always kind of a shock. I know everyone in this city has a different way of doing things in terms of getting ready for the onslaught that shall hit us in the rear very soon.

Coats. Coats are very important here. Long coat, short coat, hood or  no hood? Down or something synthetic to handle the wet? A black coat like everyone else in Chicago or something more colorful? Or maybe you just want to hide in the crowds and your standard black puffy coat will do.

My question is: do you have a coat plan?

I look around right now, it’s 40 degrees out and I see people in their WINTER coats, all wrapped up with gloves and the hat and the scarf and everything that goes along with it.

That’s not the way I do it.

I wait. I wait as long as possible to put on my WINTER coat. It’s gotta get pretty dang cold for me to pull that out.

See, if I wear it now, by the time it’s 20 degrees my coat will be used to keeping me warm at 40. It won’t even know what to do at 20! It’ll just fall apart, fall right off me and start weeping.

But if I hold it, keep my mid-coat out as long as possible, by the time it’s freezing, my WINTER coat is going to be above and beyond all other coats!

This is what I think about.

What do you guys do to prepare for the winter?

Saturday Pedway Tours will begin at 10:30 on May 26th!

The tour is 90 minutes and is 20$

Chicago’s Pedway, a series of heated walkways, passages and tunnels, serve as the backdrop for an amusing and enlightening tour of some of the hot-spots (or a least warm-spots) of downtown Chicago.  The tour focuses on interesting anecdotes and tales about some of the great buildings downtown, but it’s also a study of the city underneath the city. The Pedway is a  strange and wonderful place and adds so much to the city’s personality. These are great tours for Chicagoans who want to learn more about the city and for tourists who want a full Chicago experience without ever going outside.

Starting point: The tour will meet at 40 W. Lake (corner of Lake and Dearborn), come inside the building that says “Gallery of Shops”.

Distance: About a mile and a half, good amount of walking. There are many escalators and up and downs on this tour.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THE MONDAY OR THURSDAY PEDWAY TOUR

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THE SATURDAY PEDWAY TOUR

“Margaret Hicks is such an amiable and personable tour guide and is very knowledgeable about Chicago’s architecture, history, facts, and myths. We were shown areas we didn’t know existed and just had the greatest time while staying warm and entertained.” Judi from Memphis

See, I used to do a Boystown Tour. In fact, it was my one and only tour last spring. And, it didn’t go all that well.

I put all my eggs into a Boystown basket. I did the tour four times a week on four separate days. People were confused because I was straight. I think some just didn’t understand and others were just downright not interested. It’s a niche tour, this I know now. I learned a lot last summer and goldang it, things went so much better this year. But after last year, I let go of the Boystown Tour for spring. I wanted a clean slate and I was sad and upset about how Boystown turned out.

Here’s the rub,  it was a good tour. I had so much help from the community.  I met great people who wanted to share their history and who were so proud of the neighborhood and the tour was so much better for it. It was fun, but it was also historical. It touched on the pain underlying  the neighborhood and the fight everyone still has in front of them. And it was a celebration on how far we’ve all come and the joy that comes along with it.

So, my one customer (pretty much, seriously) who loved that tour last year, booked a group for it this year.

It was a group of college kids, they seemed extra young, like Freshman young. There were 24 of them on the Friday before Halloween. I was gently warned by the group leader that some of these kids were conservative and I assured him that this was not some crazy sex tour, but a history.

Very good. Off we go. Admittedly, the boys were nervous. I could see it. They giggled a lot. A LOT. But that’s okay, I’m fine with giggling, people learn through giggles. So we’re cruising around the neighborhood, me and a group of 24 students. We were noticeable to say the least.

And every couple of blocks, someone came to say hello to us. Chris, the bartender at the Town Hall gave them an awesome history of the bar, we just happened to see him outside. Jeff, the manager of Little Jims came out to say hi to us. He was so pleased to see me again and called me by name and told me how great it was to see a tour outside again. He talked to the kids and told them about how important Little Jims is to the neighborhood. Everywhere we went people came to shake hands, to say hi, to make the boys giggle once again.

I was totally blown away. It was so nice and cool to see the neighborhood come out (heh) for this, to be open to this group of students, to make them laugh and feel more comfortable, to show them that everyone’s pretty friendly and open and what a cool freaking neighborhood this is behind the neon lights and loud music.

And most of all, I was so thankful to everyone. It meant that the Boystown Tour meant something to these people, that they remembered me and came out to talk and educate. I felt like that tour got the short end of the stick and it wasn’t me or them or the hood or anything else. It was ignorance on my part, of how tours work and who goes.

I feel like I have a much better handle on this now.

Next spring, the Boystown Tour is coming back. Maybe once or twice a month, not four days a week…but I love it. It’s a good tour. It’s a great neighborhood and I’m proud of it and me and everyone.

Thank you Boystown. Thank you so much for being such a tight-knit neighborhood. Thank you for your pride and your honesty. Thank you for letting a weird, straight lady wander around your neighborhood and ask ridiculous questions. Thank you for remembering and thank you for letting me know that your doors are still open and that me and my tours are welcome anytime.

Fantastic.

I love private tours! Love them. And I am available for private tours during the winter season AND the summer season. We can take one of the designated Spring/Summer 2012 or Pedway tours or we can customize something that works better for you, on your own time.

Private tours are $20 per person, with a $60 dollar minimum for a 90 minute tour. Prices may change if you’d like a longer tour. Email me at margaret@chicagoelevated or call me at 773.593.4873.

Group Tours

Group tours are great if you need a great team building event, have a gaggle of students or you have an office who desperately needs to learn about the Pedway. We can work together to set up one of the designated tours, or customize something to fit your tour-goers specific needs and wants.

Group tour prices depend on the size of the group, the length of the tour and mode of transportation. If you’re interested in learning more about group tours, call me at 773.593.4873 or email me at margaret@chicagoelevated.com.

“Margaret had a real challenge on this tour. My wife and brother, two daughters in their 20s and the fact that I am a tour guide from Philadelphia!! This was our first trip to Chicago and we really wanted an introduction that would give us an idea of what else to do on our visit. Margaret was a lot of fun, so informative, and answered all our questions. She is full of energy and had some great detail about the architecture, but was also equally at home in the neighborhood of Old Town and on the El. We all fell in love with her passion for the city and would certainly recommend a tour with Margaret as a great way to start out a long weekend in this great city.” – Andy from Philly

And I’m reading about the first days of Chicago and…

Wait, hey, hi, I know I haven’t blogged in a bit, but this was too good.

So, I’m reading about Chicago in the early days and I see this phrase “horse-dealers and horse-stealers – rogues of every description, white, black, brown, and red – half-breeds, quarter-breeds, and men of no breed at all;”

And um, I totally know that phrase, that’s Algren. That’s from City on the Make. Here’s Algren’s quote “Yankee and voyageur, the Irish and the Dutch, Indian traders and Indian agents, halfbreed and quarter-breed and no breed at all, in the final counting they were all of a single breed.”

I also saw he used the horse-dealer/horse-stealer quote as well: “down in the barracks the horse-dealers and horse-stealers were making a night of it again.”

So I look at the footnote in Pierce’s book and traced it back to a Charles Joseph LaTrobe who wrote “The Rambler in North America.”  LaTrobe was an English explorer, mountain-climber…and apparently a good enough writer.

You know, since Algren lifted a phrase or two.

It’s just really cool, I’ve always wondered what Algren was reading, where he got his info, and now I finally found something!

That’s all. Good day.

Group tour prices depend on the size of the group, the length of the tour and mode of transportation. If you’re interested in learning more about group tours, call me at 773.593.4873 or email me at margaret@chicagoelevated.com.

I’m a north-sider, a consummate north-sider. Heck, I grew up in the north suburbs, it was just a natural inclination to stay north once I moved into the city. Like a  lot of young ‘uns starting out, I thought it’d be fun to live in Wrigleyville, which I did until I couldn’t stand it anymore, then I moved to Ravenswood and haven’t  left since.

Even as a tour guide, my knowledge of the south side of Chicago is ABYSMAL. I know a few things, but really not much. Get me south of Roosevelt Road and I don’t know what up.

I figured I really need to learn more about a whole half of the city I don’t know, but I knew I couldn’t do it myself. That just doesn’t ring true, I wanted someone who knows their stuff.

Hence! I am so excited to introduce the first of the For You, By You Tours!

Our first FUBU Tour will be hosted by none other than Chicagoist Editor- in-Chief – CHUCK SUDO!

So awesome.

The tour will be September 17th, 2PM. It will last 90 minutes, and like all Chicago Elevated tours, it’ll be $15.00.

Chuck is going to take 20 LUCKY people through Bridgeport, in his own words:

The Henry C. Palmisano Nature Preserve in the Bridgeport neighborhood was dedicated in 2009. Built upon the former Stearns Quarry, one of the oldest quarries in Chicago that provided the limestone foundation for Chicago’s downtown, it also purportedly served as a dumping ground for Chicago Outfit problems solved with prejudice. Today the preserve stands as a symbol of the changes happening in the neighborhood most associated with producing seven of Chicago’s mayors, one with a checkered history of racial tensions and political patronage.

We’ll tour the preserve, starting at its entrance at 27th and Halsted, working our way to the top of the sledding hill for a beautiful view of the Chicago Skyline and surrounding neighborhoods. Afterward, we’ll walk over to the corner of 31st and Morgan, where a different type of redevelopment is happening – that’s the center of Bridgeport’s burgeoning dining scene.

Afterward, we’ll go get some drinks and chat it up.

This is going to be a riot, if you’re interested, you can reserve by emailing me at margaret@chicagoelevated.com or call 773.593.4873. We’ll just reserve and then pay day of, cash only.

Even if you already know Bridgeport, I bet you don’t know Chuck’s Bridgeport…