12.21.10 | Matt Kubinski and Ryan Jagiello

Matt and Ry are joined in studio by the recent winners of The Indie Incubator Film Fest (among other contests): Dane and Donna of Lady Parts Comedy. What better topic to discuss with a comedy troop than the Best Ensemble Casts of all time! Boy to we go round!

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Sawyer J. Lahr | 12/03/2010

If the Lady Parts crew weren’t so serious about their Chicago-produced web comedy, there’s no way it would be this funny. I keep wanting to put a “z” in place of the “s” to match the show’s hard edge. It’s too difficult to pick a favorite episode because every one is a short and sweet morsel of online entertainment.

Lady Parts doesn’t bother with political correctness. Improvisation is at the core of these Annoyance theater graduates and professional performers: Justin Howard, Chelsie Jangord, Aaron Alonso, Donna Morley, Dane Lewandowski, Leslie Baird. The brightest star of the whole series is by far Morley. She has as many faces as Jim Carey and is unafraid to be vulgar.

Lady Parts is one of those episodic shows you go to for a hard laugh, as funny as Strangers with Candy, BBC’s the Office or Little Britain. Sometimes the little vignettes have a resolution and sometimes not. Each skit is designed to build up expectations and then throw you a fast ball. They’re the videos your friends watch over your shoulder on your laptop computer – good for a quick laugh on break from work or at lunch – why not during work? Be careful not to laugh too hard while wearing your headphones in public, and try to remember there are other people who aren’t enjoying themselves as much as you are.

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Nov 15th 2010 | Ned Hepburn

Jeph Porter is a comedy director in the same way Winston Churchill was a public speaker: it’s something that comes so intrinsically that it’s often hard to tell just how easily it comes to them. I’ve known Jeph since college and was interested to see his new venture, directing his friends in the comedy troupe Lady Parts who have a webseries on Blip Tv. The series is all over the place in terms of influences and well worth a watch. I interviewed Jeph regarding the show. He’s a real class act.

EPIC: Lady Parts. Did you guys pick the name to look good on a flyer or what?
JEPH PORTER: Yeah, I’m not going to pretend it has any deep significance or anything. The name came about purely as a way to get people’s attention. I attribute it to 99% of our success. The other 1% is definitely NOT Justin Howard.

Read More: http://epicmag.co/post/1583701631/jeph-porter-is-a-comedy-director-in-the-same-way

Lady Parts is a sketch comedy group conceived and formed in Chicago, IL in the fall of 2009. Focusing on short sketches of absurd and outlandish concept, Lady Parts has built a following both on the web and via their live stage appearances. A dedication to quality, both of content and experience, has helped to set Lady Parts apart from other sketch groups.  Tune in to view episode 4 now!

Read More: http://blog.bustedtees.com/post/1521596131/lady-parts-is-a-sketch-comedy-group-conceived-and

Current.com | Nov. 6. 2010

I don’t have nearly enough hours in the day to go out and see all the great comedy and live performances I would like. I also feel like a waste-oid. sitting in front of a screen for a half an hour to get a good laugh. …

Read more: http://upcoming.current.com/items/2665033_lady-parts-comedy-lost-at-e-minor-for-creative-people.htm#ixzz14ijn1qTC

Lost A E Minor November 6, 2010 | by Dave Mata

Twisted, offensive, hilarious. I can’t quite put my finger on where all these people must be coming from. It seems that the strongest thread between all of these hilarious shorts is an incredibly dark sense of humor.

I don’t have nearly enough hours in the day to go out and see all the great comedy and live performances I would like. I also feel like a waste-oid. sitting in front of a screen for a half an hour to get a good laugh. These weekly shorts are perfect for a quick, sick giggle.

Read More: http://www.lostateminor.com/2010/11/06/lady-parts-comedy/#more-44939

Read More: http://au.buzz.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AglJ2lKuIBRv0mbnDy4C.Em9m9dF?p=Lady+Parts+Comedy

Time Out Chicago / Issue 294 : Oct 14–20, 2010

A cool ten grand helps a local sketch group shoot its own Web show.

By Jason A. Heideman

“I wanted to fill a pool with $10,000 worth of Jell-O and swim in it.” That, says Justin Howard, a founding member of Chicago sketch-comedy troupe Lady Parts, was how he wanted to spend the $10K his group had won to produce its own Web series. Howard was serious, but fortunately Jeph Porter, the group’s writer, director and producer, had other plans. He used the money to rent a studio space and pay a film crew while the group spent two weeks banging out material. The result is nine ten-minute-long, finely polished sketch shows that will begin a weekly run at ladypartscomedy.com on Monday 18.

It’s the kind of early success that would make the city’s hundreds of other sketch groups green with envy. In the summer of 2009, filmmaker and Columbia College graduate Porter cofounded Lady Parts along with Howard and Dane Lewandowski, both of whom Porter had worked with on an experimental Web series called The Dirty Cricket Show. The trio added performers Aaron Alonso, Leslie Baird, Chelsie Jangord and Donna Morley. Next up: a suitable name. “I just needed a title that would get people’s attention,” Porter says. “Everybody likes Lady Parts.”

Without formal training but with an effusive passion for sketch staples like Monty Python, Mr. Show and Britain’s daffy Man Stroke Woman, Porter, 26, dashed off a handful of scenes. In September ’09, the group debuted the material to a sold-out audience at tiny Joone Studios in Wicker Park. Joone Studios co-owner Jayme Joyce suggested Porter apply for a contest sponsored by Web Entertainment Guide, an online source for Web programs; one winner would get $10,000 to produce its own show. “I filled out the form and completely forgot about the whole thing,” Porter says. In January, he was notified that Lady Parts was one of five finalists.

To win the voter-determined contest, Lady Parts spent spring 2010 vigorously campaigning. The performers convinced Gold Coast bar McFadden’s to let them set up their laptops and play clips; for four weeks, patrons watched the segments and cast their votes. WEG had partnered with Austin’s South by Southwest to unveil the winning team at the fest in March. “The night they were supposed to announce it, their server crashed, so we were all locked out from final voting,” Porter says. “They basically postponed the contest for a week.”

The cash prize came with few strings attached: The troupe had to use the funds to create a Web series (not, alas, a Jell-O pool), and it had to give WEG credit. Although Porter assumed WEG would want to play the finished product, the site hasn’t been updated since March. E-mails to WEG founder Michelle Mower by both Lady Parts and TOC have not been returned.

Still, the money paid off. Lady Parts is well produced and full of quirky gems: In one bit, two lovers exchange Valentine’s gifts. He gives her a dildo replica of his own penis. She’s not thrilled—but the reason is revealed by her gift to him: male-enhancement pills. The group scores another win with a recurring and fully improvised water-cooler segment featuring legendary performers TJ & Dave. They amusingly yak about everything from the merits of being related to the Heimlichs to guessing a coworker’s age.

At the end of the month, Porter will move to California in hopes of attracting the industry to Lady Parts and financing a second season or an episodic TV show. Howard jokes, “Jeph is going to move to L.A., get a fauxhawk, start hanging with Bret Michaels and probably get AIDS.” As a sketch, that would fit Lady Parts like a glove.

Read more: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/comedy/89790/lady-parts#ixzz14cNSEY9z

REEL Chicago | October 12th 2010

‘Lady Parts’ new season bows at GTT Oct. 13

Comedy sketch artist Leslie Baird of “Lady Parts”

Dirty Cricket Productions, which produces the “Lady Parts” live and online sketch comedy series, has partnered with Gorilla Tango Theater’s new financing arm to release the DVD of the show’s new first season.

Gorilla Tango Capital covered the budget for DVD production for the “Lady Parts” series, and will share any profits with Dirty Cricket after recouping its costs.

“Dan Abbete from GTT and I are using ‘Lady Parts’ as a test bed,” Lady Parts founder Jeph Porter says.

“I think it could be a new and very exciting thing for Chicago if GTT takes the model they’ve been successful with for live stage performances and exports it to film and video.”

In March, “Lady Parts” came in first place in an online vote to win a $10,000 prize, sponsored by Web Entertainment Guide and South by Southwest, toward the production of their online series.

The series’ first online season premieres in a 90-minute screening at Gorilla Tango Theater on Oct. 13 in advance of its online debut Monday, Oct. 18.

The “Lady Parts” team, featuring T.J. Jagodowski and David Pasquesi (center)

The nine 10-minute episodes will debut weekly. “Lady Parts” founder Jeph Porter promises that the series is “full of ‘Lady Parts’’ brand of shrill humor.”

The show features “Lady Parts” company members Justin Howard, Chelsie Jangord, Aaron Alonso, Donna Morley, Dane Lewandowski and Leslie Baird, with guests T.J. Jagodowski and David Pasquesi. Porter directs the show and produces it with Lewandowski, his partner in Dirty Cricket.

Lady Parts filmed 40 skits in July and August, on location and on the East Village soundstage of production partner Joone Studios.

“‘Lady Parts’’ mix of surreal and situational based comedy has gained us a large following online, with over 1,000 fans on our Facebook page in only four months,” Porters says. (It was 1,424 at press time.)

The “Lady Parts” premiere show screens Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. at Gorilla Tango Theater, 1919 N. Milwaukee Avenue. It’s free with one-drink minimum. Seeladypartscomedy.com. —Ed M. Koziarski

Read More: http://www.reelchicago.com/story.cfm?storyID=3022