By Nuha Abdessalam
Villager Contributor
The Beverly Area Planning Association has found plenty of ways to bring neighbors together over the years.
This time, it’s trying stand-up.
BAPA’s first Laugh Where You Live Night of Comedy sold out quickly, with four Chicago comedians headed to the Vineyard at Barraco’s on Oct. 15.
Two of them are coming home.
Headlining the show are Beverly/Morgan Park natives Maggie Winters and Matty Ryan will perform alongside Jeanie Doogan and Sohrab Forouzesh.
“Chicago is known for its comedy, so it is great to have such an amazing lineup of comics right here in our neighborhood,” BAPA Community Relations Director Michele McGuire said.
McGuire said she has known Winters and Ryan for years and knew she wanted to reach out to them first. They pointed her toward Doogan and Forouzesh.
“We are so happy that this first comedy night sold out so quickly,” McGuire said. “We will definitely do more events like this and we will plan for bigger crowds now that we know how much of a draw it is.”
Matty Ryan
Ryan has performed in Beverly/Morgan Park plenty of times over the past decade.
That doesn’t make it easier.
He said performing close to home makes him more nervous than shows elsewhere because he knows so many people in the crowd.
At one Cork & Kerry show, Ryan met a second cousin he had never met before.
“This is how Beverly works,” Ryan said. “It’s like always maybe one to two degrees of separation max. And then by three degrees you’re related.”
Ryan grew up in Beverly/Morgan Park and attended Brother Rice, where he started taking improv classes at Second City on Saturday afternoons.
He eventually moved from improv into stand-up, although he kept his first attempt a secret.
While bartending in the South Loop, Ryan borrowed a friend’s car and said he had to run home.
Instead, he drove to an open mic.
“I didn’t tell anybody for months,” Ryan said.
Maggie Winters
Winters has her own early Beverly/Morgan Park performances to remember.
Growing up, she participated in theater and the Beverly Arts Center’s theater program.
At home, she made her parents watch her put on one-woman shows in their living room.
“It makes sense that I’m still doing this now,” Winters said.
She originally thought improv would be her path into comedy. Winters trained at iO and Second City before eventually trying stand-up through FemCom at the Lincoln Lodge.
An early opportunity came when she was asked to open for Colin Jost at the University of Illinois.
“I don’t really think I was ready,” Winters said. “But I said yes, because why wouldn’t I?”
‘A Million People in Common’
Winters and Ryan may both be Beverly/Morgan Park natives, but they didn’t know each other growing up.
Ryan knew Winters’ older brother Liam from Brother Rice. Winters said she didn’t meet Ryan until she started doing stand-up, when people kept asking whether she knew the other comedian from Beverly/Morgan Park.
Once they met, the connections started appearing.
“We had a million people we knew in common,” Winters said.
The two have since performed together and had talked about finding a place to do something bigger in the neighborhood.
Then BAPA came calling.
Winters said McGuire, whom she knew from high school, reached out about the comedy night.
“I was so excited,” Winters said. “I get a lot of people who are like, ‘When are you going to do a show in the neighborhood?’”
Winters now lives in Beverly/Morgan Park again after spending more time on the road for comedy.
She describes her comedy as “kind of girly,” with “very South Side energy,” pulling from her day-to-day life, her family and being a comedian in her 30s living back at home while pursuing her career.
“Between me and Matty, they’re going to get the girl and the boy South Side comedy,” Winters said.
Then she added a warning.
“You can pick which one you like better,” Winters said. “No, don’t pick.”
Jeanie Doogan
Doogan brings another South Side connection to the lineup.
The youngest of eight children, she grew up on Chicago’s South Side and spent 20 years as a public school teacher. Doogan has said she first tried stand-up after a particularly difficult year of teaching, taking a comedy class with plans to perform just once. She ended up sticking with it.
Teaching and parenthood became part of her material, and she has performed at Chicago clubs including Zanies, Laugh Factory and Comedy Bar.
Sohrab Forouzesh
Forouzesh is a Chicago comedian and writer who moved to the United States from Iran when he was 8.
In 2024, PBS’s Independent Lens followed Forouzesh as he prepared to headline Zanies in Chicago. The episode followed him checking ticket sales as the show approached, with the night eventually selling out.
Forouzesh has said comedy gave him an escape when he was young and that making people laugh became something he realized he was good at.
Saxophonist Trav P will provide music during the night.
BAPA’s Night of Comedy begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Vineyard at Barraco’s, 2121 W. 95th St. The 21-and-over event is sold out, with a waitlist available.
