Chicago

Opening its doors in 1979, the World Famous Laugh Factory has been recognized as "the #1 comedy club in the country" by such high-profile media as USA Today. With southern California locations in Hollywood (its original Sunset Boulevard locale) and Long Beach (opened in 2008), comedy's top stars, as well as today's brightest emerging talent, shine on its legendary stage.

The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise, best known as the first ever on-going improvisational theater troupe based in Chicago. It also has programs that run out of Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the world.

The Annoyance Theatre, or Annoyance Productions as it is sometimes called, is a theatre and associated ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois, that deals mainly in absurd and outrageous humor. Many people who have performed with the ensemble have gone on to become successful stage and screen actors. Popular productions have included Co-Ed Prison Sluts and That Darned Antichrist.