In the summer of 1996, things were going great for the sketch comedy troupe Ectomorph. Its members–Bart Heird, Darren Bodeker, and Jim Kopsian–were regulars at the Improv nightclub, performing to enthusiastic crowds of up to 500 a night. Their rise to fame and fortune seemed assured.
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The group disbanded not long after, but last year Ectomorph came roaring back with a vengeance. The troupe was a featured act at the Chicago Improv Festival in April and last month at the Surf Reality Comedy Festival in New York. They’ve just completed an appearance at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Chelsea and an eight-week run of Ectomorph’s Vaudevillenium, a collection of old and new sketches, at Donny’s Skybox Studio in Piper’s Alley. They’ll be reprising portions of that show this Saturday night as part of the Chicago Comedy Festival.
An Ectomorph show immediately transports the audience into an absurd world. The group takes the stage to the strains of Verdi’s La forza del destino, and each member moves his arms mechanically and makes faces in time to the music. Gradually their gestures turn into menacing gang-style signals. Over the next 75 minutes, they portray a wide variety of situations and characters: from CTA passengers trapped amid the madness of unintelligible squawking announcements to a perverse children’s show centering on horrific tales inappropriate for any age.
Once the three agreed to join forces, the name Ectomorph came with surprising ease (it was also better than the runner-up: Moist Snout Parade). “The reason I picked Ectomorph is that of the three body types–ecto, endo, and meso–ecto is the tall, thin body type,” says Kopsian. “At the time, we were all over six feet tall and relatively thin, because Bart was a lot more svelte in those days.”
Though the evening had sold out, it ended sadly. Someone they’d hired disappeared with the master tapes, never to be seen again. Faced with two disappointments in quick succession, they called it quits and tried to find regular jobs. Bodeker waited tables between stand-up gigs, and Heird started his own Web design business. “I got a job with the archdiocese of Chicago in their archives division,” Kopsian recalls. “I was in charge of maintaining the permanent records of students from all the Catholic schools that had been closed down, and I found Bart’s record and sent it to him.”
Ectomorph performs at 8 PM Saturday at the Second City, Donny’s Skybox Studio, Piper’s Alley, 1608 N. Wells (fourth floor). Japanese comedian Zen opens. Admission is $12; call 312-944-2200. For more on the Chicago Comedy Festival, see the sidebar in Section Three. –Carl Kozlowski
