THE WEATHER CREW ™
The Weather Crew ™ Comedy Hour, a live stage to stream weather comedy show in development in The Windy City!
In mid August 2024, after a five year hiatus, I returned to Chicago, Illinois, specifically Old Town to immerse myself into the sketch, improv and comedy scenes this region is well known for. It was a honed chapter turn within my life, an element within that had been on pause since middle and high school as I had focused my 20’s and 30’s working within broadcast television/radio weather, news, production, independent and international documentary films. I also spent 25 years pursuing atmospheric + geographic spectacles and scenery around the United States, Canada and Mexico.
An evolving mix!
During the pandemic in October 2020, while visiting New York City in an attempt to seek out apartments and apply for a writer position at Comedy Central, I conceived a sketch comedy video variety show concept on Instagram and TikTok called THE conflicted WEATHER CREW ™ in the Art House hotel on the Upper West Side. Those early social media video incarnations were silly, nor admittedly produced in the best taste. All characters were preformed by me via a series of wigs, voices and personas based on actual individuals I had previously worked with over the years in local and national television weather and news. A few months into 2021, those videos were deleted from the internet, and I gradually stepped away from most social media platforms as a delivery method. Those early concepts created in NYC led to further edits, rewrites and so on, nor did I eventually seek to play all of the characters. I needed a sketch comedy crew to build such a show and thus began the arduous process of show story boards, or story reels in my instance, and production planning. Such is life and the creative process for any artist.
By mid June 2024 the THE WEATHER CREW ™ had morphed from a 176 page memoir novella composed two years prior, with names changed for legal and ego reasons, into a 13 episodic streamer show intended to be pitched to NBC/Peacock. Then it clicked! During a friendly meeting at The Water Street Coffee Joint in Kalamazoo, Michigan with a seasoned improv comedy performer, my original concept then morphed into a proposed live “stage to video streamed” or “stream to stage” as it’s known now, sketch comedy variety show concept.
Now into January 2025, THE WEATHER CREW ™ comedy hour continues to evolve, albeit with a slight setback, please read ahead as to why. I continue to enjoy meeting other writers, directors, techies, actors, stand up comedians and occasional “not ready for prime time players” of all ages and backgrounds in Chicago, along with brief involvement with The Second City writing and improv classes. I have expanded that network to iO, The Annoyance and/or other scenes to ultimately find the right fit for this type of multimedia stage project. I have full confidence that it will work out, make people laugh and gel with the scenes of our modern era in time.
My intuition from Summer 2024 upon stepping foot and bicycle back onto The Windy City pavement was “this is exactly where I need to be at this moment in life” continues in full at present. Albeit this transition has been incredibly expensive as I moved here without any formal or immediate work lined up, entirely on true faith, good credit and drive, a complete risk. This is a professional project and career path I have always wanted to do in some capacity! While there is a lot of swagger involved in the process, with a team, a lot of work, planning and coordination, I believe that with a solid cast and tech, THE WEATHER CREW ™ comedy hour will be ready for a stage, remote segments, sponsored and internationally live streamed to audiences of all generations sometime after Labor Day 2025. That’s the idea at least! This all could easily flop in our present state of the “united” nation, but I have three back up plans nor will I disclose those here. Consider that a tease! Hey, it’s just another attempt at a comedy show to entertain the masses, right? There is so much creativity and talented individuals around Chicago that it’s personally inspiring to be even within a small element of this world, and I write that as a degreed meteorologist [geoscientist, technically] and executive producer whom has quickly gotten educated on the realities of embarking on such an endeavor.
An initial experimental test stage segment for The Weather Crew ™ called THE DOPPLER EFFECT, coined by another TSC creative, was preformed and recorded on video at The de Maat Theatre within The Second City on 25 January 2025. That segment has evolved into something entirely different on YouTube and will continue to do so. Please note that after recording the initial “stage” test video at The Second City of which has since been deleted by personal choice, the original team of inbound writers/actors are unfortunately no longer involved. Fortunately new writers and actors have joined up per mid March. Such is the evolving mix of theatrical productions in general and I’m learning the ropes as this progresses.
To note formally here, per 31 January 2025, it was mutually agreed upon by directors at The Second City that I was “not the right fit” nor was THE WEATHER CREW ™ comedy show for that particular venue. I humbly agreed. Albeit this was a setback, there are other solutions to the equation. For the most part, I did enjoy the brief time had as a writing and improv student for the past six months, as being involved at The Second City was a decades long goal, yet clearly it wasn’t all that it was “punched up” to be. Ah well, I exited stage left and life goes on. Development continues for the stage to stream show production and ultimately the show, whatever it becomes here in The Windy City and beyond.
Stay alert for further updates here in the gradually developing situational weather comedy!
All the best,
Blake
Original Post: 13 January 2025
Edited Post: 18 March 2025
Old Town Chicago, Illinois
