Boom Chicago


Boom Chicago is an international creative group based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 23, 2020 New York that writes and performs sketch and improvisational comedy at their theater on the Rozengracht.
The group performs their own shows and hosts visiting comedians at their venue on the Rozengracht. The complex with three theaters also houses Boom Chicago for Business, the Boom Chicago Academy and InterActing, their program for teenagers with autism.
Over their thirty plus year history, Boom Chicago has examined a range of subjects including privacy, the role of technology, creation of the EU, the extreme right, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, 9/11, social media, the gig economy, and AI.
Comedy Central News, a news show that ran on the Dutch Comedy Central TV channel, was created by Boom Chicago.
The group is currently owned by Andrew Moskos, Pep Rosenfeld and Saskia Maas.

History

1993: Andrew Moskos, Pep Rosenfeld and Ken Schaefle open Boom Chicago, naming it after their hometown. The first venue is at the Iboya, Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 41, with 85 seats. Saskia Maas joins the company.
1994: The group moves to the 180-seat Studio 100 on Lijnbaansgracht 238.
1998: The group moves into the 270-seat Leidseplein Theater. Boom Chicago renovates the theater, adding a kitchen, bar, and rock show sound and lighting. Ken Schaefle leaves the group and Saskia Maas becomes CEO.
2000: Boom Chicago hires their first video director, Jamie Wright, and introduces multimedia to the shows. Cameras are fitted in the theater and green screen studios and live internet were introduced.
2002: Comedy Swap with The Second City in Chicago. The main stage casts of The Second City and Boom Chicago perform on each other's stages in each other's cities. This was the first time a visiting comedy group plays on Second City's mainstage. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele famously meet and would become Key and Peele.
2004: Boom Chicago Video Productions launches. Boom Chicago release the , where an American citizen tries to vote for Kerry, but the rigged machine only allows him to vote for George Bush.
2006: The show Me, MySpace and iPod opens. In addition, Boom Chicago releases their first internet and mobile shows Full Frontal News and Slacker Fantasy Football . The Unlikely Fan, a daily video series about the FIFA World Cup, is featured on MSN.
2007: Comedy Central Netherlands launches "Comedy Central News". "Highly Dubious News" shines at MIPCOM. "SpongeBob SquarePants in China" goes viral on YouTube, sparking political controversy.
2008: 15 year anniversary, April 24. CCN returns as a weekly show in April on Comedy Central.
2009: Yankee Come Back opens the City of Amsterdam's 400 Year celebration of the Dutch settlement of New York. During autumn, coinciding with New York's celebration, the group performs Holland Globetrotters at the New Island Festival, a coproduction of de Parade, Oerol and the Netherlands Theater Institute.
2010: Dutch pollster Maurice de Hond makes his on-stage comedy debut in Political Party. With Pep Rosenfeld, Greg Shapiro and director Andrew Moskos he creates a show that combines politics, political discussion and A-list politicians who also perform in comedy scenes.
2011: The Leidseplein Theater becomes the Chicago Social Club. Together with Casper Reinders and Pieter de Koning and Joris Bakker, the venue undergoes a thorough upgrade and increases its club programming.
2012: Pep Rosenfeld speaks at TEDx Amsterdam: "Fight, Flight or Be Funny" and hosts TEDx Binnenhof where he makes fun of Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima, who are in the audience. Saskia Maas speaks at TEDx Education.
2013: Boom Chicago moves from the Leidseplein to the Rozentheater, where they celebrate 20 years in Amsterdam with a show, The 7 Deadly Dutch Sins. The Chicago Social Club continues at Leidseplein.
2013: Nightmare on the Rozengracht runs during October, a 30-minute walk-through haunted house and pop up bar for adults.
2014: To promote What's Up With Those Beards?, Boom Chicago attempts to break the Guinness Book of World Records for most beards in one room. They only break the Dutch record.
2016: For the first ever Dutch Correspondents' Dinner, Boom Chicago's Andrew Moskos and Wilko Terwijn help write the comedy speech for and coach Prime Minister Rutte. Boom Chicago performs a show called Angry White Men: Trump Up the Volume.
2017: Angry White Men: Trump Up the Volume '' becomes one of the longest running shows at Boom Chicago. Boom Chicago renovates their second theatre and launches The Upstairs Theater. Sunday Night Live take residency there and marks the return of long form improv to Boom Chicago. Pep Rosenfeld, Greg Shapiro, and director Andrew Moskos present The Year in Search, a video in partnership with Google.
2018: Andrew Moskos takes over as artistic director. The 25th anniversary show Bango! opens in May, starring Tamar Broadbent, Karel Ebergen, Simon Lukacs, Rhys Collier, Cene Hale, Emil Struijker-Boudier, Sacha Hoedemaker and directed by Andrew Moskos. The 25th anniversary year peaks on July 14 with two shows at Carré and the release of their book, The 25 Most Important Years in Dutch History. The Boom Chicago Academy begins teaching improvisation to the next generation.Escape Through the Movies, an escape room experience, opens at the Rozentheater. Saskia Maas launches InterActing, Boom Chicago's program for teenagers with autism.
2019: Boom Chicago performs The Future is Here...And it's Slightly Annoying!. The show includes programming a robot to improvise with the cast onstage using machine learning. Boom Chicago partners with American beer brand Budweiser, and the Rozentheater is a launch location for AB InBev's introduction of Budweiser in the Netherlands.
2020: Boom Chicago produces six episodes of live comedy shows. It raises more than €10.000 in ticket sales for the actors and crew. Later in June, Boom Chicago plays at live festival HEMtuin. Boom Chicago also expands into digital corporate shows.
2021: Boom Chicago creates and launches a new curriculum for The Boom Chicago Academy and launches house teams.
2021: The first Boom Chicago Comedy Festival launches. Alumni Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Kay Cannon, Colton Dunn, Josh Meyers, Ike Barinholtz and Brendan Hunt give live Q&A interviews. Arjen Lubach reunites with his old improv group Op Sterk Water. They and Shantira Jackson & Stacey Smith win the first two Bud Kings of Comedy Prizes for best festival shows.
2022: After shooting a week in Amsterdam with Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt retake the Boom stage at the Shot of Improv and closing night party.
2022: Stacey Smith takes over as artistic director.
2022: Pep Rosenfeld and Greg Shapiro are joined by Stacey Smith, Emil Struijker-Boudier and Sacha Hoedemaker to create a show called Pep & Greg Save America.
2023: Boom Chicago's 30th anniversary festival drops, including multiple performances at the Tuschinksi by Seth Meyers and Brendan Hunt. Brendan remounted his 2006 hit Five Years in Amsterdam and also performed the world premiere of The Movement You Need. Other performers included Amber Ruffin, Heather Anne Campbell, Arjen Lubach, Ruben van der Meer, year one cast member Neil McNamara, and Mayor Femke Halsema.
2023: In America, Akashic Books published Boom Chicago Presents The Thirty Most Important Years in Dutch History, an oral history of the comedy club. The New York Times does a feature.
2024: Boom Chicago takes over Comedy Embassy and begins programming late night stand-up comedy on Fridays. A year later they added a second show on Saturday nights.
2025: Pep Rosenfeld writes Work/Laugh Balance which is published in English and Dutch versions.. Shot of Improv gets revamped and moves to Wednesdays to reach a younger audience. Boom hosts quirky nights combining Professional wrestling and comedy and hosts Gone Country, a line dancing night.
2025: Boom Chicago creates and performs Boom Boom Boom Boom Chicago about Harder Styles at Defqon 1, one of the biggest festivals of the Netherlands. They perform 15 shows. in a custom-built thearer
2026: 60 Minutes, the iconic American news magazine, does an in depth piece on Boom Chicago which airs in December.

Notable alumni

was a member of Boom Chicago in the late 1990s. He wrote, directed and starred in Boom productions in Amsterdam, Chicago, London, Singapore and Edinburgh.
Oscar winner Jordan Peele created many shows at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Key met Peele in 2002 at the Boom Chicago-Second City stage swap.
Ted Lasso was created by three Boom Chicago alumni: Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly. They created, wrote, starred in, and directed the series. Their new Ted Lasso series begins in 2026-7.
Amber Ruffin is a writer/performer for Late Night with Seth Meyers and hostedThe Amber Ruffin Show). She is also a writer-performer on the American version of Have I Got News For you. In addition to her TV fame, Amber wrote two books on race in America.
Ike Barinholtz stars in, writes and produces movies and TV shows. Recently he starred in The Studio, with Seth Rogan which was nominated and won many awards. Ike himself won the Critics Choice Award for his role in 2026. Other productions include Running Point, History of the World, Part II, Mindy Project, ''Suicide Squad, and Bad Neighbors. He also won the Celebrity Jeopardy championship in 2023, and donated his million dollar prize to his charity.
Kay Cannon wrote for many film and TV shows, including the Pitch Perfect films. She directed a Boom-filled cast in Blockers and wrote and directed a re-imagining of Cinderella for Sony in 2021.
Tami Sagher was a writer-producer for Orange is the New Black. She also writes and stars in TV shows like Inside Amy Schumer, 30 Rock, Broad City, and the film Don't Think Twice. She was a writer-executive producer on the Hulu series Shrill.
Colton Dunn starred in the NBC sitcom Superstore during its six-year run. He wrote many scenes on Key & Peele. He was also the chauffeur in Blockers.
Heather Ann Campbell, is an executive producer and writer for Rick and Morty, creating many of their most iconic episodes. Earlier she wrote for Saturday Night Live and was a cast member of Whose Line is it Anyway? She has appeared any many other TV shows and is one of the hosts of the podcast Get Played!
Josh Meyers is co-creator of the Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers podcast and is the host of the Visit California Podcast. He plays Governor Gavin Newsom on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Earlier he starred with Paul Rubens on Broadway in Pee Wees Playhouse and in the accompanying HBO special.
Other alumni include Dan Oster, Liz Cackowski, Allison Silverman, Pete Grosz, Matt Jones, Suzi Barrett, Jessica Lowe, E.R. Fightmaster, Ally Beardsley and Carl Tart.
The British mockumentary Borderline was created by Mike Orton-Toliver, and directed by Matt Jones. Greg Shapiro was Boom Chicago's anchorman on CCN, Comedy Central News and played Donald Trump in the video America First, The Netherlands Second.
On Broadway, Pete Grosz performed in Good Night, Oscar. Nicole Parker starred with Martin Short in Fame Becomes Me in 2009 and in Wicked in 2010. Tarik Davis performed in Freestyle Love Supreme from 2019 to 2022. Spencer Kayden co-created and starred in Urinetown in the 1990s and was nominated for a 2012 Tony award in Don't Dress for Dinner. In 2006–2007, Lisa Jolley appeared in Hairspray''.