Improvised Musical Showcase at Chicago’s iO this Friday!

Pick a topic - any topic. Now, with a group of your friends, create a comedy sketch and a song to go with it. You have 1 minute. GO. Not the easiest task. It takes a special person with talent to accomplish such a goal... and have it be funny. Living in the city of Chicago, we have our pick of comedy troupes and clubs. We even have entire organizations dedicated to the craft, such as Second City and iO. With such a great pool of individuals out there willing to share their passion with audiences, don’t you think we deserve to laugh at them and with them?
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Chicago Band Map & Atlases at 1st A.V. Fest

Unless you’re some sort of magic snowman reading this blog in a Wi-Fi equipped freezer somewhere, you probably don’t want summer in Chicago to end. Part of the problem of losing the warm weather is it means we have to temporarily say goodbye to the gajillion music festivals that take place here. But before winter hits and the magic snowmen reclaim the streets, the pop-culture/entertainment website The A.V. Club is bringing us one more outdoor festival.

Rockit Ranch Productions and www.aChicagoThing.com win 4 Telly Awards with Billy Dec Avatar Social Media Anniversary Benefit Video!

What if my avatar literally came to life and spoke to people about a gigantic party to celebrate his 2nd birthday as the "person" behind all my social media platforms (facebook, twitter, blog..) that had been communicating with tens of thousands of people with similar interests for the last 2 years? And what if he explained in a really fun way that this huge party would benefit one of our favorite philanthropic missions, feeding people in need. Well, that was the crazy idea we came up with at Rockit Ranch Productions 6 months ago when we produced the attached video- we just never thought we would actually win awards for it!!??!
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The Savoy Ballroom – Chicago

Hey aChicagoThing.com readers...Caitlin Presberg here, Summer Intern for Rockit Ranch Productions. Walking down the streets of Chicago everyday can become a bit of a routine, when you travel down there...
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Growing Through Arts

How’s it going BillyDec.com readers? It’s Matt Kochis, one of Billy’s interns for the summer, here and ready to tell you guys about a great Chicago company called Growing Through Arts. Growing...
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DJ Nardo, Local DJ On The Rise

 I am eager to tell you about Chicago’s up and coming DJ, DJ Nardo. I know I always like to be the first to know what’s up on the music scene before everyone else, and Jordan Bernardo is on his way...
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Behind the Scenes with Billy Dec – 5 Radio Shows, a Live TV Show on ABC & a PSA all in 5 hours!

I woke up at 5am this morning for a BIG press day with Billy. We had to do 5 radio shows, a live tv show & a PSA all in 5 hours when he literally just stepped off a plane from France, Hungary, and Austria 12 hours prior. When he initially told me about how much press he wanted to do BEFORE he was live on Windy City Live- I thought it was absurd, but in all the time I have known him, I can say he pushes himself to work beyond what most people think is feasible. The main purpose behind all this press was to talk about two events that are the very important to him to support art & theatre in Chicago & raise scholarships for kids - The Madhatter's Ball & The Piven Theatre Gala.

Chicago Photographer Gino Baileau on the rise!

Hey fellow Chicagoans - Dana Ragazinskas from Billy Dec's office here! I’d like share with you this "up and coming" photographer that I dig -  even Perez Hilton has taken note! Gino Gusich, also...