Tagged billy dec

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.

10 years ago my buddies David Schwimmer & Joey Slotnick were looking for new ways to raise money and awareness for their non profit theatre group Lookingglass to build their first home in the Historic Water Tower Pumping Station on Michigan Avenue. I strongly felt their was an active, art/theatre loving, socially conscious & supportive younger demographic in Chicago that would love to get behind it so I founded the Lookingglass Theatre's Junior Board and kicked it all off with a giant 1000 person event called the Madhatter's Ball that David, Joey & I hosted that was a huge success!

This video of Jeremy Piven & I on set of HBO's "Entourage" is not only funny, but explains what kind of work we have been doing to raise money for children's art & theatre scholarships for about 10 years now- check it out (its from last season, so event info for this year is updated below!). Actors out of Chicago like John & Joan Cusack, Kate Walsh, Aidan Quinn… Have all benefited from the same classes (I'm giving away a classes below!) and have hosted the same events with us over the years (giving away some afterparty tix below!) and I look forward to seeing who will make it big out of there next!

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, but when it comes to fashion and designers, I think we’re right up there with the “big boys” in L.A. and N.Y.C.! We know how talented Chicago...

Recently, I came across this huge teal van with about 25 customers waiting in line for it. Like anyone, this peaked my interest and I began asking what this line was for. The group of people told me it was for Flirty Cupcakes- a local Chicago company. I’m not going to lie, this was the first time I’ve heard of Flirty Cupcakes. With a long line such as this waiting for just a cupcake, I felt like I just had to try them to see what the hype was about. A good ol’ 15 minutes passed waiting in line for these cupcakes, but I finally received a delectable Flirtini cupcake and I fell in love. I’m talking about the moist cake melting away in my mouth, the smooth flavorful frosting, the wrapping, the decoration- it was a package deal and they sold it!

The Make A Wish Foundation of Illinois is celebrating their 25th Anniversary of their Gala the "Wish Ball" this Saturday May 21st by honoring 25 people and organizations that they have deemed "Leaders In...

Shocking title I know - someone who beat me to the paper just texted it to me! Just wanted to confirm its true and that I couldn’t be more excited! Although I'm sad to see Oprah leave on the 25th, I'm...

Many who follow me on Twitter & Facebook ask me how I navigated my culinary research and development tour through South East Asia last month so I thought I would feature one of the companies that...

I laughed yesterday when I tweeted that I was going to be a guest talking about Social Media in Business on a new live show with Cardinal Francis George & Second City, knowing that immediately...

Big congrats to my good buddy, and Chicago native, Joe Mantegna who will be forever immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this Friday April 29th! I've not only had the pleasure of interviewing Joe about his deep love for Chicago in this Olympic video above, but through dinner with him & his wife, visits to his set, time with his fam, phone calls, tweets (haha)… I have not only come to understand that he is an outstanding actor, producer, and writer… But I have found him to be one of the most interesting, honorable, sweet, smart, passionate, cool… human beings I've ever met.. And I mean that.