In addition to building his career as a public radio producer (a job he's held for the past 13 years), Justin Kaufmann spends a hearty chunk of his time reigning over his comedy troupe's
online empire. Blogging as himself as well as four fictional characters (who appear in Schadenfreude's sketches), Justin has ample opportunity to do what he loves best: shoot the shit about Chicago politics, news, sports, general current events and anything that directly or indirectly pertains to him and his comedy cohorts.
If you find yourself laughing out loud or forwarding an entry to a friend, you might be happy to hear that there's an awful lot more where that came from, though you'll have to pull yourself away from your computer. Justin and crew perform monthly at Bucktown's Gallery Cabaret, with occasional guest appearances by folks like Eric Zorn, Steve Edwards and Susan Messing. Because "it's fun as hell to do," says Justin.
What's the gist of your blog?
I am fifteen minutes ahead of my time. That's what I was gonna name it. I'm a local writer entertaining his local audience. I feel I can be as relevant to an audience as a Chicago Tribune columnist can be. I'm just trying to make it funny. And I can swear.
If I read your blog today, gimme one thing I'd learn.
You'd learn that I once met Leon Penneta. You'd learn that I'm paying attention. I don't know. You'd learn that the Cubs suck. You'd learn that somewhere along the line someone told me something they shouldn't have, and I put in it the blog. You'd learn that certain mundane people in Chicago look like funny celebrities. You'd learn that Judy Baar Topinka actually looks like Ronald McDonald. Or that Bob Seurat looks like a parrot. That Dick Kay looks like Mr. Food.
My computer is surrounded by...
Pictures of my wife that she made for me so I don't forget her; a Kinder Egg from Germany; an unusable microphone; some unusable headphones; an empty wrapper of those new Quakers cookies; a Time Out Chicago from March; a Red Eye from March; a couple speakers; a copy of the Heckler, that Cubs parody magazine, from January; a couple of DAT tapes; and my favorite, John Stossel's new book...called Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity. At home, my wife Julie is very anal, so I don't have lots of things loose. A couple of pictures.
How do you pay the bills?
I am the senior content developer at chi pub radio. I run the web site. Right now my job is jack of all trades. I used to be senior producer.
When you aren't loving blogging, you're loving BLANK in Chicago.
I love exploring neighborhoods. That's something my wife and I do a lot. So one is hanging out in cool Chicago neighborhoods. And two is trying to take in every piece of Mayor Daley press conferences every time I can. I love watching Chicago politics. It's really fun to be in a big city and have this tremendous population and tremendous income and expectations and then have these politicians that just aren't polished. Even Bush [in a way] is polished, but Daley...It's fun as hell. And I'd play softball if anyone would invite me to play.
Name a local blogger extraordinaire.
Eric Zorn. He's such a damn good writer. He's really good at it because he's been a columnist for so many years. He's done a tremendous amount of work for bloggers in Chicago because there was no audience for it a few years back. Eric was pushing the envelope and made blogs palatable for Chicago Tribune's online user...He's like Johnny Carson. When he calls you out on his blog, he's calling you over to the table [because] he likes your routine. That's the nod. That's Johnny Carson saying 'Come on over to the table.'
Jessica Herman likes peeking into other folks' lives, which sure helps when she's grilling hip Chicago bloggers. If you'd like to shower a little love on a local blogger whose antics and anecdotes are your favorite flavor of procrastination, shoot her an email.
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