Pop-Up Comedy

In early 2025, Mateo Garcia-Bryce ’26, Jackson Heller ’26 and Luca Hirsch ’26 bought 30 cheap lawn chairs and hauled them up to the attic of an off-campus three-story brick house on Pratt Court in Evanston. They hung multicolored string lights from the ceiling and put movie posters on the walls. 

The three housemates had been involved in stand-up and sketch comedy groups on campus, but they wanted to create “a space where anyone could try comedy regardless of experience,” says Garcia-Bryce. 

With the lawn chairs set up in a semicircle around a microphone and a cardboard banner announcing the space, they went all in on “the Prattic,” Hirsch says. 

“Our first show was in mid-February of 2025, and it was mostly just our friends, like 15 people,” says Garcia-Bryce. “Four or five weeks later we had 90 people up there.” 

For the next 16 months, every Monday night at 9:30, as many as 15 comedians — from first-timers to more seasoned stand-up acts — performed in the Prattic. Garcia-Bryce, Heller, Hirsch and others took turns hosting shows each week. The space, with its tight quarters and cathedral ceilings, was always part of the appeal. 

“A lot of comedy on campus is performed in big lecture halls,” says Hirsch. “And unless you’re able to bring out hundreds of people, it ends up being a lot of empty chairs. That’s really tough for comedy, which needs to be infectious.” 

Last spring, Hirsch, Heller and Garcia-Bryce organized Prattic Fringe Fest, a five-day comedy festival across venues in Chicago, Evanston and Wilmette, Ill. All proceeds benefited the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. 

The Prattic had its last show on June 8. During its run, over 105 people performed. Even though they’ve graduated and moved from Evanston, the founders hope the Prattic has inspired “other people to use their spaces in creative ways,” Heller says.