20×2 Chicago: How Do You Do?

Just outside Schubas, prior to heading in for 20×2 Chicago. Though I’ve seen several types of performances here, my brain still associates the venue with music and bands. And the idea of taking the stage here always gets me a little giddy, as a result.

Speaker list! My preference is always to go earlier, if at all possible. I’m always nervous prior to speaking, and find it difficult to concentrate on the event. Once I’m done, the nervousness falls away and I’m able to enjoy the show/presenters.

My talk was about the first time I met my wife, Liz. I’ll avoid recapping the thing, and will post up a recap when (hopefully) a video surfaces. Suffice it to say it was a silly story, and (very quickly) traced our lives from meeting to wedding to now.

There was a lot I had to drop from the talk, to fit the 2 minute requirement. It was quite challenging.

A bit of trivia: there were 3 people with me the night I met my wife: Justin, Will, and Shirley (aka The Muffin Lady). Small world.

View of the crowd, from the stage steps.

The evening’s organizer and host: Andrew Huff.

To date, this was by far the most amazing opening act for 20×2 I’ve ever seen. Jeff Solin had a camera positioned above a small stool, which projected a view of his hand onto the main screen.

As the crowd watched on, he slowly began to turn his hand 45 degrees, then 90 degrees, then more… and everyone started screaming. It all happened incredibly quickly, and Jeff’s hand and arm just kept on twisting and twisting.

Everyone was in an uproar, and the energy level went through the roof. Can’t wait for the video to see this segment again.

Brandy Agerbeck made a giant-sized origami fortune teller, and got the audience participating in her talk by asking them to pick numbers and colors.

Gaylon Alcaraz told the crowd that a lot of people ask her about her exercising habits… but no one really asks her about how she planks. And then she proceeded to show everyone her moves, right there on stage!

Mike Ewing did a great bit on the movie Roadhouse, comparing the wisdom of Dalton (played by Patrick Swayze) to Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

Jayson Brooks (from JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound) gave a strong performance on ex’s and love, which I really can’t do justice to in words. Suffice it to say it started softly and slowly, and really built up – and was a great way to end the event. Really can’t wait to see the video from the evening’s performances – there are so many I want to watch over again!

Sadly, I’m not able to do a full recap of everyone’s performance as I was still struggling with a bit of sleep dep and discomfort that night.
Suffice it to say there were many great presenters, and it was a lot of fun to be part of the evening. Lots of super funny and talented folks on that stage.

If you missed it, you should definitely come check out the next event in April. And if you were there in the audience and are thinking about being a presenter… I say do it! Consider dropping a note to @20x2Chi.

Related:
20×2 Chicago: Where Are We?
20×2 Chicago: How Could You?