Nate Craig Wraps up 2022 at Laughing Tap

×

Expand

Photo courtesy Nate Craig - natecraig.com

Nate Craig

Nate Craig

If you’ve never thought of New Year's Eve as a good time to recycle, you may not be a comedian. 

“New Year’s Eve is a good time to break out all the topical bits from the last year, bits that had a shelf life of a week or two,” stand-up comic Nate Craig explains how he gets extended use from material he would likely otherwise discard as Earth approaches another trip around the sun. “On a night like that, or even shows leading up to it, it can be a good excuse to go back over whatever ridiculous news stories happened.”

Craig is set to regale revelers with reminiscences over the ridiculousness of 2022 and his wry observations on other topics to cap off the year at The Laughing Tap (706B S. Fifth St.). He will headline four shows over the course of the three days before the start of 2023, from Thursday December 28 to Saturday December 31. 

“Some comics hate it,” Craig says of being a year-end entertainer. Sharing a major change in the calendar with a likely rowdy crowd has its perks, however. “The money is better, so that’s the consideration,” he offers after playing numerous New Year’s Eves at Chicago comedy club Zanie’s. But ...

“It’s not really a good time to go trying out new stuff,” Craig continues “since it tends to be more of a night-out vibe. More tourists. By that I mean just people that might not ever go to comedy, but since it’s New Year's Eve, they want to go out and do something special; but maybe they didn’t like any of the bands in town that night.”

Less Seriously?

Referencing COVID-19 and the post-masking, still anxious environment, “Nothing has changed as far as what's funny," Craig declares. “If anything,” he observes of how things have changed his last Shepherd Express interview in 2019, “I think people are starting to take themselves less seriously. For a while it was the opposite, and then I think things came to a head during the last couple years. Everyone is seeing how unpleasant people can be, and I feel like comedy shows have become a bit more of a relaxed place to be. At least at comedy clubs.”

If relaxation isn't a priority for comedy lovers, Craig proposes another benefit to seeing his act in late December, 

“I’m good luck. You want to have a good 2023? Come see me do comedy, and it’s a lock.”

From a few years ago, here Craig takes certain exercise and meditation regimens to task and turns on an interrupter who attempts to append his work ...