As George Elrod rose through the ranks of Chicago's comedy scene over the past decade, he created countless characters in improv and sketches.
"There was one that my parents absolutely hated," said Elrod, a member of the Second City touring company now playing at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
Their son's frank, fearless gayness isn't what bothered his folks, said Elrod, who was raised in Arkansas. 'It was the idea of bestiality.'"
"I'd come on and start talking about how my ex-husband was a such a pig, and what it was like being in a relationship with him, having sex with him. And then I'd bring a boar's head on stage."
Elrod, who was raised in Arkansas, said, "My mother is a former ballet instructor turned English teacher, which is pretty much a gay boy's dream. And my father has always been very liberal too, a real sweater vest kind of dad."
Asked whether he was out during his teen years in Little Rock, the epicene Elrod, whose clean-scrubbed looks evoke the Young Men's Briefs page of a vintage Sears catalog, replied, "Sure was! I came out in my freshman year and am proud to say I was the first gay class president of Little Rock Central High. Class of 2013!"
Early influences
Elrod names John Early and Julio Torres as gay comedians he particularly enjoys today. But growing up in the 2000s, he says his comedy icons were primarily women.
"I loved watching Amy Poehler and Tina Fey when they were on 'Saturday Night Live.' That whole Sarah Palin era was so zeitgeisty. I gravitated to women as friends, too. We had a little group that ate together, which we called The First Lunch Crew, and we all had some kind of marginalized identity. One was the only Jewish person I knew in our school, and another was Indian.
"They both live in the Bay Area now, and so does my first girlfriend. We're trying to plan a reunion while I'm out there."
During high school, Elrod took extracurricular theater classes at the Arkansas Art Center, eventually joining Armadillo Rodeo, a professionally directed teen improv group which occasionally traveled to Chicago for competitions.
There, he was introduced to the nationally renowned local improv scene, centered around venues including the iO Theatre, Annoyance Theatre, and most prominently The Second City.
"I remember Aidy Bryant being in the first Second City show I ever saw live," said Elrod.
By Elrod's junior year of high school, Bryant was in the cast of "SNL," and he was intent on making his own way to Second City.
Chicago and the road
Elrod enrolled at Chicago's DePaul University and began taking classes and workshops at the leading improv institutions while an undergraduate (He was also on college improv team, The Cosby Sweaters).
After graduating, Elrod started performing regularly on city stages. In 2018 got a gig as a writer and cast member of "Not Safe for Werk," Second City's first-ever all-LGBTQIA revue.
Over time, he's developed an array of cheerfully queer-coded characters, including a hip-wiggling Bible school teacher, a flamboyant florist, and a brilliant Bowen Yangesque anthromorph, "The Personification of Ribbon."
For the past two years, Elrod has been touring with one of Second City's three traveling casts, playing both extended residencies like the Berkeley Rep run and one-night engagements.
"In a slower month," Elrod says, "We might do as few as four shows. But when it's busy, especially during the holiday season, it gets up to 25 or 30 shows monthly."
Having collaborated with many performers over the years, Elrod describes the cast he's playing with in Berkeley as "my apex ensemble."
"We're so comfortable with each other as performers, and we also travel well together. Everyone is such a sweetheart."
Elrod's fellow cast member, Annie Sullivan, also identifies as queer, as does music director, Michael Oldham, who travels with the show. His boyfriend of four and a half years, a fellow Chicagoan who works in advertising, will fly out for several days of the run.
"We're going to be running wild all over town in Berkeley and San Francisco," said Elrod.
Elrod is excited about some of the new material he and his castmates have developed for Berkeley.
"We always try to do some research and come up with some ideas that are specific to the place we're performing, especially when we're doing a longer run, like this one. We've got a character who's a Berkeley student with two uncles in San Francisco. There's plenty of tech stuff. And there will definitely be a self-driving car in the show!"
'The Best of The Second City,' through July 28. $20-$74. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison St. www.berkeleyrep.org
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