While visiting Amsterdam a couple decades ago, two young Chicagoans—Andrew Moskos and Pep Rosenfeld—proceeded to do what most young American tourists do in the nation’s capital: they went to a coffee shop to get stoned. The year was 1992, the coffee shop may or may not have been Rookies (their memories were mildly impaired), and the idea was simple: move to Amsterdam and start a comedy club.

In what they call “the greatest stoner idea ever,” they laid the foundation for what would become Boom Chicago. And despite naysayers from the tourist board to city officials saying it would never work—“who in Holland wants to hear English-language comedy?”—this year Boom Chicago celebrates its 30^th anniversary with the help of some of its illustrious alumni, including Brendan Hunt, co-creator and star of Ted Lasso, late night talk show host Seth Myers and comedian Amber Ruffin.

“Ted Lasso would not exist if Andrew and Pep hadn’t gotten high at Rookies and decided to move to Amsterdam,” Brendan Hunt has said. His recent sold-out performance at the Tuschinski theatre—one of two weeks of Boom Chicago anniversary events this month—was part roast, part panegyric to his five years living in Amsterdam in the early 2000s.

That’s where he met another up-and-coming comedian and Boom Chicago cast member, Jason Sudeikis, and the two began a lifelong love affair with football, Ajax specifically, that later morphed into the series featuring the titular Ted Lasso as an American who moves to Britain to coach a football team despite knowing little about the sport.

Comedic Silk Road

“There was a normal path for comedians to take before Boom Chicago,” says Saskia Maas, co-founder and CEO of Boom Chicago, wife of Moskos and who Sudekis calls one of his mentors. “You took improv classes in Chicago, went on to The Second City [Chicago’s improvisational theatre troupe] and then to Saturday Night Live. In the beginning, people were reluctant to play here because it was out of the sights of scouts.”

But in 1996, Boom Chicago auditioned in Chicago and hired Seth Meyers. The company took his and Jill Benjamin’s “Pick-ups and Hiccups” show on the road, where a Saturday Night Live scout saw him. He was hired by the show in 2000.

“All the sudden, you could go to Amsterdam and be hired,” says Maas. “Something was going on here. And I know why. Dutch audiences are more sceptical than American ones. They’re harder to win over. You can fail here. Comedy is all about making the miles. There are no breakthroughs in Amsterdam, it happens when they get back. But it’s good to have Boom Chicago on your resume. We’re a good training ground. And people love Amsterdam.”

That comedic Silk Road is still going strong. Boom Chicago regularly recruits comedians from the US and brings them to Amsterdam, where they get paid a living wage to perfect their craft, like current cast member Matt Castellvi.

“I’m from Chicago, and Boom Chicago is very widely known in the improv community, so it’s always been my dream to perform at Boom Chicago,” says Castellvi, who opened for Hunt last week. “To be able to come here is the improviser’s dream. I wake up every day laughing in happiness.”

Performing six to seven times a week means what’s been called a “comedy boot camp” has helped comedians from Amber Ruffin to current cast member Raquel Palmas, “fresh off the plane from New York,” hone their comedic chops.

“My great grandfather is Surinamese ironically, so it’s a little weirdly full circle for me to be here,” says Palmas, who thinks Dutch people can use a bit of a push when it comes to celebrating other cultures and making space for them in the Netherlands.

“I like to do that through comedy, by layering a little bit of social justice and racial equality into the content,” says this would be disruptor. “I’ve heard it’s not gezellig, but I make it gezellig by trying to be cute and flirty with the audience, and then saying: ‘Now that we’re comfortable, let’s talk about the problems!’”

Such as? “They’re very obsessed with the vibe. They’re quick to be like: ‘I love your vibe.’ I just wish they had their own, but they’ve colonised most of the vibes, so I get it.”

Success

But Boom Chicago’s success is down to more than just its comedic timing. After years of playing in temporary spaces around the Leidseplein—including one that doubled as a salsa club—Boom Chicago landed at its current home on the Rozengracht in 2013.

From there it teaches improv, performs at business and team-building functions and uses improvisation to help teens with autism, like Andrew and Saskia’s son, negotiate life, where improv comes in handy in an unscripted world. All proceeds from the anniversary events will be donated to InterActing, the non-profit theatre school they’ve set up to do just that.

Boom Chicago is also firmly embedded in Dutch culture, where it claims to be the first to introduce both improv and beer by the pitcher to the country. Boom cast member Greg Shapiro, the voice of Trump among others, created 2017’s most-watched Dutch YouTube video with his “The Netherlands Second.” Moskos once helped now defunct prime minister Mark Rutte write his “most successful speech ever” for a Dutch Correspondents dinner, and even Dutch comedian Arjen Lubach and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema got in on the acts last week.

To coincide with the anniversary, a new book has just been released, Boom Chicago Presents: The 30 Most Important Years in Dutch History, and more performances will be taking place in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago throughout the month—fitting for a small improv theatre on this side of the pond that has had more than just a ripple effect on the comedy scene in the US.