Kyle Kinane shows off some new tricks with, “Loose in Chicago”

There’s something special and homegrown about Kyle Kinane. It might be his everyman persona or the fact that he’s a diehard fan of punk rock, particularly coming up in the Chicago music scene. He’s self aware of who he is and what his vibe is all about. He once described himself as “uncle BBQ” which, if we had to speculate meant he was the uncle you loved to hang with as a child but your parents tried to limit your time with him because he gave you one too many sips off his Coors Light on Memorial Day.

It might be because of this that the intro of Kinane’s latest special, Loose In Chicago makes complete sense, he strolls from a neighborhood bar and takes a stroll down a few doors to the Metro where things kick into gear. The set (and why he chose the name) are just that, Loose. Kinane is a stage master at this point with 3 hours under his belt. He has his voice and it’s what makes Kyle Kinane, well, Kyle Kinane. Had he not gone into comedy, Kinane might be the guy you find at the end of the local watering hole on a nightly basis talking about conspiracy theories, government, or debating where to get the best hot dog in town. It was Kinane’s destiny rather to hold court in the comedy clubs and not just at the bar where more people can hear his gravelly voice elevate comedy with an ease and effort that makes you wonder if he’s even trying. Kinane is conversational and intelligent yet immensely likeable. It’s as if Kinane takes heady ideas and wraps them in a corn dog to guarantee you’ll eat it.

Kinane is self-deprecating, often the butt of his joke or the prank of the tale. Yet he sees himself in his fans, which he lovingly describes as “hirsuit fart factories.”

Something Kinane does on this special that he hasn’t done previously, he gets political. While he doesn’t quite seem ready to sit in on a a Bill Maher panel, he does filter it through his own point of view, or as he calls it, “pokin’ holes in all of it.” He reveals his pro-stance on transgender rights using a very Kyle Kinane metaphor about vehicle modification. He puts the audience in the middle of a moral dilemma by making them feel okay with a mass shooting if the subjects were the Westboro Baptist Church. Then supporting their villainous efforts because they have the power to bring together The Hell’s Angels and gay rights activists.

He also takes on gun control declaring that don’t arrest killers in America, they make them cops. He takes on Open Carry states not by battling them on the issues, he takes the angle of how important it is to dress properly when carrying “long pants! long pants!” and please, don’t even get him started on flip flips.

As Kinane pushes 40, he’s introduced something else into his act, his health. If you were to add a subtitle to Loose in Chicago, it would be Loose In Chicago: Or How I Learned To Start Loving The Gout. Taking a recent gout diagnosis and mining it for all it’s worth. He got the gout by “living pleasurable and mildly recklessly.” Which included eating too many things with the description of “rodeo” in it and the booze. However, he doesn’t go too deep into his health misery as caps his tale of excess of uric acid by still showing his mental age, reiterating that on the day his diagnosis came, it was also the “same day his ghost-hunting equipment showed up from eBay.”

Kinane spends most time on Loose In Chicago with his favorite subject, that’s himself. His whiteness, his interest in conspiracy theories (he did just launch a new podcast about said issue), revealing just how many times he spends at his favorite hot dog joint and even and even how he can be easily duped into a genital check with a hearty conversation about sandwiches (again refer to his new podcast for more on that matter).

Over the course of his specials, Kyle Kinane has gone from promising, to powerful, to fully realized, it’s been exciting to watch. Loose In Chicago may give off the impression that Kinane takes to comedy. But in reality, when a comedian becomes as good as Kinane, he can wield said power however he’d like.

Loose In Chicago is available in both video and audio forms. Check it out now.

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