Tony Sam, cofounder-producer of Chicago Underground Comedy, attracts the city’s funniest amateurs and rising professionals even though his show’s less than two years old. He bills CUC as “alternative comedy,” in part because of its bar setting, and challenges comics to present brand-new material and avoid “tired premises.” This week’s particularly strong lineup includes Sam, Jared Logan, Nate Craig, and host Nick Vatterot, whose specialty is quirky, cerebral, free-associative meanderings. Craig has self-produced two solid, ambitious CDs and regularly tours the midwest. Logan’s trenchant observations frequently turn on himself (“I continue to gain weight at a rapid pace”) or hinge on his “old-fashioned” upbringing: “I won’t have sex with a woman,” he says, “until she lets me.” a Open run: Tue 8:30 PM, Gunther Murphy’s, 1638 W. Belmont, 773-728-0746, $5, 21+.
