Southlander’s ‘The Game Show Show...’

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James Anthony Zoccoli, who was born in Oak Lawn, is the co-creator of "The Game Show Show... and Stuff!"

‘THE GAME SHOW SHOW... AND STUFF!’

♦ Opening at 8 p.m. Oct. 22 and running through Dec. 31, with performances at 11 p.m. most Fridays and Saturdays

♦ Mercury Theater,
3745 N. Southport Ave., Chicago

♦ Tickets, $15

♦ (773) 325-1700;
gameshowshow.com

♦ The British Stage Company is presenting this production.

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Updated: November 22, 2011 8:12AM

Growing up in Oak Lawn, James Anthony Zoccoli escaped tough times by watching television.

But he wasn’t interested in just anything on television. He said it was the game shows that had him glued to the pulsing TV screen.

Now Zoccoli revisits those escapist TV shows with his own late-night takeoff, “The Game Show Show… and Stuff!,” which opens Oct. 22 at the Mercury Theater in Chicago.

“When I was young, I watched game shows like crazy and loved them. That’s the reason I created ‘The Game Show,’ ” Zoccoli said.

“I spent hours and hours watching the game shows because I was running away from problems in my family.

“I was 7 years old when my mother divorced my father and married a black man. It was difficult because not everyone reacted positively to it.”

Zoccoli said that in 1979 he wrote and performed a one-person show, which was based on his white-and-black family experience.

The one-person production was about a young boy’s life in an interracial family.

The young boy, named Jimmy, is a half-Italian and half-Polish kid who wants to be black when his mother gets remarried to an African-American man.

“When I was a kid I wanted to be a comedian. I was always telling jokes, which often got me in trouble,” Zoccoli said.

“As I got older, though, it helped me in theater. I made (that show) funny so people would laugh at it. But it helped me, too. It was very cathartic.”

After putting on a production about growing up with a white mother and a black father, Zoccoli said he still had things he wanted to say and to get off his chest.

“I wanted to satirize the game shows that are dear to my heart and which offered me an escape from a difficult period in my life,” he said.

“That’s what I’m doing with ‘Game Show.’ I created the show and play the announcer, which gives me the chance to deliver a lot of jokes.

According to Zoccoli, the show combines aspects of “Double Dare,” “Jackass,” “The Price is Right” and “Soul Train.”

“It’s a live interactive show where audience members are contestants in games. They fill out a card that we put into a metal tumbler and randomly select contestants,” he said.

“People who answer trivia questions correctly win prizes. We give away tickets to shows, gift certificates to restaurant and bars, sightseeing packages. We also provide entertainment.”

The entertainment is the stuff that distinguishes the show from other game show parodies because, according to Zoccoli, the entertainment gives the production a lot of variety.

The show offers physical games, guessing games, a live six-piece orchestra, a cabaret, burlesque, performing pets and go-go dancers.

“The Game Show Show…and Stuff!” has previously played in other Chicago theater venues.

The production premiered at Strawdog Theatre in 2006 as part of the theater company’s late-night programming.

“The Game Show Show... and Stuff!” became so popular that it was transferred to the Lakeshore Theater.

In 2008 the show was featured at the 20th annual Abbie Hoffman Died for Our Sins Theatre Festival.

Then in 2009, “The Game Show Show... and Stuff!” played at the House Theatre, and in 2010 at the Chopin Theatre.

Zoccoli has been seen as an actor in many plays at Strawdog, Live Bait Theater, Noble Fool Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier.

He has written “The Proper Papers,” an audio drama.

Zoccoli also has been heard as the voice of Leonardo Fortunato in the audio series “Left Behind” and the voice of Pablo Sanchez in the video game “Desperados 2: Cooper’s Revenge.”

“I’m so addicted to theater and comedy that I have as much fun trying to make people laugh as they do laughing,” he said.

“I know I’m going to have a good time with ‘The Game Show Show,’ and I think our audience will too.”

Betty Mohr is a local free-lance writer.