Lisle comic to vie with 150 others in Chicago laugh-off

Call him a laugh-lete.

Lisle’s Zach Thompson has been battling it out on ComedySportz improv stages for more than a decade, and now he and his three Chicago teammates are bracing to take on comic competitors from across the country and, potentially, the globe.

He’s one of about 150 comics competing in the 2012 ComedySportz World Championship, starting Wednesday in Chicago. The Chicago team’s first challenge: Wednesday’s match against Milwaukee.

“Every time you do improv, it’s like baking a cake,” Thompson said. “It comes out different every time and, no matter what, everyone enjoys it.”

ComedySportz started in 1984 in Milwaukee and came to Chicago three years later. Since then, the competitive comedy show has gone global, with 21 cities in the United States and Europe. Every summer, teams from different locales meet up to compete.

At regular ComedySportz shows, small improv teams go up against each other. In the tournament, however, four teams will compete against each other in various rounds. The best two teams face off at 10 p.m. Saturday.

There’s a referee who serves as an emcee and keeps the games going by enforcing rules and asking for audience participation.

It’s all done on the fly with suggestions from the audience, like the television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

“It feels awesome to be a part of,” Thompson said.

Even before joining ComedySportz, Thompson knew he’d be spending his life doing comedy.

“I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh. I was never really the ‘class clown,’ more like the class comedian growing up,” Thompson said.

He studied broadcasting in college at Illinois State University. In the years since, he has worked with Second City, the Annoyance Theatre and the iO Chicago Theater before moving on to ComedySportz.

Thompson believes there’s something special about improv comedy.

“It’s incredible what people can come up with together,” he said. “There’s power in creating and making up funny things that you can even go and turn into sketches afterward.”