When we grew up, there was a distinct lack of voices for us, the nerds. Comedians cracked jokes left and right about the common experiences - airplane food, cell phone reception, whichever President was in office - but there were few in the comedy world that stood up and said, “I’m a nerd, and dammit, I think this is funny.”

Most of us moved to Chicago to pursue some sort of existence in the realm of comedy. We all came from varying backgrounds - some theater people, an archaeologist, a scientist, engineers - but we all found a common goal, to make nerds laugh.

We came together over sharing our experiences and making quirky sketches to lampoon them. Soon we had a show, then another, then another, and quickly The Nerdologues was born. Our shows found a unique structure, as we told monologues that often wove individual tales of woe and delight, and presented sketches that offered counterpoints and non sequiturs to keep our audiences engaged.

Now, by speaking honestly about our lives, what we like, and what we dislike, people are drawn in - no one in the sketch comedy realm speaks as openly about being a nerd as we do. We talk about the anxieties of being that kid in an all green sweatsuit in middle school who was teased for looking like the Green Ranger, the pains of trying to learn how to play sports and failing at it, and the joys of finding love at a convention. We talk about these things because at one point, the world said, “You know, these life experiences aren’t important, because in the larger world these experiences aren’t normal.”

We are here because they could not be more wrong.

The Nerdologues have been together for over four years now, and since our inception, we’ve played to countless houses in Chicago, as well as all over the United States, from New York Comic Con to San Francisco Sketch Festival, from Second City to PAX Prime. But along with our goal of making nerds laugh, we have a very real desire to bring nerds together. We host a free monthly “nerdologue” telling event, called Your Stories, where others share their own heartfelt, daring, and honest tales. The Nerdologues also regularly hold other monthly (usually free) events, that range from introductory Dungeons and Dragons games to superhero themed pub crawls. Truly, we try to offer something for everyone.

So join us, won’t you? We’re trying to build something really cool here, and we’d love for you to be a part of it. Come see a show, tell your own monologue, or play a game with us. Make some new friends and bring your old ones. We dared to one day proclaim, proudly, in front of a crowded house: “We are nerds.” You can too.