Ep. 3: Living in Humboldt Park, the Chicago stand-up comedy scene, and more with Cory Lara!
Cory Lara is an up-and-coming stand-up comedian who resides in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. In this episode we discuss the lifestyle of living in Humboldt Park, West Town, the comedy scene of Chicago, old school typewriters, alligators, and more!
The Living in Chicago Podcast is where I, Jake Lyons, get to interview all kinds of people about the Chicago neighborhoods they live in, work in, and play in. This way, you can learn about the lifestyle pros and cons of various neighborhoods directly from the people who live there (or maybe even learn something new about your own neighborhood!)
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Note: the following transcript was generated automatically and not checked closely for spelling, grammar, or accuracy
Jake Lyons: Welcome to Living in Chicago, the show where I interview real Chicagoans about the neighborhoods that they live, work, and play in. I'll be your host. My name is Jake Lyons. And in this episode, I interview Cory Lara, who is a up-and-coming stand-up comedian who lives in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. We have some fun conversations about the state of comedy in Chicago, from the perspective of all kinds of different forms of comedy, the robust history that Chicago has with all forms of comedy, especially sketch comedy, improv comedy, but also very much stand-up comedy, as you will learn. And we learn about what Corey's experience is so far of living in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and some other places that he's lived in and spends time in just by virtue of living his life in the city of Chicago. Humboldt Park is the neighborhood that we spend time talking about the most.
And if you don't know exactly where Humboldt Park is, if you're picturing a map of Chicago or if you're following me on YouTube, picture downtown Chicago, go west a couple miles, go north about a mile and a half or so from there, and you're pretty much in Humboldt Park. It borders the, the borders that actually the 606 walking trail to the, to the north, which is a fairly recent development. It's in some old train tracks that were developed into some walking and biking trails, which is a pretty, pretty new fun big deal. That's just a little bit north of North Avenue and then goes all the way south to Kenzie. And then from the east west, almost, it goes almost about as far east as Western, or Western Avenue and almost as far west as Cicero. So it's a pretty big area, big enough that a lot of people will actually break it down and refer to it as between West Humboldt Park and East Humboldt Park.
We don't really do that in this episode, but just for sake of argument, picture more East Humboldt Park, that's more, that's more Rercori is by my understanding. But, you know, it's definitely a big enough area that, you know, somebody could be living in one section of that neighborhood and be having a very different, you know, experience than somebody in another one. But although, you know, I guess that's half the fun of this show is because somebody could be living right next door to you and be having a very different experience of the neighborhood and your street and everything because different people have different filters and see things differently.
So, you know, that's what this show is about is hearing from all kinds of different people about what the experiences that they're having. Humboldt Park, a couple, just, you know, quick little facts about Humboldt Park. It is named after Alexander von Humboldt, who is known as the father of environmentalism, which is a pretty big thing to be to be known for. He by most accounts, that doesn't seem like he ever was actually in Chicago. But when you're the father of environmentalism, I guess you get to have places named after you that you've never been to before.
So, good on him. The within the actual park, there was a situation a couple years ago where an alligator was found in one of the bodies of water located throughout that park. And it was endearingly nicknamed Chance the Snapper in reference to local famous musician Chance the Rapper.
And it is also the site of the Riot Fest, which is an annual big music festival, mostly a rock music festival. If you are looking to buy a place in Humboldt Park right now, a two bed just for kind of just random points of reference here. Right now a two bed condo in Humboldt Park, not differentiating between East Humboldt Park or West Humboldt Park or anything else, the whole neighborhood, is running about a median of $220,000. And if you are looking for a house for three, three or more bedroom house, the median price for that right now is $285,000. And if you're looking to rent a two bed one bath apartment, the median on that right now is coming in at around $1490, that's according to a service that I use called Rento Meter. And the other one, the sales prices were provided by InfoSparks, which I'm a real estate agent. I have that through some MLS systems that I have, not that that matters, but I should probably site where I'm getting this information from.
As far as what is it actually like to live in Humboldt Park, that is where Corey comes in. So I will defer to him and get right to the interview. All right. As mentioned, I am here joined today by Corey Lara.
Cory Lara: Corey, how's it going? It's going good. Where'd the real estate at?
Jake Lyons: Corey is joining us live here from, well, it's not going to be a live by the time we're listening to this obviously, but live for me, from the Humboldt Park neighborhood. By the time we get to this part, I will have gone through kind of like a little like here's Humboldt Park, here's what that is and some stats about that and things like that.
Cory Lara: Humboldt Park was where the typewriter was invented and the 1901, no, it's not. Is that true?
Jake Lyons: It's not at all true. Okay. Do you, how confident are you that that's not true? What if that actually is true?
Cory Lara: I'm pretty certain it's not true because there would be a typewriter statue somewhere around here. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, that's like what it would be like in the middle of actual Humboldt Park.
Cory Lara: It was invented in Milwaukee. So I'm not far off, but it was in midwest. 1860, September 1867.
Jake Lyons: That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Midwest American ingenuity at his finest right there.
Cory Lara: Have you ever, Edison stole it in 1870 probably?
Jake Lyons: Yeah, that sounds like something he would do. Yeah. Right up his alley. Have you ever typed on like a really old school typewriter like that has like the, like the, the, the,
Cory Lara: the, the camera with like the ribbon and all that? My mom used to have one back when I was little and then I think we used to sometimes go to the library to use one when I was a kid, but it's been forever since I've, I've even, you know, seen, was seeing a typewriter that like I could actually even, you know, touch let alone, you know, actually write on. Yeah. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Same. My grandparents had one. So growing up, I would play on that a little bit and like it was actually, the whole process of it was actually kind of fun. Like it was like a workout for your fingers. I mean, you had a really
Cory Lara: like, you had a type like you mean it. Yeah. You had to like, you know, you had to really work on your index finger strength. For sure. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Corey, tell us a little bit about you. What's your, what's your day job and what, what, what's that paying the bills for you to really do the things that you actually want to do?
Cory Lara: Yeah. So by day, I, I, I work for a drywall company. I'm a pricing associate. So really, all it is, I work with the sales people and I'm, I do the glorified data entry work for them of getting all the, you know, info in the system, the, the updated for whatever the customer agreements are.
I studied accounting. So it's like in that wheelhouse. So I do that by day. And then by night, I do stand up comedy all throughout Chicago.
Then I have other, I, and other forms of comedy too, I kind of collaborate with here and there sketch comedy used to do before. So all of that stuff. So, so yeah. So accountant by day, comedian by night, it's kind of like if a doctor was a hit man on the side, like completely opposite skill set, but it gets, it gets the full life balance involved. So who are you to judge? Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Working, working both sides of the brain, full, the full game. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. And you're from, you're from Chicago area at large, right? But not, not Chicago.
Cory Lara: Yeah. Yeah. I grew up in the South suburbs, like Orland Park, Palis Hills, Palis Heights, all the parks and tree names. Moved to the city. Yeah. Moved to the city proper like five or six years ago. Lived in West town with my brother for a few years before moving here to Humboldt.
Gotcha. What drew you to Humboldt? Just, just the listing of the apartment that showed up. It was a good deal.
You know, decent, you know, decent size for the, for the rent. All the utilities were included. You know, the street I'm on has a lot of good free street parking. And it was kind of a good central location for, you know, just everywhere, anywhere in the city is easy for me to get to since I have a car. So, but it really just, again, just the location that just popped up just happened to be, you know, this, this unit just happened to be a really good find for, especially compared to all the other stuff I was finding at the time. It was like August ish of 2020.
So, you know, so mid pandemic and just finding a lot of like, you know, either craft apartments or ones that were the nice ones were too popular. This one I got right as it like went up and I just kind of like was like, yeah, this is good and good for me. So I'll just kind of sat on it and, you know, jump the gun. Yeah. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Man. August 2020, what a time that was, that was, yeah. So usually by August or September, like that, that area in a normal year, that's usually like the slowest among the slowest times of year, like July through early September, rivals, you know, like December and January for like usually slowest times a year. But that year was very different because obviously like nobody was really, was really doing much between March and basically then, you know, August. So you had all this pins up demand and then once kind of people started get a little bit more comfortable venturing out of their houses and stuff like that. So basically like the August market was kind of like the, the March and April and May market all combined.
Cory Lara: It was just a feeding frenzy. So the squeezing of the bellows and it finally got to release at that point. Cause yeah, it was pretty, it was fairly hopping around that time from what I saw, but I've looked around that time just in case I wanted to look at other stuff when my lease was going to be off the past few years, I would look around that time and yeah, it's been a little slower since then, but even still not bad, but nowhere near as good as it was around that time for sure.
Jake Lyons: How much, how much did you know about Humboldt Park, the area before moving in there?
Cory Lara: I didn't know the specifics of Humboldt that, that well. I mean, I knew cause it's, you know, it's, it's all, it's near all the, it's like adjacent to all the neighborhoods I was really familiar with. It was like right next to Ukrainian village, Logan square, um, Wicker Park kind of. So I knew all those areas pretty well and I knew it was, and this unit was like right on the, like the border of those, those neighborhoods. So I knew at least it would be really close to stuff I was familiar with, but the particular, you know, yeah, the layout, even the, the, the sort of the border lines, I had no idea. I don't even think I really knew the name of the neighborhood until, uh, yeah, I, I did, I did know I was familiar with the park because I had been to the park a couple times. Um, but other than that, didn't know as far as it being a neighborhood, I didn't know all that well before. Uh, yeah, really living here and getting to know the neighborhood.
Jake Lyons: And what would you say about the neighborhood now that you've been, you've been in so, yeah, a little over three, is it three years or four years?
Cory Lara: Like the calendar math is hard. I guess it's three and like three months or so. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, it's great. I mean, um, yeah, I mean, it's certainly, uh, yeah, especially again now it's like as Logan and Wicker and all those places kind of start, you know, developing and, and, uh, expanding and all that kind of stuff, you know, we're starting to get the, it's, it's gotten the residual effects of that over here, which is nice. Uh, you know, a lot of newer restaurants and stores and, and, and all that good stuff. Um, the houses around here are pretty nice and pretty decent. It's a good mix of like older houses kept, you know, maintained and stuff.
And then newer, newer, you know, more modern looking, you know, buildings kind of, uh, popping up. So it's got a good balance of that, especially maintaining the history and that sort of thing. Um, and yeah, I, I see a lot of, at least the, the, the part of it I'm in, I see a lot of, you know, families, uh, still a very strong, it's historically been a pretty big Puerto Rican neighborhood and, and Mexican to some extent. And there's that part of the culture still very prevalent, especially, uh, in June for a Puerto Rican heritage month.
Jake Lyons: Uh, and it's so, but they go so hard. It's just flags all over the fireworks, horns. I mean, it's a, it's an extravaganza.
Cory Lara: Yeah. And like my, my first, my first June here, living here, uh, was the, that was when, uh, in the Heights, the movie came out and, and I would go to the park and be like, man, it's like a VR, uh, in the Heights experience, uh, all around me. Uh, um, but it was, it's been really cool to see it. And again, it continues to thrive and, and, and all that.
And I, and I've, uh, other than like the one Saturday where it gets pretty like loud and crazy, uh, uh, as long as I look out for that month, uh, or that day, uh, every, uh, year that happens, uh, it's otherwise pretty good. People are pretty, you know, like respectful and all that kind of stuff.
Jake Lyons: But that, during that time, not a lot of respectfulness going on.
Cory Lara: Oh no, there was, no, there was even, uh, it just, I just wasn't used to it. You know, I, I lived in West town where it was pretty quiet. Uh, uh, so I wasn't quite used to that kind of something, but now I am, and it's, yeah, even, even back then it wasn't that big a deal. It just, again, just a surprise. I didn't know. So, uh, but now I've, what?
Jake Lyons: Yeah. What, uh, what part of West town were you in?
Cory Lara: Uh, I was, I was off of, I was off of like Ashland and Grand. So like just, like, just towards like, like at the end of like the little bit north of Union Park and like at the, like, you know, once all the, like the warehouses and stuff like that kind of stops. Uh, yeah, I was like, I was like right there.
Uh, and that was great. I mean, again, that was pretty central location, easy to get to a lot of parking, all that kind of stuff. Um, so yeah, I like living there.
Uh, and I, I, I tried to look for stuff around there when I was moving, but, uh, didn't, uh, yeah, the stuff units there just didn't pan out or, uh, people beat me to the punch. So, yeah.
Jake Lyons: Yeah. Right there. I guess that would, that is like legit West town because West town is one of those things where like, there's like a whole umbrella like community area of West town, which technically like Wicker Park and right Ukrainian village and all those are under, but, and then West town, which is, there's like a West town neighborhood and then the West town area, but yeah, you're definitely in this like, this sort of West town.
Cory Lara: Yeah. It was, yeah, it was, yeah, it was my brother's place. He had it for a few years. He actually got it. He bought it like, you know, a little bit before that it sort of started really booming. So his, uh, his value went up, uh, as he got it, you know, with, uh, antenna with like Fulton market and all that stuff kind of getting developed over there. So he definitely benefited from, from buying that at the, the best time of, uh, um, because historically, yeah, that area was just a lot of, uh, empty, you know, warehouses and packing places that hadn't been used in decades. And now that's, that's all the, the prime areas right now of growth and, uh, taking up shop there and all that. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: It's a lot, a lot of cool things going on there. Um, yeah. A lot of like cool, like, converted industrial lofts into, you know, interesting like artists spaces and things like that. You know, with my wife, with my wife, Emma, you know, I know all about that, but there's also all kinds of, um, you know, breweries and kind of things like that popping up there.
Cory Lara: There's like a whole movement to go ahead. Yeah. I was just, yeah, I was just east of all that little, the, uh, the hot spot of breweries there in West town. Shout out to district brew yards.
They're really great. I used to go there all the time. Uh, they have, uh, there's a Casa Humilde, the only, Mexican owned brewery in the city.
Uh, and they're, they're, they do really good stuff there. That's true. The only one. So as I know, I, there's certainly the first.
I, I, I forget if I'm remembering that correctly. I know they were the first. I'm pretty sure they're the only one.
They're certainly the, the one with the most sort of like Mexican flair to them because they, you know, all their, all the names, they were on the, they NBC reported on them last year and all the beer names are always in Spanish. And, uh, then the, then the reporter was like, are you afraid people won't be able to pronounce their names? And it go like, well, uh, it's not that hard.
Like just, just put it in a little effort and you'll be able to figure it out. Like, you know, uh, yeah. So yeah, they do, they do really good stuff there. Uh, I really like those guys a lot.
Jake Lyons: Is there can art and stuff like that also kind of like culturally, you know, like to the, like Mexican, you know what I mean?
Cory Lara: They do a little bit. Yeah. That's not full, you know, free to callow level of, uh, you know, like authenticity, but I mean, it's, it's good and cute little stuff. You know, like they have like this one, uh, orange beer, like something not on hot and, uh, and it's got little, you know, oranges and stuff on it and a little cartoon oranges and stuff, that sort of thing. Um, but they, they partnered up with this year's, uh, the 50th anniversary of Los Camales, the historic Mexican restaurant in little village. And, uh, they partnered with them to do a collab beer and they made a special 50th anniversary version of, uh, one of their beers for it.
And it had really good art on that one. So, so now they are kind of doing better now about collaborating with artists and other like Mexican brands around the city and that sort of stuff. Awesome. Cool.
Jake Lyons: I know you're very much a man about town, but I mean, do you, uh, how much would you say that you kind of partake in Humboldt Park things?
Cory Lara: Yeah, I mean, I mean, certainly the thing I've sent the most time is cause I love running, uh, and I'm like right in between the like Humboldt, the park itself and, uh, the 606 running trail. So that's probably the stuff I've made the most, uh, use out of particularly to the neighborhood, uh, especially during the pandemic, I was running almost every day in, uh, in the Humboldt Park itself. Uh, did that for like a couple, like two years straight. And then this year I kind of really got more into running on the 606 cause you know, it's like right down the street from my place. Um, and I really like that a lot. And they always have, I mean, in Humboldt Park, they always have, especially in the summer, you know, random bands playing and music, and street festivals and stuff like that. Um, you know, really good, um, uh, Colombian festival and, uh, usually in like August-ish.
Um, you know, 606 is just, you know, pretty picturesque, a lot of good, you know, like, you know, art you can see all throughout the city and, you know, murals and that sort of stuff. Um, so there's the other particulars. I mean, uh, you know, like again, Puerto Rican stuff, pretty prevalent. So, you know, there's like Puerto Rican museums and stuff, um, and, you know, cultural stuff, art exhibits, um, foods, great. Um, my favorite Puerto Rican place is, um, I'm not too far south from, uh, was it, uh, Hibirito Imas? Uh, so Hibiritos are the, the iconic, uh, it's like, uh, it's a sandwich, but it's like- Like plantain? And yeah, it's fried plantains, uh, are the, are the buns basically for the sandwich. And it's really, that place is probably, uh, one of the most popular Puerto Rican spots in the city. And it's always got a, always got a line.
Uh, it's right, it's just south of where, uh, Lori Lightfoot's apartment, uh, is. Uh, so there would always be, it would be hard to find parking because of all the barricades they kept up there, the fresh.
Jake Lyons: Um, but it was worth it. It was worth going over to. Secret service, whatever the, whatever the mayor version of Secret Services.
Cory Lara: Hergastergestapo. Yeah. Um, so yeah, there's that. Um, you know, obviously I do a lot of comedy stuff. Um, uh, there's not really any, there's not any major venues like, you know, that have been to here in the, in this neighborhood proper, but a lot of those are pretty close by. Um, uh, what else? Um, I don't know, it's a lot of good, again, a lot of other good businesses, you know, one of my favorite sushi places right down the street from me, Zoku Sushi, they're really good. Um, they have a, they've had a lot of good like community sort of things here. There's, um, down the street, like, like right around the block from me is a, uh, um, they've done kind of like, it's sort of like a, like a, almost like a flea market, but it's like kind of like a, you know, like a mix between like a mutual aid thing and a, you know, community sort of meetup kind of thing where every so often they'll like have like just random artists and vendors will, will set up shop there and, you know, sometimes they'll even do like a barter system kind of thing, you know, trade, trade your stuff or other stuff.
Um, there's a couple other, you know, a brand of things like that. Um, uh, so, so it's very, it's getting more, you know, very like, you know, community minded and collaborative and, and, uh, you know, just people kind of like working together on stuff. Uh, I know there's a lot of good like, you know, activist work kind of centered around here. Um, uh, we are rep, we just, our representative, we just, uh, elected last year, Jesse Fuentes, uh, it's really good. I believe they're, uh, I think they're the first queer Latina representative, I think in Congress, I believe something like that. Um, so a lot of good, a lot of good stuff like that has been kind of centered around here, here lately. Okay.
Jake Lyons: Are there like, uh, farmers market type types of things that you know, or anything like that?
Cory Lara: I think, yeah, I've seen some like by the park, um, like there's still like kind of like, uh, like inlets like in, in between the, uh, streets, uh, that I've, I've noticed that I haven't been to them, but I have seen that there, there's some that they sort of set up shop there throughout the summers, though they're obviously nowhere near as hopping as like, say like the Logan, uh, farmers market or whatever, but they look like they're still good. Just it's a little, for me, it's just a little like having to like park there and then walk all the way over, you know, and again, it's all like in the middle of the street. So it's, you know, the fields in between the, the two, uh, you know, major lanes or whatever, but, but yeah, they do have it, which is kind of nice. I'm sure there's people around here that, that really go for that sort of thing.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, you said you mentioned that you pretty much drive everywhere. Do you think it's a neighborhood that you would have to drive or what would be like the public transit situation over there?
Cory Lara: Yeah, I mean the closest is the blue line and it's not, it's a far walk. I mean, it's easier if you have like a, yeah, you know, a bike or an e-scooter or something, but yeah, I like there's there's plenty of bus lines that go all around here. I'm, you know, I've got where I'm at off of North and Kimball. There's there's buses going in both, you know, North, South and East, West direction. So for me, it's not bad if I like this, I finally went to the salt shed a month ago and just took the North Avenue bus straight there and that was great. But yeah, if you're if you're dependent on like, you know, trying to commute to the loop for work or something.
Yeah, probably not ideal. But there's there's again, there's ways to do it, you know, take a bus and transfer over if you have to, but not the closest for if you're really looking for the L or something other than a bus. But again, yeah, I've got a car, so it's worked for me. And then the few times I have had to take the bus for stuff, it's been pretty great. But I kind of was kind of banking when I moved on here that I wouldn't have to go to the office. And so far, I'm still working fully remote. So it's not been an issue for me. But yeah, for other people, it might be something they'd want to, you know, take note of before they would, you know, really explore around here.
Jake Lyons: This episode is presented by my website, the Chicago home source.com, the best resource with the most search parameters for seeing what homes are currently available in the area you're looking in, or for checking the market around your own Chicago area home, visit the website and order, fill out the quick start questionnaire via the links in the show notes to learn more about our perfect home finder program, where we combat the lack of attractive options on the market by proactively going out and finding off market opportunities on homes that meet your specific qualifications. Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, Humboldt Park is, I guess it's between North and Division, right? Those are kind of like the North-South boundaries. I think something like that.
Cory Lara: Yeah. Yeah. So both of those are very well, you know, very
Jake Lyons: significant streets that are going to get lots of bus, you know, traffic and things like that. But yeah. What did you think of the Salt Shed?
Cory Lara: Oh, it was great. Yeah, really nice venue. They renovated it really now. You probably wouldn't be able to have told from the inside that it was ever a salt warehouse. It's a cool setup. You know, they have an outdoor area where they'll have food trucks before the shows and, you know, like a bar to hang out at by the river. They have, I think they have like a sort of like guitar shop there inside that's like really nice, almost like a mini guitar center.
They have exclusive beers like Goose Island has an exclusive salty beer that they sell there. That's pretty good. I didn't see that. Yeah. I saw Run the Jewels there two nights in a row there and then Eric Andre there two weeks after. So yeah, it was, and you know, they've all had the pit open and stuff. So I was able to get there, you know, not too far to wait before like start time and get a pretty good spot in the pit.
So it's pretty good. I'd say the only issue right now is that they're, you know, it's like kind of a mid-sized venue. So right now they're getting either really big names that sell out quick or lesser known names that, you know, people might not have heard of, but you'll at least, you know, not have trouble with the show selling out or whatever. But even still, like the, you know, they get a good crowd there going and yeah, pretty good spot so far. So it'll definitely be a top venue for as it starts to gain more attraction and popularity.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, I think that's already happening. And for the listeners slash watchers, so the Salt Shed was, it's been renovated into a concert venue now, but it was for, I don't know, decades, this hundred years, I don't even know, a long time. Was one of, I guess, I don't know if it was like the headquarters or just one of the main factories for Morton's Salt. So you would know Morton's Salt.
I mean, they're kind of synonymous with Salt, but, you know, like they're the ones that have the logo with the umbra and the umbrella, like the yellow, you know, and so there was like this iconic Salt factory as you're going up the highway, up the north side of Chicago, you could just look off to your right and you can see like the whole roof is painted with the logo. And, you know, I think when they announced that they were going to be not in that spot anymore for whatever reason, you know, I think a lot of people were very sad and like, what's going to happen to that? Are we going to, you know, lose our big Morton Salt mural roof thing? But thankfully they kept it there.
Cory Lara: Yeah, and they've just kept the sort of the brand integrations kind of running, you know, like, again, they have like, you know, Salt themed beers there that are exclusive. And I think they even sell some merch that makes use of the Morton logo or whatever.
So it's, yeah, they were smart to handle it the way that they did. I mean, it would be like, you know, buying the Sears tower and changing that name. Boy, that would be a mistake if someone ever tried to do that. Yeah, yeah.
Jake Lyons: People don't really react to change right off the bat.
Cory Lara: I don't care. I don't care what Elon Musk, if he wants to call it X, I will always call it the Sears Twitter. That's what I'm calling it. There you go. Sears Twitter, nice. Thank you.
Jake Lyons: See, that's why you're a comedian, things like that right there. Yeah. Which we'll definitely get more into. Let's see. What has there been anything about Humboldt Park that has surprised you about it? Or like, maybe like, or you said you didn't know a ton about it going in there, but, you know, maybe some, some misconceptions that since you moved in, you've realized that it does have that maybe you want to write the ship on or, or not.
Cory Lara: Yeah, I mean, it certainly has had, you know, in its history, you know, sort of reputation for being, you know, you know, a, you know, potential like, you know, crime area, you know, these days, you know, that's kind of everywhere in the city, to some extent. And it is, and certainly the area I'm at has, you know, much way less of that. If you go more, way more west to like the, you know, the, the other end of the Humboldt border, basically, yeah, it starts to, you know, have, you know, older run down parts of the neighborhood that are as well maintained or monitored and, and, you know, stuff like that kind of happens. And I have, I have heard stuff on the news, but plenty, but at least my experience having been here so far has been pretty good.
I haven't had any issues. You know, you know, all the people here, again, like on my street, it's a lot of families, there's like a, there's a daycare across the street from me, you know, plenty of schools and, and, you know, community things for, you know, people with families and that sort of stuff. Generally, people seem pretty friendly. I know I've had good just random interactions with, you know, just people on the street and that sort of stuff. I've, you know, made good friends with my neighbors.
They're all pretty cool. Again, all the Puerto Rican stuff, I, you know, at first, I didn't quite know to the extent that it was that prevalent. And it's been cool to see, see that more and engage with that. Yeah, and just other than that, I mean, yeah, it's just, I mean, just, yeah, there's a lot of, you know, nicer stuff here that I think people would just be surprised if they only, you know, heard about Humboldt Park from the news or from their parents that lived here, you know, 50 years ago and, you know, we'll then come to the neighborhood and see that how much it's changed. That was my parents' experience being here here and, you know, and then when back when I lived in
Jake Lyons: where were they horrified when you told them that you're moving to Humboldt Park?
Cory Lara: I don't know. They were horrified. I, you know, I didn't even, I kind of kept coy about the specifics from my mom. My dad, I told, but, you know, and he was, you know, maybe a little concerned, but, you know, once we, you know, we, you know, we all started to, you know, be on the street that I'm on, you know, like they saw pretty quick that, you know, you know, that I was going to be fine and all that.
Yeah. So it helps that I, you know, now I look more like Danny Trejo than I did at the time. So that kind of, you know, has a good air about me of if I just stay quiet, people don't tend to mess with me. So that's good.
Jake Lyons: Yeah. So somebody were to visit Humboldt Park for just one day. What would you say are the things that they need to do?
Cory Lara: Yeah, I would say, you know, come, you know, especially if it's during the summer or something, come to the park, you know, walk around there, they got like the swan boats and on the, on the pond and stuff. You know, it was once home to Chance the Snapper, the infamous alligator. That's right. So yeah, go there. They're right by the park is the Puerto Rican the carriage museum.
That's pretty cool. Yeah, try to go to a Puerto Rican restaurant if you can. There's a lot of other ones closer to the park. The Jeperito Amos is a little bit further away, but that one is really good. And then yeah, I don't know, you know, if there's again, there's some, there's some breweries, not a lot.
I'm right down the street from Orcanoa. They're pretty cool. So if, you know, breweries, that's your kind of thing. There's one there.
There's some, you know, cool dive bars and smaller venues like that. Yeah, run the 6-6-6 if you can. That's pretty nice. Yeah, I don't know. Like, yeah, it just depends on what, you know, whatever you're, you know, the sort of stuff you look out for when exploring a neighborhood, you know, usually food and culture and stuff. That's kind of, there's plenty of that.
You know, there's not really, yeah, any big, you know, you know, theaters or venues or anything like that. It's a very, you know, still a, you know, more like, you know, domestic-ish kind of neighborhood. But yeah, there's plenty of that stuff. Yeah, especially during the summer, the winter, maybe not as lively as other neighborhoods can get. But yeah, so far, it's been pretty good for me. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, and earlier you mentioned things like the murals and sort of the art scene around there. I know that that's definitely one of the neighborhoods. It's always on the top of everyone's mind when talking about murals specifically, you know, kind of like the street art kind of thing. There's a lot of really, really good stuff going on there.
Cory Lara: A lot of that. If you go down like Division Street around here, you know, that's where a lot of the Puerto Rican stuff is, you know, sort of located centrally. So yeah, all the good restaurants are there and plenty of good mural art there that you'll see. So yeah, if you want to see more of that, that would be a good sort of stroll to take.
Jake Lyons: So what got you into comedy?
Cory Lara: I kind of, you know, growing up, I was always kind of, you know, drawn to anything funny, anything humorous. I grew up on 90s Nickelodeon and Weird Ale Yankevic and, you know, all the, you know, like Pixar movies and stuff. So I was always just kind of drawn to funny stuff naturally.
I don't really know where the drive for me to want to do it myself came from. I think it was just more of a, part of it is probably a coping strategy for sure, of being the youngest and, you know, you know, with two way older brothers and strong-willed parents. It was probably my way of coping with all that stuff. But I just always liked making people laugh and, you know, doing funny voices and bits and that sort of stuff.
So, and I loved Whose Line Is It Anyway growing up. So that was kind of what started. So I started with improv first when I came to, and part of a big part of me moving to the city proper at the time that I did was to get into more comedy stuff, which obviously Chicago was a great comedy city. You know, we basically, you know, invented improv here with Second City. So I started doing improv classes there.
My brother had taken them, you know, years before that. So I kind of knew that was something I always wanted to do. So I did that for, I did the classes there for about a year, had some groups I was a part of and did some shows. And I loved it. But all my improv groups kept falling apart for drama or other reasons.
Jake Lyons: They do that. I've seen that happen firsthand at the time as myself.
Cory Lara: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's like any great band or, you know, whatever, it's like just, it's always, something always happens. So, and it's understandable. For some of them, it was just, you know, just life, you know, it got in the way of people sort of moving away or, you know, settling down or whatever. So for, so because of that, I was like, well, I should probably just find a form of comedy that's, you know, I, you know, individually focused where I don't have to deal with a group dynamic. So stand up seemed like the right move as far as that goes. And the stand up scene has all, you know, generally been, you know, pretty lively around here. Even more so than improv, I would say. And I'm glad I did because, you know, especially coming out of the pandemic stand up had a way easier time kind of coming back than improv did.
Improv is only really kind of found its footing again the past year. So, so, yeah. So I've been, yeah, doing stand up ever since then. That's been pretty good. I'm trying to branch out a little bit now and do, you know, stuff like sketch comedy and collaborate with people and other stuff.
Jake Lyons: Why do you think that is? Why do you think that stand up had an easier time coming back than improv and sketch?
Cory Lara: I think just logistically, it's easier and it's easy to just, you know, you just need a microphone and a speaker and that's it. So on that front, it's easier for bars to like just have a little stage in the corner or something like that. And that's when it again, when it first came back, that's pretty much how it was, you know, improv, you know, you need, again, like logistics of getting a team together, you know, getting the word out and stuff. Improv is a lot harder to like, you know, sort of do, you know, now we're in kind of on social media, we're kind of in the sort of the clip economy now between TikTok and Instagram reels and all that.
And it's a lot easier to sort of clip a fi stand up than it is improv, especially in like vertical mode when you only have one subject as opposed to a bunch of people. And then just, yeah, and then just also just at the time, you know, again, coming out of the pandemics, I.O. was closed for a few years.
Second City only had its like main stage coming back, all the like smaller improv places kind of shut down for a bit because just lack of funding and all that. So again, now it's I.O.
Jake Lyons: had had a little bit more going on, but it did.
Cory Lara: Yeah. And then, yeah, they lost their funds pretty quick. But again, they're back now and they're doing good and they have some good stuff going on there. But yeah, yeah, Sanderson doing really well.
I mean, you know, plenty of people thriving and doing well on the scene. And there's been even since the, you know, again, pandemic, some local people that have, you know, gone somewhat viral and, you know, now we've gone off to New York and LA and moving on to other stuff. So that's been good to see.
Jake Lyons: Within the stand up space or more than, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you said that you think the, so you the stand up space is even livelier than, than the improv and sketch you was that just in terms of kind of just easier to find things going on with it because, you know, there's only maybe three or four places that are going that improv is happening versus a dozen every night.
Cory Lara: Yeah. Just, you know, easier to break in easier to like, you know, like, you know, find your footing as an individual. You know, there's a lot more like sort of like hangouts and writers groups and workshops and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, again, improv is doing again, it's finding its footing again.
It's it just took a little longer for a variety of reasons. But and I'm also seeing like all of these kind of different genres starting to coalesce a little more too. I've been seeing more improv people trying stand up and vice versa and more music comedians and, you know, again, more sketch comics, getting recruiting people and all these people experimenting on different forms of comedy. So, so it's been really good to see and I'm glad that it's thriving again, because it, you know, it obviously took a big hit during the pandemic. But I think people are using that and that experience and finding ways to innovate. And it's certainly been a lot more welcoming, you know, easier for people to like kind of for me, at least to network and meet people and make friends and stuff and gotten a lot more diverse. There's a lot more women comics, people of color queer people, disabled comics and stuff. So so that's been really another good positive trend also.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, I've noticed I've noticed that too. And yeah, it's so good to see. Because, you know, you mentioned, yeah, like Chicago basically invented improv. I mean, comedy, all forms of comedy are such an integral part of the Chicago culture and a big point of pride. I mean, you know, to anybody, to anybody listening and watching, you probably know this, but this in case not, I mean, pretty much any every comedic actor you can think of over the next over the last 50 years, like they either started in Chicago or had, you know, a significant portion of their life was was in Chicago coming up came here at second city.
Cory Lara: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it obviously second city, a good amount of the sort of, you know, yeah, the last decades, comedians, you know, were were here at some point in the early 2000s, like John Mulaney, Pete Holmes, Hannibal Burris, who's still kicking around here, you know, Camille Nanjiani, so a whole bunch of great. So, and even so it does, you know, it's a little bit lesser now. You know, it's not quite the, you know, focal point it once was for, you know, like SNL recruiting here, stuff like that. But, I mean, but even still, like some some get to break through like Sarah Sherman, who's on SNL now started here at the Lincoln Lodge doing, you know, her own kind of unique comedy and kind of found a way to break it break through that way. Chibuki Young-White, who was on the Daily Show for a couple years was a stand up just a few years ago here and, you know, broke through. So so there's still people finding ways to kind of, you know, make it into the the mainstream, they just have to kind of get a little more creative with how they do it. But thankfully with again, social media and other stuff, there's there's ways to, you know, be smart about it.
Jake Lyons: Sure. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense that no physical place is gonna have the same importance because of social media as a big pre social media, you know, like all the SNLs and places like that, you know, they're recruiting from just random TikTok videos and stuff like that, like people blowing up on there probably just as much as they are, you know, any second city or anything like that. But I still I think there has to be something to be said still for for such a, you know, a community like this that is getting together and like what you were saying, you know, everybody's kind of inspiring each other to do different things and try different things and incorporate different elements and like that that kind of stuff is it's a lot harder to do if you're not, you know, in that community and letting yourself be inspired and real time in physical presence with other people, you know. Yeah.
Cory Lara: And I see the trend going, you know, especially we've seen in recent years, you know, it like a bit less of a focus on of like LA and New York as the only places to, you know, to really to make it in the biz. Like now we're seeing, you know, obviously Chicago's got, you know, we shoot all the NBC Chicago shows here. There's other film productions that have been incentivized to come here for the for the tax breaks. You know, obviously music musicians like Chance the Rapper and Common are starting to make Chicago, you know, a decent music hub. So also a lot of the arts right now are finding ways to, you know, make Chicago still a worthwhile place to center your art around. And hopefully I can see that growing and only becoming a bigger piece of the pie. The deep dish pie.
Jake Lyons: Right on, man. Well, awesome stuff. Thank you for your time. What do you have coming up that's exciting to you? What would you like the people out there to know about you and where can they find you?
Cory Lara: So yeah, if you want to follow me on all the socials on Instagram and the Sears Twitter, I'm at coffee or die on TikTok. I'm Corey Martin Lara. You can also look for the search Corey Martin Lara on YouTube. Instagram is where I tend to post all the details of upcoming shows and things like that. I don't really have anything booked at the moment other than a I do a lot of stuff with the the ha ha hour sketch show. The next show is on New Year's Eve.
This will probably be out after that show happens, but their stuff is on Twitch and their YouTube channel. So if you want to see me in sketches and the recordings of the live shows and stuff, you can you can see me there. Yeah, I do a lot of stuff just all over the city. So, you know, Lincoln Lodge, Laugh Factory, Shuba is my buddies. Those are kind of my my favorite spots to do it. Check out those places even if I'm not there. They're all really great. And yeah, hopefully you'll see me on the Tamron Hall show soon to get my stand of television debut. Yeah, right on.
Jake Lyons: And I'll have I'll have links to all that kind of stuff in the show notes too. So awesome. We'll get those from you. And yeah, that's all I got, man.
Cory Lara: This is great. Yeah. Thank you for the tour of this unit. You know, I'm definitely going to sleep on it and I'll let you know and we'll be in touch. And then you'll never call me again.
Jake Lyons: You're just gonna go. Nope. No, I'm like, yeah, it was fine. Yeah, I didn't like the floor the open floor plan. Uh huh. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. All right, man. Cheers. Thank you, Jay. Bye, everyone.
