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Last Call for 'You, Me, Them, Everybody' Live Show at Hungry Brain

By Patty Wetli | November 26, 2014 5:39am
 Brandon Wetherbee, host of the podcast "You, Me, Them, Everybody," preps for one last show at the Hungry Brain Friday night.
Brandon Wetherbee, host of the podcast "You, Me, Them, Everybody," preps for one last show at the Hungry Brain Friday night.
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Franz Mahr

ROSCOE VILLAGE — Things not to do when recording a late night-style talk show podcast: Include lots of visual effects.

"The first show was horrible," said Brandon Wetherbee, recalling his inaugural outing as host of "You, Me, Them, Everybody," which debuted five years ago at the Hungry Brain and returns for a victory lap Friday night.

Fortunately for Wetherbee, he proved a quick study — no more Bozo Bucket Game, no more booking fuse-blowing rock bands that plunged the venue into darkness — and YMTE gradually found its legs.

What started as a "Fresh Air" rip-off morphed into something closer to Craig Ferguson's "Late Late Show." As Wetherbee took his act on the road, the podcast eventually gained a following on stages in D.C. (where he relocated four years ago), New York and Philadelphia, while maintaining a core group of fans during regular outings in Chicago.

On Friday, YMTE returns to the Hungry Brain for a super-sized fifth anniversary live recording, an occasion likely to be more bittersweet than Wetherbee initially intended.

Two weeks after setting the date for the landmark show at the Brain, he received word that owners Janis White and Luz Cordova were pulling the plug on the 17-year-old club, effective Dec. 15.

"At first it was the five-year anniversary, now it's the last show at the Brain," said Wetherbee, managing editor of the Web magazine Brightest Young Things when not performing. "The whole thing for me is a farewell segment."

Though a typical YMTE show features four guests, for his swan song at the Brain, Wetherbee booked eight, a sort of "greatest hits" compilation of previous interview subjects.

The lineup includes RedEye columnist and frequent YMTE co-host Ernest Wilkins, taxi driver-turned-author Dmitry Samarov, and the Puterbaugh Sisterz, a sibling comedy duo Wetherbee called the "funniest people in Chicago, hands down."

For Wetherbee — who harbors ambitions of either becoming the next Studs Terkel or creating his own style of storytelling that champions artists, musicians, writers and comedians — it's impossible to minimize what the Brain has meant to his career.

The reputation of YMTE has grown to the point where Wetherbee can say things like "my show at the Library of Congress," a level of success that can be traced directly back to the show's far more humble roots at 2319 W. Belmont Ave.

"That was my clubhouse, my classroom," said Wetherbee, who started at the Brain as a doorman/bartender and when given the chance to program the occasional act, took the opportunity and ran with it.

As he prepares for his final curtain call at the Brain Friday night, Wetherbee said, "Inevitably I will do a saccharine speech. I'm going to try not to cry."

Catch "You, Me, Them, Everybody," 7 p.m. Friday at the Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont Ave.

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