Laugh Factory Chicago 2025, Chicago

Laughter has emanated from the corner of Belmont and Broadway for years—first in the form of the Lakeshore Theater. In March of 2012, venerable Los Angeles–based club the Laugh Factory opened a new chapter in the theater’s history, adding a wraparound balcony, table seating tended by servers, and a towering blue-magenta panel backing the stage, forming the stained-glass window behind the altar of this new church of comedy. The result, according to the Chicago Tribune, is “a club that feels fully focused on one thing—standing up.”