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About me:

Madman productions was formed six years ago as some friends sat around talking about what there wasn't to do in this great city of Chicago. We decided that the Black Gay Community needs more than the ever-present dance clubs to look forward to. We also decided that we Blacks needed to develop these events ourselves. So as the conversation ended, we all went home determined to do something, to get started, to take a chance. Which is just what John Fleming, Jr. has done. Our friends at Chicago's only Black-owned comedy club, All Jokes Aside, agreed to let us develop Tuesday nights as Gay Pride Comedy Nights. These shows featured some of the nation's finest comedians--Coco, Mike Bonner, Melanie Comarcho, George Willborn, Tony Sculfield, and most notably, MoNique, from the hit TV sitcom The Parkers. All Jokes Aside eventually closed, so we moved to the Ivanhoe Theatre. In turn, the Ivanhoe closed at the end of 2000, but during our years there, we inaugurated Lesbian Comedy Nights to help raise money for the Lesbian Community Cancer Project (LCCP). We're also very proud of our annual Dance Festival benefiting Y-ME (The National Women's Breast Cancer Organization). Of course, we eventually added dance parties to our production schedule, too. John stays very busy producing all of this excitement. The only thing that "gets us through" is dedication to ALL of the MadMan projects.