Many of the most exciting comedians performing right now on stage, on your television, on your laptop, phone, and probably on repeat in your head were once part of a specific class of comedians that were in Chicago at the same time. Known by being part of The Lyon’s Den open mic or part of The Blerds, you might better know some of them now as Kyle Kinane, TJ Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Hannibal Buress, Pete Holmes, Nick Vatterott, John Roy, or Matt Braunger who has an hour Comedy Central special tomorrow night. We’re not going to go into what was in the water in Chicago because, honestly, we don’t know. 

What we do know is that one, Pat Brice, was part of that group. To this day and most assuredly well beyond it, Brice is spoken of in fond admiration by many in that beyond exceptional class of Chicago comics. Some of them have pictures hanging on their walls in remembrance. Depending on how big of a comedy nerd you are, you might have heard his name in one of your randomly social networking feeds or brought up on Holmes’ You Made It Weird with Kyle Kinane (at min. 39.) Yet, he is a source of inspiration for a lot of the much more oft-spoken names above and rightfully so for how funny he was (and we’ve only seen clips). 

He sadly passed away 5 years ago today, but, as some of you might as well know, there is no better way to remember a comedian than remembering his comedy, which you can do right now right here or here.