Marc Rebillet Flies by the Seat of his Undies at Thalia Hall

No matter who you are, where you come from, what your age is...chances are that you've seen some bad improv in your life.

I'd argue that improv gets an undeserved rap, but if I'm being honest a lot of improv is not very good. And it's understandable! Making something out of nothing on the spot is incredibly challenging, let alone doing it in front of a crowd and making sure it's entertaining. That level of difficulty means that when improv is good, it's really good. And when it's bad, it can tend to be bad bad. Like the kind where everyone involved on both sides of the stage is equally uncomfortable but for some reason our social contract demands that they keep going. It's not fun to stumble upon on accident. It's even worse when it's the center of your evening. Especially if you have to pay for tickets and parking and (extremely necessary) drinks.

There's a reason that we as a society kept seeing the same rotation of faces season after season after season on Whose Line is it Anyway? The kind of skill it takes to improvise at a high level day after day without any major duds is rare, so when you find it you have to milk it for all you can. And Marc Rebillet is definitely milking himself as much as possible for our enjoyment, very publicly and sometimes on multiple consecutive nights.

I assume you I'm not being vulgar for no reason. This is the kind of wording that Marc would very much be in support of. We're talking about a man that could consider wearing nothing but a bathrobe, hat, and underwear onstage as 'overdressing'. A man whose second most popular song on iTunes kicks off with the lyric "Bring that fat ass over here/I want to get it in my mouth" (from the aptly titled 'Work That Ass for Daddy'). The self-proclaimed "Loop Daddy" himself, an all-in-one musical package like Dick Van Dyke in Marry Poppins but way less clothed and not afraid to swear in front of children. Rebillet specializes in taking any and all sounds around him (most of them coming from his own mouth but also tapping members of the audience and employing sophisticated instruments like a children's slide whistle) and looping them over various beats and effects to create completely original and improvised dance floor bangers. Think Reggie Watts but way more dick and fart jokes.

The first of Rebillet's three consecutive sold out shows at Chicago's famous Thalia Hall kicked off with a DJ set from Donna Francesca to get the crowd warmed up. Confined to one corner of the stage as Rebillet's various inflatable set pieces took up the majority of the space, she made the most of her time and square footage, doing exactly what you want the opening DJ to do: get the early birds dancing enough that they buy more drinks and then come back and dance harder (repeat 2-3 more times as necessary).

When I said that a bathrobe was considered formalwear for Marc Rebillet onstage, it wasn't just another in a long line of hilarious witty comments you've come to expect from me over the last year. It's the truth. So when he hit the stage at Thalia Hall wearing nothing but a tight pair of Cookie Monster underwear and a pair of black shoes and nothing else, it wasn't a shock to a single person in attendance. Between his constant state of undress, his spastic dancing that is more accurately described as "just punching the air a lot and throwing your head around", and a propensity to drop in and out of various characters and voices, there's a lot on paper that would make you think he was that annoying guy in Delta Sig that you absolutely could not stand. But Rebillet absolutely pulls it off. Part of it is just having unbelievable confidence and charisma. Part of it is that he's not doing it to seem cool, he's making rad music because he thinks it kicks ass and thinks you will too (and he's right). And part of it is that he's an exceptional musician.

In the same vein as bands like Spinal Tap and Tenacious D, sometimes the more humor an act incorporates, the more they're underestimated as musicians. Maybe it's the jokes overshadowing the music. Maybe it's the flawed logic of "Well if they're great musicians, they would just write regular songs". But look past the humor and you can find some outstanding musicians. Just listen to comedy legend Steve Martin absolutely rip on the banjo right from the get go in this video for a great example:

Rebillet started playing the piano at 4 and studied classical music up through the age of 15, and his musical knowledge is what makes everything he does onstage look so effortless. He'll do something as innocuous as taking a loop of himself repeating "WHATEVER, WEIRDO" over and over and somehow drop bass and some electric piano notes behind it and whip up an absolute club banger out of thin air. He can take nothing but an overly breathy and extremely overly sexual moan, slow it down and craft a funky R&B track with some of the sexiest hooks this side of an Usher album. But what allows him to joke around so much without being an actual joke is the fact that the songs he puts together are good. Like, really good. To do anything less would have him dismissed as nothing more than a novelty instead of someone that can sell out a thousand capacity venue three nights in a row.

Rebillet first came across my radar a few years back when a clip of his song 'Girls Club' went viral. This is the perfect clip to introduce you to his style of music, adding loop after loop in multiple layers to craft the foundation on which to spout his ode to secret sex clubs.

Look past the "LET ME IN I'M TRYIN' TO FUCK!" (I know, easier said than done) and see what it is that really makes this song work. The funky beat supporting the track is an absolute earworm and on top of that, Rebillet can really sing his ass off.

I'm proud to report that the same energy and skill Rebillet brought to that video and to the livestreams he does from his bedrooms/hotels translates exceptionally well to concert venues. Surrounded by what initially looks like a bounce house until you realize you're looking at an inflatable dick and balls with a pair of boobs thrown in, Rebillet spent the night making dance music insanity out of audience member birthday wishes, dirty chants, and at one point a vocal sample from a dude that looked like he was hoping to get pulled onstage by Steel Panther to take Mark Wahlburg's job as lead singer (NOTE: He absolutely hit the high notes).

The beauty of a Marc Rebillet set was on full effect at Thalia Hall during the opening night of his three night residency. For 80% of the show, no one could look up the setlist before the show or worry that they wouldn't know the songs of his older work because none of the songs he performed existed until he gave birth to them live in front of our eyes and ears. Just like his musical style, everything on the evening was just built on top of everything that came before it. Initially clad in just his underwear, by the end of the night Rebillet had borrowed a red bathrobe, a red Santa hat, and a festive red scarf from separate audience members like some kind of odd reverse striptease. He spent the majority of the night improvising the funkiest beats you'll hear off the top of his head before ending the show playing the few structured songs he has (the aforementioned 'Girls Club', 'Your New Morning Alarm', etc). But because every night is different, because all of the music is invented right in front of your eyes, it almost makes the entire thing go by too quickly. Without the traditional structure of a song ending every 4-5 minutes like a regular concert, it's easy for 90 minutes to completely fly by before you know it.

Fortunately for us, Rebillet isn't going anywhere any time soon. If you're lucky you can catch him on one of his remaining tour dates in December (tickets and dates here). But if not, there's a ton of underwear-clad YouTube videos from his hundreds of hours of streaming to tide you over until he tours again.