The First Time is a regular storytelling and reading series benefiting CHIRP Radio. Each reader tells a personal story based on that month’s theme, and requests a song that’s played by our band, The First Time Three.

First Time First Blood - Tim Barnes

Tim Barnes is a Los Angeles born Chicago based comic who’s writing about himself in the third person right now, I’m not kidding. His jokes centers around race and social norms and stuff like that. Chicago Magazine has called his humor “gently absurd” and named him one of the 16 Chicago Comics You Should Check Out… in it’s 2014 fall issue, and The Chicago Tribune has described him as “a smooth wordsmith who is sharp, polished and confident…”

He has appeared on NBC, WBEZ, WGN 720 AM radio, and Vocalo.org. He hosts the interview/story podcast, It’s All True! featuring conversations with prominent comedians and entertainers including Eddie Izzard, Wyatt Cenac, Greg Proops and more.

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First Time First Blood - Dave Maher

Raised in Oklahoma and Cincinnati, Dave Maher is a Chicagoan of a dozen years and as many apartments. He has acted and improvised comedy around the city since 2008, including a glorious stint at the now-defunct Upstairs Gallery, before he transcended improv and realized that stand-up is where his brand of energetic, intellectual and autobiographical intensity fits best. He tells stories and jokes at shows around the city, including Ultimate Pleasure Forever, the show he produces and hosts at Transistor in Lakeview on the last Saturday of every month.

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First Time First Blood - Atalee Judy

Explicit

Atalee Judy is a professional stuntwoman with Chicago-based Asylum Stunts who began her career as a highly physical professional dancer and choreographer who developed an extreme release technique style of movement in 1998 that she coined The Bodyslam Technique. It's a codifed system of Falling Techniques taught to dancers to utilize better integration in/out of the floor.

She got her Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance from Columbia College, and ran a successful dance company called Breakbone DanceCo. from 1997-2013. Atalee now designs & produces her own casual wear clothing line called BONEware Clothing made from upcycled rock t-shirts (etsy.com/shop/BONEware).

She is known for her work on The Good Fight (2016), Jacketman (2015),The  Sacrifice (2014), Divergent (2014), Playland (2010), The Artsiders (2007).

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First Time First Blood - Eden Robins

Explicit

In the grand tradition of underemployed artists, Eden Robins has been: a singing waitress, a dildo salesman, a dental assistant, an abortion clinic receptionist, and a Swahili teacher, and is currently a comedy writer for big pharma. She usually writes fiction, some of which you can find online, and she is the co-host of the Chicago live lit series Tuesday Funk, as well as half of the weekly podcast Should I Worry About This?. She blogs rarely at monkeythumbs.com and tweets with some frequency @edenrobins.

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First Time First Sign - Steve Dawson and Diane Christiansen

Contain explicit language

Steve Dawson and Diane Christiansen have been co-conspirators, husband and wife, and leaders of the band Dolly Varden for more than 20 years. They live in Wicker Park with their dog Neville and their two rats, Gnocchi and Loretta. When they aren’t singing together, Diane spends her time making paintings and animations (christiansenstudio.com) and Steve teaches songwriting at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

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