Tony Papaleo, improv comedian and teacher, dies

Tony Papaleo was a member of Chicago’s community of improvisational comedians in the 1970s and ’80s and then returned to acting and teaching improv after a career in business.

“Tony was the consummate improviser and the consummate creative person who was looking for any outlet to showcase his creativity and create a community that could work together to create something — whether film, on stage, improvising or scripted,” said Jeff Rogers, a longtime friend and collaborator.

Papaleo, 66, died of a heart attack April 4, said his daughter, Angela Collier. He had been a Prospect Heights resident for the past three years and prior to that had been a longtime resident of the South Side’s Beverly neighborhood.

Born in Chicago, Papaleo moved with his family to Alsip while he was a youngster. He graduated from Richards High School in Oak Lawn and studied for two years at Illinois Wesleyan University before leaving school to start working and studying improv at Chicago’s famed Second City cabaret theater.

While at Second City, Papaleo met Josephine Forsberg, who in 1971 founded The Players Workshop, Chicago’s first improv school. Papaleo graduated from the Players Workshop and soon formed a comedy troupe, called the St. Vitus Dancers, with colleagues Jim Fay and Jeff Michalski. The group performed at clubs such as the Comedy Womb and the Comedy Cottage, with bits like their takeoff on the opera “Carmen,” retitled “Carmen Kowalski.”

Papaleo also did some dramatic acting, including appearing in “The Rimers of Eldritch” at the Barry Street Loft Theater in the mid-1970s. In May 1976, Papaleo received a recommendation — effectively a nomination — for a Joseph Jefferson Award for the role.

In 1977, some members of the St. Vitus Dancers merged with some members of two other comedy groups to form the five-person Original Comedy Rangers improvisational troupe, and by 1979 they had become regular performers at the Wells Street comedy club Zanie’s, as well as at the now-shuttered Sylvester’s on Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park. The group also performed on the West Coast, at legendary venues such as the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and the Ice House in Pasadena, Calif.

“Tony did everything — he created tech stuff for us, and we were able to create shows that were a little bit ahead of everybody else because we were incorporating (videotape) and tech and film,” said Michalski, a former member of the Original Comedy Rangers who now is based in Los Angeles. “We did stuff no one did because of Tony. He was tireless.”

Michalski said that while performing, Papaleo had a style “that was exhausting in the sense that he would put his characters into a frenzy to the point where they would collapse at some point.”

“It was great fun to work with him, and we had a nice balance that way with the players that we had,” Michalski said.

The Original Comedy Rangers also created a cable TV show, which featured a variety of recorded parodies and other comedy bits — some of which can be found on YouTube.

“It was a real low-rent, DIY TV show,” Collier said. “They did a lot of work themselves, and … my dad did a ton of it.”

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In the mid-1980s, the Original Comedy Rangers disbanded, and Papaleo took a job with a printing firm. He worked for many years in the software business, handling training and software development, and later was a project manager for software firm CCC Information Services in the Merchandise Mart.

Papaleo never lost his love for improv, and after leaving CCC Information Services in 2006, rededicated himself to comedy. He formed a nonprofit, the St. Vitus Theatre Workshop, and began teaching improv classes at the Christ the King parish center in Beverly.

Papaleo also acted in and directed a variety of short films, starting in 2011.

“I think he was just excited by the idea of creating something incredible,” Papaleo’s daughter said. “If he got an idea, he would just take it and run with it and nothing could stop him until it was completed.”

At the time of his death, Papaleo had been working with Rogers and Forsberg’s daughter, Linnea, to restart The Players Workshop.

“When he re-emerged, I was delighted,” Michalski said. “He had a tremendous energy even in the last few years.”

Papaleo and his then-wife, Mary Jo, also ran the Daily Grind coffee shop at the 95th Street Metra station in Beverly for about three years, starting in 2006.

Papaleo and his wife divorced in 2013. In addition to his daughter, Papaleo is survived by another daughter, Lily; a sister, JoAnn Hanley; a brother, John; and a granddaughter;

Services were held.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.