Video: iO Theater owner Charna Halpern talks 20 years on Clark St.

Come Saturday, July 19, when the final shows are over, iO Theater on N. Clark — which has for nearly two decades operated in the shadow of Wrigley Field and trained the likes of Chris Farley, Adam McKay, David Koechner, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler — will shut down in anticipation of a move to its massive, multi-million-dollar new home on N. Kingsbury, just off North Ave. A soft opening is slated for August 1.

Owner Charna Halpern, who founded iO (formerly ImprovOlympic, after David Shepherd’s invention of the same name) with the late improv wizard Del Close, recently shared some memories of the location where their brainchild went from underground obscurity to mainstream prominence.