This week, we got DIBS on Jeff Mauro, Food Network host, comedian, musician, and proud Chicagoan who built a career by blending two hometown obsessions: comedy and sandwiches. Jeff takes us from a big Italian-American kitchen to Taste of Chicago, from Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding to the Food Network Star stage, and shares what it really takes to turn a point of view into a long-lasting career.

We talk about growing up in the Chicagoland area with food at the center of everything, the moment Jeff realized humor was his superpower, and why he never stopped chasing the dream, even when he was ready to be “good” with a normal life. He also breaks down Chicago sandwich culture (yes, we go there), what people still get wrong about Italian beef, and how food TV is evolving in the age of YouTube, influencers, and short-form clips.

Jeff is also bringing a live, variety-style show to City Winery Chicago on January 22, a night of stories, music, food, and off-the-cuff comedy that feels like the most Jeff Mauro thing possible.

In this episode, we cover:

1. Jeff’s Chicago upbringing and why food was always the epicenter
2. How comedy became his superpower in third grade
3. Moving to LA and finding the Chicago community out west
4. The long road to Food Network Star and what finally made it click
5. Why “being famous” is not a career and what creators miss today
6. Sandwich King's origins and the power of a clear culinary point of view
7. Hot dog as a sandwich debate (with a surprisingly poetic answer)
8. Jeff’s current favorite Chicago sandwich picks
9. Food Network’s shifting landscape and why live performance is the next wave
10. Why Jeff loves Chicago: grit, beauty, authenticity, and zero tolerance for nonsense

Episode Resources:

1. Jeff Mauro live at City Winery Chicago — January 22
2. Mauro Provisions (including Jeff’s Jardiniera, now available at Whole Foods across the Midwest and Walmart)

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

This week, we got DIBS on Chris Candy, actor, musician, and executive producer of the new Amazon Prime documentary John Candy: I Like Me. From Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to Uncle Buck to Home Alone, John Candy helped define Chicago on screen for a generation. Now, his son Chris is pulling back the curtain on the man behind the roles: the working actor, the dad, and the human being who was as generous off-camera as he was hilarious on-camera.

Set against the backdrop of the holidays, when John Candy movies are basically required viewing in Chicago, this conversation dives into grief, legacy, and what it means to share a parent with the world. Chris talks candidly about losing his dad at just eight years old, why the family waited three decades to make a documentary, and how I Like Me became his way of both honoring and finally processing that loss.

If you grew up on John Candy movies, love Chicago holiday classics, or are navigating your own “Dead Dad Club” grief, this one’s going to hit you right in the feelings.

In this episode, we cover:

1. How John Candy: I Like Me came to life, from early ideas to teaming up with Colin Hanks and Ryan Reynolds
2. Why the Candy family saw this as the definitive documentary and decided now was the right time
3. What it was like for Chris to grieve in public and privately at the same time
4. The emotional weight of revisiting his dad’s life through old footage, friends’ stories, and fan memories
5. Macaulay Culkin’s powerful recollection of working with John on Uncle Buck and how John treated kids on set
6. The Chicago DNA running through John’s most iconic roles and why the city still feels like “America in one place”
7. How comedy, kindness, and vulnerability can all coexist in one person
8. What Chris hopes people remember about his dad after watching the film
9. The strange, tender camaraderie of the “dead dads’ club” and why talking about grief matters
10. Why John Candy felt like someone audiences could trust, especially kids watching him on screen

About John Candy: I Like Me

John Candy: I Like Me is an intimate look at the beloved actor’s life, career, and inner world, from his early days on SCTV to Hollywood stardom. Featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and family, the film explores not just the characters we love but also the man who played them and the son still learning who his father was.

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

A Red Orchid Theatre is one of Chicago’s most intimate and fearless stages, with just 60 to 70 seats, no distance between actor and audience, and storytelling that asks you to lean in. This week on DIBS, we sit down with Kirsten Fitzgerald, longtime ensemble member and Artistic Director of A Red Orchid Theatre, to talk about the craft, community, and Chicago spirit that have kept the company pushing artistic boundaries for more than 30 years in the heart of Old Town.

Kirsten takes us from growing up in Lake Bluff and discovering theater as a calling, to training in the Midwest, to returning to Chicago in the mid-90s and finding her artistic home at A Red Orchid after seeing a production in 1995 that changed everything. Along the way, she shares the company’s origin story, founded by Guy Van Swearingen, Michael Shannon, and Lawrence Grimm, why the name A Red Orchid carries deeper meaning than most realize, and what it takes to build art that lives right on the edge of something honest.

In this episode, we cover:

• The making of an actor: The first productions that blew Kirsten’s mind, why theater felt like a real calling in high school, and how Midwest training helped shape her craft.
• Returning to Chicago: Coming home after grad school, building a sustainable acting life, and how her day job at Thresholds turned into theater-driven work through games, interviewing skills, and social practice.
• How A Red Orchid started: The founding story, the Old Town space, and how a firefighter's schedule, a DIY mindset, and a rented room turned into a company that’s lasted more than 30 years.
• Why the room matters: What it means to do theater with 60–70 seats, how intimacy changes performance, and why audiences sometimes need time to sit and process before they can even stand up.
• Choosing a season as an ensemble: How the company reads year-round, votes on plays, balances classics with new work, and builds seasons around urgency, relationships, and what’s “eating at” the group.
• What’s coming next: Kirsten’s excitement for Birds of North America (which she’s directing), the themes she’s drawn to this season, and why she wants everyone to “just walk in the door.”

Purchase tickets to Birds of North America here.

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman