Raise a glass to ‘The Drinking Play’ and kiss your liver goodbye

Bye-bye, liver. Hello laughs.

“Bye Bye Liver: The Philadelphia Drinking Play,” the pub-themed comedy that’s been playing in Chicago for seven years, has come to Philly for two shows every Saturday at Urban Saloon on Fairmount Avenue.

“People like to go out and blow off a little steam, and a lot of comedy comes along with that,” says producer Sylvain Lucarelli.

The shows are now being performed in several cities, from Nashville to Milwaukee. It all started at the Pub Theater Company in Chicago with a mission to have fun with the subject of alcohol.

“We don’t have a stance on it,” says Lucarelli on the topic of alcohol. “It’s not that alcohol is bad or alcohol is good, but it’s an undeniable truth that people go out and drink regularly. Going to the bar is one of our biggest rituals.”

“Bye Bye Liver” features drinking-themed sketch comedy routines performed by a cast of eight, with drinking games between the skits.

“The sketches include what really goes on in the women’s bathroom … to what happens when a trivia night goes wrong,” Lucarelli says.

The skits are tailor-made for the discriminating Philly audience.

“In Philadelphia, it’s different than in other cities like Boston,. The people here are more fun and more open to the gambit of humor,” says Lucarelli, a Jersey Shore native and the producer of both the Philly and Boston “Bye Bye Liver” shows. “They’re more accepting of crossing over the lines than in other cities.”

So bye-bye, good taste?

“Philly has a great drinking culture and that what we focus on in our shows,” Lucarelli says. And it’s all in good fun.

“It’s an interactive event,” he says. “Stick around after the show and the cast comes out and has a drink.”

Naturally.