Colonel Ingot-Whustard's Compelling Mango Gesture was devised in 2003 by Ronald Beimel, Christopher Crooks, and Michael Wakcher, a group of silly people who attended a ludicrous private high school in the patently absurd state of California. It was originally conceived as a webtoon venue for Python-based sketch comedy they had written even earlier, but when it became apparent that creating this cartoon would be more work than any of them cared to do, the idea languished for a goodly amount of time.

Several years later, upon arriving in Chicago after the completion of their various college degrees, the three of them set about reviving their sketch comedy brainchild with renewed fervor, this time as a live show. With the addition of Daniel Brown, a college cohort of Wakcher's, the group had finally found its writing core. Though Beimel was in some measure lost to the forces of economic impetus, he remains with the group in a consulting role, and also servers as the group's webmaster.

After months of writing, re-writing, revising, and so on, the three remaining writers managed to hack together their first slapdash effort – You Must Pay. CIWCMG has already performed at the Around the Coyote 2007 fall arts festival, and at Lake Forest College. You Must Pay starts its 8-week run at the Gorilla Tango Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 25th. With the fruits of their labor ready for harvest, Colonel Ingot-Whustard's Mango Gesture is exploding into the world of sketch comedy like a monsterocerous hurled by a catapult.