The Second City is a
long-running improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in
Chicago
's Old Town
neighborhood.
The Second
City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its
presence to several other cities, including Toronto
and Los Angeles
. The Second City has produced television
programs in both the United States and Canada including
SCTV, Second City Presents, and
Next Comedy
Legend, as well as being heavily involved in the creation
of the satirical 1969 sci-fi film "
The Monitors." Since its debut, Second
City has consistently been a starting point for comedians, award
winning actors, directors, and others in
show business.
History
Second
City evolved from the Compass
Players, a 1950s cabaret revue show started by undergraduates at the University of
Chicago
. The troupe chose the self-mocking name "The
Second City" from the title of an article about Chicago by
A. J. Liebling that appeared in
The New Yorker in 1952. In 1959, the
first Second City revue show premiered at 1842 North Wells Street
and moved to 1616 North Wells in 1967. Co-founder
Bernard Sahlins owned the
theater company until 1985, before selling it to
Canadian Andrew Alexander.
The style of comedy has changed with time, but the format has
remained constant. Second City revues feature a mix of
semi-
improvised and scripted
scenes with new material developed during unscripted improv
sessions after the second
act where
scenes are created based on
audience
suggestions. A Second City innovation is the inclusion of live,
improvised music during the
performance.
A number of well-known performers began careers as part of the
historic troupe and later moved to television and film. In the
mid-1970s, Second City became a source of cast members for
Saturday Night Live and
SCTV, which borrowed many of the writing and performing
techniques pioneered by Second City and other improv groups.
Along with its theaters, training centers, and television shows,
Second City also produces improv and sketch shows for
Norwegian Cruise Line.
SCTV
Second
City Television, or SCTV, was a Canadian
television
sketch comedy show offshoot from
the Toronto troupe of the Second City that ran from 1976 to
1984.
The basic premise of
SCTV was modeled on a television
station in the fictional city of Melonville. Rather than broadcast
the usual TV
rerun fare, the business, run by
the greedy Guy Caballero (
Joe Flaherty)
sitting in a wheelchair only to gain sympathy and leverage in
business and staff negotiations, operates a bizarre and humorously
incompetent range of cheap local programming. The range included a
soap opera called "The Days of the Week;"
game shows such as "Shoot the Stars," in
which celebrities literally are shot at in similar fashion to
targets in a shooting gallery; and movie
spoofs such as "Play it Again, Bob" in which
Woody Allen (
Rick
Moranis) attempts to entice
Bob Hope
(
Dave Thomas) to star in his
next film. In-house media
melodrama also
was satirized by
John Candy's vain,
bloated variety star character Johnny La Rue, Thomas' acerbic
critic Bill Needle and
Andrea Martin's
flamboyant, leopard-skin clad station manager Mrs. Edith
Prickley.
The Second City Training Center
The Second City Training Center was founded in the mid-1980s to
facilitate the growing demand for workshops and instruction from
the world famous Second City theatre. Training Centers are located
in Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles. The Training Centers have
grown substantially since the Second City Conservatory was
established in the mid-1980s under the tutelage of longtime Chicago
improv instructors and mentors
Martin de
Maat and
Sheldon Patinkin. The
Chicago Training Center has over 1,800 students in several
disciplines, including
improvisation
and
comedy writing. Former Training Center
students include
Steve Carell,
Tina Fey,
Amy Poehler,
Mike Myers,
Chris Farley,
Tim
Meadows,
Bonnie Hunt,
Stephen Colbert,
Halle Berry,
Sean
Hayes,
Amy Sedaris,
Jon Favreau,
Hinton
Battle,
Jack McBrayer,
Dave Foley and
Kevin
McDonald. Classes are taught by working professionals, many of
whom are current and former Second City performers.
The Second City Parents School
In the early days of Second City, several parents and Lincoln Park
community members—including Paul and Carol Sills and Dennis and
Mona Cunningham—started a progressive school for their children,
based on
Viola Spolin's play therapy
philosophy with her son
Paul Sills'
theater games refinements to it. Early Second City staff, and Old
Town and Lincoln Park community members, were deeply involved in
the school, including the Sillses and Cunninghams, Viola Spolin,
John Schultz, Mel Spiegel, and Beverly Gold. The progressive
curriculum included daily theater games, and many students went on
to careers in entertainment. Briefly at the original Old Town
theater site at the intersection of Clark, Wells, and Lincoln
Avenue, the school had several locations in Lincoln Park until it
closed in the mid-1970s.
Andrew Alexander
Andrew Alexander took the reins of Second City Toronto, Canada, in
1974 and formed a partnership with Len Stuart in 1976, starting The
Second City Entertainment Company. Its first television production
was
SCTV. Alexander co-developed and executive produced
over 185 half-hour shows for the award-winning comedy series, and
produced over 150 hours of award-winning television comedy.
Alexander has had co-production deals with
MGM Television, Imagine Films, Disney Studios
and United Artists, and has developed television programming for
CBC,
NBC,
ABC,
CBS,
Fox,
Comedy Central,
HBO,
Showtime, and
A&E. He has produced movies and
television with such notable talents as John Candy,
Dan Aykroyd,
Bonnie
Hunt,
Mike Myers,
Chris Farley, Rick Moranis,
Catherine O'Hara,
Martin Short,
Harold
Ramis,
Dave Thomas,
Jim Belushi,
George
Wendt,
Edward Asner, Andrea Martin,
Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey
In 1985, Alexander and Stuart became owners of Chicago's Second
City. He has produced or executive produced over 200 Second City
revues in Canada and the United States. Most recently, Alexander
has expanded The Second City TV & Film Division with offices in
Los Angeles and Toronto and was executive producer on the recently
released feature film
Intern's Academy.
He serves
on the Columbia
College
Board of Trustees, is Chair of the Gilda's Club Honorary Board (Toronto), and is
also an Honorary Member of the Chicago Gilda's Club
Board.
Awards
The Second City has twice been awarded an
Equity Joseph Jefferson Award, once in 1997
as an
ensemble in the "New Work"
category for
Paradigm Lost. The show featured
Tina Fey,
Scott Adsit,
Kevin Dorff,
Rachel Dratch, Jenna
Jolovitz,
Jim Zulevic and was directed
by
Mick Napier.
Stephnie Weir received the "Actress in a
Revue"
Jeff Award for
Second City 4.0 in 2000.
Toronto's Second City
mainstage troupe
has won four
Canadian Comedy
Awards: "Best Improv Troupe" (2001), "Best Sketch Troupe"
(2001) and "Best Comedic Play" winners
Family Circus Maximus (2002) and
Psychedelicatessen
(2003).
Theatres
Notable alumni of the Second City
See also
References
- www.imdb.com
External links
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