I’ve spoken about the Annoyance theater before on the show, especially in the episodes with Susan messing (my ex wife) and Ed Furman. ( my always improv crush). But in all honesty, it completely slipped my mind that they had been preceded on the stages by many years by the true Annoyance pioneer, my guest today Rebecca Sohn. I think it’s important to point this out, because the Annoyance theater was always the place where truly ANYTHING went, and while that may have been incredibly psyc...

Todays guest, Jean Villipique had what one might consider a “prototypical” career on the stages of the Second City Chicago, having written and performed two shows in both the ETC theater and then the Main Stage, insuring she got a solid dose of every experience offered by the Second City. As in all of our episodes we’ll get into these experiences and Jean’s observations on them, but Jean holds a special place in my heart not for her on stage contributions, which are impressive in their o...

The second city has always aspired to be more than just funny, otherwise they wouldn’t include the quote dubbing them “the temple of satire” in EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF PARAPHANILIA THEY PUT OUT. (this may be a slight exaggeration)Point is they need people with opinions, people who have experienced some of the things that the second city audience will relate to AS WELL AS people who have experiences that may not be so familiar to the audience, but are important to understand. As I’ve stated...

As a breeding ground for satire and comedy, the second city has long had a reputation for producing comedy anarchists, and with good reason. Names like Belushi, Farley or Tim Robinson immediately conjure images of untethered, primal forces of nature wreaking havoc on anything in their paths. But all of this unbridled energy is useless if there is no focus. A cannon is only effective when you have someone to point it in the right direction and pull the trigger at the appropriate time. To...

For decades in Chicago, and I suspect in Toronto, the path to employment at the Second City was similar for the vast majority of people. Take classes at second city and other spots around town, do free shows for several years and hope that you don’t get a total beginner in your tourco audition. Spoiler, more often than not you will get that overeager scene partner who will talk nonstop until your audition is over and …….see you next year.As the company grew, more opportunities for emplo...

This episode is about a dream. sooooo many of the second city performers of the last 20 years discovered improv in college, moved to Chicago right afterwards with the singular goal of performing on the main stage of the second city. Most people don’t ever get to live that dream. Today’s guest is one of those dreamers.If you’ve listened to a few episodes of our show it’s obvious what a big fan I am of all of our guests, but I can honestly say that there is no guest I will ever have...

The last several years have been tumultuous to say the least for the Second City. Though the theater had been making strides to be more inclusive since the mid 90’s, their approach was superficial, Making sure there were diverse faces on the stages was progress, but the efforts seemed to stop short of including the points of view that diversity should provide. The definition of “inclusion” also was changing. In 1972, if you had proposed a cast with 3 men and 3 women there wou...

We talk with Frank Caeti about his recent experience directing The new Chicago ETC show "The Best Decision You've Ever Made", the first Second City show since the pandemic.Also some fun stories about touring with complainers (in a good way), taking a TV job, our mutual love of the Second City AND where we hope it's headed in the future.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondcitizenspod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/SecondCitizens_

We talk to Mark Beltzman about working with Del Close in the 80's as long form improv was being invented.We also discuss losing a spot on the Main Stage to Chris Farley, being at Del Closes death bed and carrying on the artform of improvisation for the next generations. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondcitizenspod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/SecondCitizens_

When Second city alums describe their years at the theater, the vast majority refer to it as “the best job” they ever had. There are any number of reasons for this, the camaraderie you develop with your castmates, the thrill of the audiences applause, or just the fact that you are being paid to make shit up. What ever those reasons may be, they can almost all be distilled into one word.. “Fun”The word Fun just kept popping up in my mind when I was thinking of ways to describe today’s guest. T...