Scott Adsit. Jack McBrayer. Tim Meadows. Meredith from "The Office". A bunch of Adult Swim writers. Grace from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." A coupla good female comics that escape my mind. Harold Ramis. Betty Thomas. Homer Jay Simpson. The portly fellow from "Curb Your Enthusiam". Jim freaking' Belushi. Fred Willard. Robert Klein. David Steinberg. Dick Schall. Joyce Sloan. Mina Kolb. Champ from "Anchorman". Debbie Downer. Whatsername behind "Big Fat Greek Wedding".And those are just the Second City alumnus that my group saw.
It was the big five-oh for Chicago's landmark home of humor and improv, and I had the freakish fortune of being able to see four events in the The Second City's big show. You know its influence, and you know who's come out of there. That's why it was such a delight to see some shows. Did we see the exclusive Chicago edition of "The Colbert Report?" No. Did we see the big, classic anniversary show featuring 50 years of classic skits and performers? Well, not live… But did we see and hear about one of the best cultural cornerstones Chicago has to offer? Damn straight.
And now, a recap of what we did, what we saw, what we checked on IMDB, and what we may (or may not) have snuck into.
The Scene: Seeing as it's the anniversary of an institution that's responsible for the work of such greats as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Tina Fey and even Jason Sudeikis, we need tickets. Who are we? Lis, Mark and Jessica all played linebacker on the phones to get tickets on the Friday morning everything was on sale. Karen and I were fourth and fifth wheels. Of the seemingly small 20 shows to be on the slate, we somehow slipped our way into having tickets for four shows. Here are the shows in chronological order. And in honor of the festivities, I've improvised this article, with no outline, and no idea of how I'm writing it. So much just happened. Um, like everything else I ever write…
2pm on Saturday, "The State of the Sitcom."
- Scott Adsit got the attention he probably deserved.
- Jack McBrayer was toned-down cute. But cute.
- Poor questions were asked.
- Writing can apparently be learned on the job.
- Improvisation is great for ideas (a common thread throughout the weekend).
- Meredith ("The Office") was in Second City?
Until 10pm.
- Twin Anchors bar, where Harvey Dent shot someone…
- Also where I have now had holiday drinkies.
- And another bar… I forgot the name of it at that point. But musings on jazz and nude Palin portraits were certainly discussed. Of this I think I can be sure.
10pm, "All Girls Revue."
- Karen was squealing for comped vodka…
- Edie McClurg? Yeah, she's more than a John Hughes "that-girl." She was funny as hell. Reading awkward letters from a middle-aged singles' website, McClurg "gee-golly" speaking manner made Christian men seem freaking' hysterical.
- Placenta humor exists
- I guess chicks — such as Jane Morris, Dee Ryan, Ruth Rudnick, Kathleen Campbell and Mary Wachtel — can be funny without compromising femininity.
11pm, What may or may not have been our sneaking into a VIP party...
- Yes, party crashing is tacky (see: White House), but dude!
- Free Miller, Lou Malnoti's , and Eli's.
- Saw: Kevin Farley (Chris's brother), Nia Vardalos (of Greek fame), DAvid Koechner (kind enough to take a picture, then another because something ate it with their blackberry…), Rachel Dratch, and the rest is admittedly a little blurry.
- You know that super-show that I mentioned? The one with the classic skits that was rocking eBay at $2500 a ticket? Well, we saw that show projected in the VIP room. So we saw Steve Carell do Pictionary with Paul Dinello. We saw Scott Adsit hit on someone at a funeral. We saw Dan Castelleneta do "not Homer".
- Karen got me back in. Thanks darlin'.
- I almost, almost, almost accidentally wandered on to the mainstay while looking for a john.
- We were there till 2? How the hell?
We'll just skip to:
1pm. "From Stage to Screen."- Outstanding panel of alumnus that have made it in one way or another in TV of film.
- Harold Ramis worked at Playboy? Robert DeNiro's foul-mouthed improv scared the shit outta Egon? He still thinks of himself as a schmuck? And, he has two acting modes: Smirking, and no emotion.
- Betty Thomas was a substitute teacher? Well, at least she had grace and humility in admitting to making concessions with studios. What I'm saying is she laughed off "The Squeakquel" pretty well.
- Jeff Garlin said he had a vagina.
- Dan Castellenata was so cute and small. He had good NIU stories about George C. Scott impersonations in the snow.
- Jim Belushi, was actually, quite, tolerable. He was grateful for his career, and made the best of a dick-y question about his brother's death. I guess Roger Ebert was first to console Belushi.
- When Garlin said he'd like to make a movie like "Groundhog Day," Harold Ramis responded that he too would like to make a film like "Groundhog Day."
- Kogan kicked ass as moderator. Great question: who's the funniest person you know?
- Bonus! There was a five-minute cuss-out after the guests were embarrassed about swearing in front of young girl.
- Kogan kicked ass as moderator. Great question: who's the funniest person you know?
- Bonus! There was a five-minute cuss-out after the guests were embarrassed about swearing in front of young girl.
4pm. "Second City in the Sixties."- Yowzers! Apparently, we saw the holy grail in this one. This had the most visible alum in the audience (Sweetchuck, Richard Kind,
- 2 founders, 2 gals, Fred Willard, Robert Klein and a crew of classic members from the City's beginnings.
- We found out about the first uses of the words "shit" and "fuck" on the mainstage.
- Howard Klein was a dirty young man, and a hammy old man. "Conservative debutantes from Evanston." Noted.
- Mina Kolb "didn't notice" the men. She of course, was the star right?
- Bernie Sahlins and Sheldon Patinkin were vying for best, and most correct old stories. But that didn't make the whole decade of work any less interesting. Yeah, a lot happened. But I guess current were secondary to great performances.
- Fred Willard is arguably the greatest straight man of all time. No one can say "catatonic fit" as well as he.
- Ladies and gentleman, the first generation. They answered to no one.
Sorry if that rambled on a bit. But, it was totally worthwhile to account for all that happened.
To all the people we saw, and the very institution that is The Second City, thanks so much.
NOTE: All photos are from The Second City's Facebook group.
BONUS: An addendum. I was contacted by Brent Burdick, a web specialist from AKA Media, a Chicago-based outlet for media services. He asked if I'd be willing to put up this video. It features red-carpet interviews from the weekend, and some information about the LOL scholarship. Why not? It's not schilling, and it has some great, interesting stuff to watch. So hey, think of this as the cherry on top, and a better picture of who and what was seen. Thanks for asking Brent. And thanks for reading.
PUMA and Second City's LOL Scholarship - watch more funny videos
