PAS#5 – The Second City

Whenever I began to research members on the cast of Saturday Night Live, there seemed to be a common theme. Everyone was from Second City. I thought, “Wow! That city has a lot of kids that grow up to be funny!”

I didn’t actually believe that, but I didn’t quite understand what it was when I first stumbled upon the name. I thought it was just basically like a farm team for baseball, except for comedy. When I read Tina Fey’s book Bossypants I began to understand a little better. She described her time performing at Second City and the important lessons she learned about improv and life. Although I obtained a better idea of what it was, I decided that it was about time to do my own research on this famous comedy theater.

So what exactly is Second City? It is a premier comedy theater group and school of improvisation. They mostly perform sketch comedy with short scenes running between 10 seconds and 10 minutes. They have a theater in Chicago and Toronto, but there is also a global group that travels and performs around the world. I’m not sure how that works since humor is different in each country and jokes could be lost in translation in other languages…but I guess it works out pretty well.

Second City has been around for over 50 years, longer than SNL! In fact, the first show opened up in December 1959 while Saturday Night Live began in October of 1975. (When it first began, the show was called NBC’s Saturday Night.) The Second City started spitting out amazing comedians and quickly gained fame. At the start of SNL’s age, legends from Second City were cast and they helped grow the reputation and fame of the company.

Many other legendary members of the cast used to perform with Second City, so it is kind of like the farm team. These fantastic comedians include Mike Meyers, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Jason Sudeikis.  (Well-known non-SNL members include Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert…must’ve been a name thing.) Aidy Bryant, the newest addition to this season’s cast is Second City alum! With the stars that the Second City has bred, I’m sure Aidy will live up to her predecessors and give us an amazingly hilarious show.

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