Second City Alumni Return To Chi-Town For 50th Anniversary Par-Tay
Almost every famous hilarious comic got his or her start at Chicago's Second City, a training center, theater and overall jokester factory. Its alumni includes John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, John Candy, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Rachel Dratch. The list goes on forever because this marks the company's 50th year in the funny business. Of course, Second City has to throw itself a big birthday party to celebrate.
The company's illustrious alums will come back for a weekend-long bday party, December 11 to 13. Although it's only three days, there are a ton of events. Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harold Ramis, Martin Short and other cast members from the cult hit television show SCTV will return for two special reunion performances December 11. There will be a panel on the Colbert Report on December 12, and a Saturday Night Live panel with former players Tim Kazurinsky, Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch as well as current staff writer John Lutz will be December 13.
A don't-miss event is Second City Alumni: One Night Only, a stage revue of scenes performed by alums such as Scott Adsit, Jim Belushi, Danny Breen, Frank Caeti, Carell and Dan Castellaneta.
If you can't wait till December, you can still join in the festivities. Second City's 97th main stage revue, "America: All Better!" is playing. The show gives Second City's trademark politically tinged comedy with sketches that looked at everything from health care to technology addiction, peppered with lots of Chicago references.
However, an international audience was in the house during a recent performance we attended, with the comedians calling on an Aussie lady and Swiss man. We got a sneak peek of some bits the troupe is working on for the 50 anniversary party during the free after-show improv jam. The "Elks" sketch with chairs made us chuckle. We could totally see Steve Carell doing it.
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[Photo: Jennifer Kester]
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