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It's the material, stupid
Second City's 50th anniversary tour (2nd review)
Jim Rutter
After 50 years of live performances, many original clips from Chicago's Second City troupe have found their way into digital posterity on YouTube, especially since many of its performers, such as Chris Farley, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert, subsequently became famous in their own right.
But the current cast boasts no marquee names, and therein lies the appeal of this compendium of greatest hits from the troupe's first 50 years: Neither did any of these classic sketches when they first appeared.
Back in the 1970s, Jim Belushi was a novice comic in a 20-year old troupe trying to cut his teeth on improv and sketch comedy. His son Rob, now part of the touring company, looks less polished then his dad now appears in TV and film. But that disparity only enhances the power of the writing on display at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre by showing that these skits can still elicit loads of laughter even with the passage of many years.
In one sketch, two Philadelphia bike cops flex their leg muscles in short shorts while riffing about their own worthlessness at preventing crime (here, and everywhere else, they're "vanity police"). A U.S. Senator gaffes his way through one press conference after the next. By the time he's gone from low-grade insults to mumbling the outrageous "Hitler was pretty cool," we're too busy laughing to care that it originally played seven years ago. And it'll probably be three more decades before I stop repeating the line between a husband and his newspaper-reading wife:
She: What do you think of this abortion bill?
He: Pay it.
After Second City's decidedly unfunny visit in last year's City of Nutterly Love, I didn't even want to attend this one. Philadelphia already abounds with sketch and improv comedy troupes (The N Crowd, ComedySportz, Philadelphia Joke Initiative, among many others), so why import strangers from Chicago?
The answer lies in the uniqueness of Second City's writing. Great comedians can always elevate even bad material. But in this collection, the superb writing ensures the show's hilarity. And thanks to the talents—though uneven—of the touring company, all the pieces glisten like a freshly minted coin. In ten years, current cast members Katie Rich or Tim Ryder might become the next Fey or Colbert. A tour that lets these young talents introduce themselves to the nation is a gift for both them and us.♦
To read another review by Steve Cohen, click here.
But the current cast boasts no marquee names, and therein lies the appeal of this compendium of greatest hits from the troupe's first 50 years: Neither did any of these classic sketches when they first appeared.
Back in the 1970s, Jim Belushi was a novice comic in a 20-year old troupe trying to cut his teeth on improv and sketch comedy. His son Rob, now part of the touring company, looks less polished then his dad now appears in TV and film. But that disparity only enhances the power of the writing on display at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre by showing that these skits can still elicit loads of laughter even with the passage of many years.
In one sketch, two Philadelphia bike cops flex their leg muscles in short shorts while riffing about their own worthlessness at preventing crime (here, and everywhere else, they're "vanity police"). A U.S. Senator gaffes his way through one press conference after the next. By the time he's gone from low-grade insults to mumbling the outrageous "Hitler was pretty cool," we're too busy laughing to care that it originally played seven years ago. And it'll probably be three more decades before I stop repeating the line between a husband and his newspaper-reading wife:
She: What do you think of this abortion bill?
He: Pay it.
After Second City's decidedly unfunny visit in last year's City of Nutterly Love, I didn't even want to attend this one. Philadelphia already abounds with sketch and improv comedy troupes (The N Crowd, ComedySportz, Philadelphia Joke Initiative, among many others), so why import strangers from Chicago?
The answer lies in the uniqueness of Second City's writing. Great comedians can always elevate even bad material. But in this collection, the superb writing ensures the show's hilarity. And thanks to the talents—though uneven—of the touring company, all the pieces glisten like a freshly minted coin. In ten years, current cast members Katie Rich or Tim Ryder might become the next Fey or Colbert. A tour that lets these young talents introduce themselves to the nation is a gift for both them and us.♦
To read another review by Steve Cohen, click here.
What, When, Where
Second City 50th Anniversary Tour. Directed by Bill Bungeroth. Through July 25, 2010 at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Broad and Lombard Sts. (215) 985-0420 or www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org.
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