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The Second City

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The Second City is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe based in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, with offshoot troupes in other cities, most notably Toronto. Due to the increasing popularity of improv, additional Second City clubs have recently opened in other cities, including Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and Denver.

Second City evolved from the Compass Players, a 1950s cabaret-style revue show started by undergraduates at the University of Chicago. The troupe chose the self-mocking name "Second City" from the title of a disdainful article about Chicago by A.J. Liebling that appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 1952. In 1959 the first Second City revue show premiered. The style of comedy has changed with the times, but the format has remained constant. Second City revues feature a mix of semi-improvised and scripted scenes. New material is developed during unscripted improv sessions, where scenes are created based on audience suggestions. A Second City innovation is the inclusion of live, improvised music in the performance.

A number of important performers got their start as part of the troupe and later moved on to television and movie careers. In the mid-1970s, Second City Chicago became a source of players for the Saturday Night Live television show, which borrowed many of the writing and performing techniques pioneered by Second City and other improv groups. Shortly thereafter members of the Toronto troupe created the "SCTV" television show.

The Second City also has several schools of improvisation, most notably in Chicago, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Various alumni and noteable performers have taught at these institutions, which have grown substantially since the Second City Conservatory was established in the mid-1980's under the tutelage of longime Chicago improv instructor and mentor Sheldon Patinkin. As of this writing, the Chicago school has over 1,400 students in several disciplines, including improvisation and comedy writing.

Contents

Notable alumni of the Chicago Second City troupe

first year in the 1950s/1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s and beyond

Notable alumni of the Toronto Second City troupe

Notable alumni of the Cleveland Second City troupe

Notable alumni of Second City Detroit

Notable alumni of The Second City Las Vegas troupe

Notable alumni of the Compass Players

External links

 

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