The Second City
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The Second City is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe based in the Old Town area 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 1949. 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 (known as blackouts). 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.
Notable alumni of the Chicago Second City troupe
first year in the 1950s/1960s
- (1959) Severn Darden
- (1959) Barbara Harris
- (1960) Paul Sand
- (1960) Alan Arkin (The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming)
- (1961) Joan Rivers
- (1961) Avery Schreiber
- (1961) Anthony Holland
- (1961) Melinda Dillon (A Christmas Story, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
- (1961) Bill Alton
- (1961) Del Close
- (1963) Jack Burns (Burns & Schreiber, Fridays)
- (1965) Robert Klein (SNL)
- (1965) Fred Willard (Fernwood 2Nite)
- (1967) Peter Boyle(Young Frankenstein, Everybody Loves Raymond)
- (1969) Joe Flaherty (SCTV)
- (1969) Brian Doyle-Murray
- (1969) Harold Ramis (SCTV, Ghostbusters)
1970s
- (1971) John Belushi (SNL)
- (1973) Bill Murray (Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation)
- (1973) Betty Thomas (Hill Street Blues)
- (1975) George Wendt (Cheers)
- (1974) Michael Gellman
- (1976) Shelley Long (Cheers)
- (1978) James Belushi (SNL According to Jim)
- (1978) Tim Kazurinsky (Police Academy)
- (1979) Mary Gross (SNL)
1980s
- (1983) Richard Kind (Spin City)
- (1986) Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons)
- (1986) Bonnie Hunt (Life With Bonnie)
- (1989) Chris Farley (SNL)
- (1989) Tim Meadows(SNL)
1990s and beyond
- (1990) Bob Odenkirk
- (1991) Steve Carell (The Office, Anchorman)
- (1992) Paul Dinello
- (1992) Amy Sedaris (Strangers with Candy)
- (1993) Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report)
- (1995) Rachel Dratch (SNL)
- (1995) Adam McKay
- (1996) Tina Fey (SNL)
- (1997) Jim Zulevic
- (1998) Stephnie Weir (MADtv)
- (1998) Horatio Sanz (SNL)
Notable alumni of the Toronto Second City troupe
- (1973) Dan Aykroyd (SNL, Ghostbusters, Driving Miss Daisy)
- (1973) Jayne Eastwood (SCTV, This is Wonderland)
- (1973) Joe Flaherty (SCTV)
- (1973) Brian Doyle Murray (SNL)
- (1973) Gilda Radner (SNL)
- (1974) John Candy (SCTV, Uncle Buck, Canadian Bacon)
- (1974) Eugene Levy (SCTV, American Pie)
- (1974) Catherine O'Hara (SCTV, Home Alone)
- (1974) Rosemary Radcliffe (Coming Up Rosie, Anne of Green Gables)
- (1975) Andrea Martin (SCTV, My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
- (1975) Dave Thomas (SCTV, Strange Brew)
- (1977) Del Close
- (1977) Robin Duke (SNL, SCTV)
- (1977) Martin Short (SCTV, SNL, Father of the Bride)
- (1977) Dave Thompson
- (1979) Derek McGrath
- (1979) Tony Rosato (SCTV, SNL)
- (1983) Debra McGrath (Getting Along Famously)
- (1986) Mike Myers (SNL, Wayne's World, Austin Powers)
- (1987) Ryan Stiles (The Drew Carey Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?)
- (1988) Colin Mochrie (Blackfly, Whose Line Is It Anyway?)
- (1989) Patrick McKenna (The Red Green Show, Traders)
- (1990) Kathryn Greenwood (Whose Line Is It Anyway?)
- (1990) Karen Hines
- (1990) Gary Pearson
- (1998) Gavin Crawford (The Gavin Crawford Show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes)
- (2001) Aurora Browne
Notable alumni of the Cleveland Second City troupe
- (2002) Jack Hourigan
Notable alumni of Second City Detroit
- (1993) Jerry Minor
- (1993) Suzy Nakamura
- (1996) Larry Joe Campbell
Notable alumni of The Second City Las Vegas troupe
Notable alumni of the Compass Players
- Alan Alda
- Rose Arrick
- Del Close
- Severn Darden
- Andrew Duncan
- Theodore J. Flicker
- Barbara Gordon
- Mark Gordon
- Barbara Harris
- Elaine May
- Anne Meara
- Mike Nichols
- David Shepherd
- Jerry Stiller