SNL writer and 30 Rock punching bag John Lutz wrote a piece for the Second City Network called "10 Things to Know About Life After The Second City." It's full of good advice for improvisers like "be patient," "don't hold grudges," and "if you own a pair of Skechers, throw them out," all of which double as good advice for regular people too.
There's been a lot of hubbub in the press lately about two competing Steve Jobs biopics, but now, The Chicago Tribune reports that there are two dueling movies based on the life of Del Close, the father of modern improvisational comedy. Close, amongst other things, trained dozens of well-known comedians like Bill Murray, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Amy Poehler at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic theaters from the early '70s up until his death in 1999. Here's the info on the two similar movies, one called Guru from the Second City camp and another called Del from the ImprovOlympic camp:
Guru - Produced by Second [...]
Columbia College in Chicago has joined forces with the city's esteemed Second City Theatre to offer the country's first-ever comedy degree this fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Columbia has offered theater students the chance to spend a semester studying at Second City for the past five years, but this new four-year degree in Comedy Performance and Writing "requires students to study both writing and performance, to do improvisation, physical clowning, and stand-up." Not that you need a degree at all for a career in comedy, but for those interested in paying a lot more to go through Second City's program, this is a way to do that.
The Comics Comic is reporting that SNL has brought in Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson to join the cast. They're starting in time for the season's premiere on September 15. Both are vets of the Chicago comedy scene: Second City, iO, Annoyance Theater, etc. Aidy was actually once part of a sketch group with Vanessa Bayer at the Annoyance, which is fun. Watch a few videos of the two below to get yourself acquainted. We'd be very surprised if this is it for new cast members; expect at least one other new female performer to be announced before the season kicks off.
Eugene Levy is a very funny and talented fellow who has been able to make a career out of Christopher Guest films and small roles in bad movies. For every Best in Show there is about five New York Minutes. This weekend he spoke to NPR's Weekend Edition about comedy, improvising with Tyler Perry, and getting get smart laughs from dumb jokes. He explained:
"Believe me, I've done movies that are just the lowest of the low. I've done movies that are really done without a hell of a lot of intelligence going on. But for me, doing what I do in the movie, if I do [...]
“Mom, dad. I want to be a comedian.”
Chilling words. Words that may be every parent’s worst nightmare, not necessarily because moms and pops hate laughter, but because a comic’s life is a hard one — often replete with substance abuse, loneliness, and the kind of poverty that stops being cool around your 476th cup of Ramen noodles.
I’d guess that very few parents want their kids to go into comedy, unless they’re in it themselves. That’s precisely the case for Tyler Alexander, head honcho at SecondCityNetwork.com and the heir to a Chicago comedy empire started by his dad, Second City co-owner and CEO Andrew Alexander.
Whether or [...]
Throughout Saturday Night Live's history, the show's cast has been mostly culled from four places: the stand-up world, L.A.'s Groundlings Theatre, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres in L.A. and New York, and the Chicago improv sketch/scene (the Second City, iO, and Annoyance theaters). Sure, there are wildcard hires who avoided these standard comedy training grounds, like Fred Armisen – a drummer for a punk rock bank who caught the eye of Bob Odenkirk after making some videos of himself bothering strangers at a music festival – or Anthony Michael Hall – an actor from John Hughes's Brat Pack who had a one-season run on the show in the [...]
On "It's That Episode" Craig Rowin (UCB Theatre) invites guests over to watch any episode of any TV show they want. They discuss the episode and other crap.
Michael Delaney (The Other Guys, The Stepfathers) drops by to spread some Christmas spirit with his deep love for SCTV. Get a glimpse of what it meant to be a true fanatic pre-internet: going to libraries with a razor blade to cut out SCTV news clippings, stalking Catherine O'Hara outside of 30 Rock, and driving the Second City Touring Company around Florida to get a taste of the comedy world.
This episode is brought to you by audible.com. Get a [...]
C.J. Toledano is a familiar face in the Chicago comedy community. He’s a stand-up comedian, and has a natural ease that sets him apart from many other stand-ups his age. At 25, he’s already written for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and is currently a consulting writer for the O.N.N. He takes his craft seriously, and is hard working, imaginative, and focused. But that wasn’t always the case. “I was a punk,” Toledano recalls of his college years, and his academic record can verify that. His GPA was a rocky 1.8, and he had dropped out of film school only to enroll in a university right next to his old [...]
"Old YouTube Clips of the Now Famous" is a column in which we watch old YouTube clips of now famous funny people.
Since he started on The Daily Show in 1999, Steve Carell's career steadily and surely built momentum until a few breakout roles made him one of the biggest working actors in Hollywood. In a time where it's become increasingly hard for a single performer to carry the success of a film, Carell has been able to do so handily. Not to mention, the man is obscenely talented, likeable, and funny. And yet at one point he wasn't famous and YouTube has a record of that. With Seeking [...]
Michael Patrick O'Brien is well into his fourth season as a writer for Saturday Night Live, a job he landed after spending years honing his comedy skills at Chicago's iO and Second City theaters. In addition to SNL and working on an upcoming sketch comedy album, O'Brien also hosts the popular web series "7 Minutes in Heaven," where he does bits and locks lips (or awkwardly tries to, at least) with stars such as Ellen Degeneres, Tina Fey, and the Insane Clown Posse. We had a chance to catch up with him about this season of SNL, specifically his appearance in the recent "Five Timers Club" sketch and [...]
Over the years, The Onion has branched out into TV, film, web video, and books, and now the franchise is taking on another piece of new territory: live theater. The folks behind the revered satirical news entity just announced they'll be teaming up with The Second City, another Chicago-based comedy institution, for The Onion Live!, a stage show that will tour the country this fall. In a statement, The Onion said the show will teach audiences "The Onion’s journalism secrets through a series of presentations from the same news and lifestyle experts who train The Onion’s handsome, knowledgeable staff. Audiences will learn everything from how to chase a scoop [...]
Interviews by Matt Visconage.
Improv was doomed with a semantics crisis from the start.
When long-form improvisation began to flourish as its own art form under comedy guru Del Close in Chicago in the 1980s, “improv” referred to The Improv, a popular chain of stand-up comedy clubs in dozens of cities around the country. The Palm Beach Improv, for example.
When I used to intern at an improv theater in Hollywood, it wasn’t uncommon to find a couple who wandered in from the street, expecting to see a guy with a microphone, telling jokes. Television shows like Whose Line Is It, Anyway? helped audiences distinguish improv from stand-up, [...]
this content series is produced in partnership with smartwater. smartwater, good taste travels well. Click here to learn more.
Performing comedy for the first time – whether it’s improv, sketch or standup – can be an intimidating experience, which keeps a lot of would-be first-timers from taking a stab at it. Luckily for panicky novices, though, there are several well-regarded programs that hold your hand through the getting-your-feet-wet process. While conventional wisdom seems to dictate that with standup, it’s best to get started by performing at an open mic instead of taking standup classes, sketch and improv lend themselves more to curriculum and classes, and several well-regarded [...]
