Second City - "The first family of comedy"

If you've made it to TBPAC over the past few years to see Second City's 45th anniversary tour, or their collection of material titled Sex in the Second City, you know first-hand how good these folks are live.

If you've pretty much watched anything funny in the last 50 years, odds are someone from Second City had something to do with it. Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Amy Sedaris - all second city alumni currently working their tails off. Go back a bit further and you see Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, Dan Castalleneta or Bonnie Hunt. Dig further to find John Candy, Rick Moranis, Bill Murray or John Belushi. Can you still go back further? Try Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Fred Willard, Alan Arkin or Joan Rivers. Joan Rivers? Yep. Even Joan Rivers. That's five decades of some of the best writers and comedians that the country has seen.

And that's one of the things that makes seeing Second City's live show such a joy. You could come out and see them this Saturday night, laugh til it hurts, then in two or three or 10 years see a face on TV. You know it, you're positive of that. After digging for your program from that show you saw back in '08, you realize you saw them live on stage.

Ok, so it's completely possible that no one in the show is going to go on to be the next Belushi or Carrell, but you can't write the possibility off. And in any event, you're sure to laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more.



Second City plays TBPAC's Ferguson Hall on Saturday night (live!) with their show One Nation, Under Blog.