Thomas - The Second City unscripted: revolution and revelation at the world-famous comedy theater

The Second City grounded me, taught me everything about acting, comedy, writing, directing, music, rhythm. The comic rhythm. The timing. It resonates in everything Ive done. To be honest, I dont know how other people do it who havent done Second City.

I was there for five years, and it was everything to me. At a certain point, I gave up doing other theater, and I went, If Im going to be good at this, I have to do nothing else. And so I went, Okay, Ill find out what this has to offer me. And it had a great deal to offer meand still does to anybody who wants to take their stupid seriously.

It definitely humbles you, because there are times when you go out there and you fail and youve got to brush yourself off and start all over again. Its kind of like being a Cubs fan. I think what I learned at Second City was that it was okay to take risks, to fall flat on my face and get back up and learn about myself. And I definitely learned to embrace the honesty of my own vulnerability.

Being in that company, in some ways you lose your fear of failure. Because there are always nights in that set when youre developing a show where everything tanks, or where youre just bombing, and you come out the other side of it, and you survive it. And thats such a great thing to get rid ofthat fear of failure.

Its given many great performers their start, but more importantly, its killed thousands of barely talented people and its put them to death, and theyre now doing the jobs theyre built for. Its because they couldnt meet the rugged standards. I used to work at this place, and they paid me poorly and miserably, but they let me drink free, and Ive never forgiven them for that.

On a snowless and seasonably mild Wednesday night in mid-December 1959, the Second City opened for business at 1842 North Wells Street, on Chicagos Near North Side. By all accounts the satire-centric, improvisation-steeped theaterhoused in the former Wong Cleaners & Dyers Chinese laundry and later described as a caucus room, fit for politics and poker and vote-swappingwas a smash success from the start. Fifty years on, with a long and luminous alumni list that includes John Belushi and Bill Murray, Steve Carell and Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey, it remains a top-tier comedy cruciblethe Harvard of ha-ha.

For those fortunate enough to earn a residency there, Second City has long been a noble end in itself as well as a potential springboard to fame. Without the skills it teaches (chief among them collaboration), the confidence it instills, and the failure it allows, much of the comedy (and, to a lesser extent, the drama) we have seen and continue to see on screens big and smallfrom Caddyshack and Ghostbusters to Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rockwould be either distinctly different in tone or simply nonexistent. And its a good bet Saturday Night Livewhose first season starred no fewer than three Second City-trained actors (John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Dan Aykroyd)would have struggled to lift off. Instead, it soared into the stratosphere.

Of course, like most good ideas, Second City didnt appear from out of nowhere. Its previous and less polished predecessor, the University of Chicago-rooted Compass Players, featured Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Shelley Berman, Barbara Harris, Severn Darden, and several other skilled actor-improvisers. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, the ensemblewhich Shepherd hoped would appeal to the working class-was a big hit among hipsters in Chicago and St. Louis from 1955 to 1958. The Compasss precursor (if only in a general theatrical sense), Play-wrights Theater Club, mounted twenty-four dramatic productions in two locations on Chicagos Near North Side between 1953 and 1955.

When Second City set up shop, Chicago was riper than ever for smart satire and cabaret-style entertainment. Though not yet the regional theater mecca it would become four decades later, the town was home to an increasing number of happening nightclubs, including Mister Kellys and the Gate of Horn, where flourished a new generation of well-informed wits such as Shelley Berman, Mort Sahl, and Lenny Bruce. The revolution was further stoked by Chicago-based Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, whose trailblazing magazine published hip humor pieces, and whose television program Playboys Penthouse provided a nationally syndicated showcase for budding talentSecond City talent included. Guest stars could often be found mingling with barely clad babes at Hefners swank North State Parkway manse, a swinging joint in its own right.

Mere blocks away, Second City was fast becoming a placefor many, the placeto see and be seen. With shows at nine and eleven P.M. every night but Monday, and an additional one A.M. performance on Saturdays (plus a postperformance improv set, which could stretch to three-thirty A.M. on Saturdays), it catered to night owl sophisticatesor those who merely fancied themselves suchand helped spur a theatrical renaissance in a city thats now rife with stages, teeming with stage actors, and host to an ongoing influx of big-budget productions.