My Second at Second City: Just Enjoyable

Friday night I saw a show at The Second City, a famous Chicago comedy theater, whose alumni include Bill Murray, Jim Belushi, and Tina Fey. This was my second time seeing a show there; when I visited in March I saw America, All Better, which poked fun at the Obamamania and we’ve-reached-the-pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow mentality of the year surrounding the election. Unfortunately, the show Friday night had neither the thematic coherence nor broad appeal of America, All Better.

As it happens, I wasn’t even sure exactly what show we were seeing until it began and one of the actors told the audience. When I ordered tickets over the phone, I had asked for Brother Can You Spare Some Change?, which, from my understanding, was in the same political satire vein as America, All Better.  The operator informed me that Brother had recently been re-vamped and was now known as Studs Terkel’s Not Working. The fact that I had to ask her who Studs Terkel was should have been my signal that I wouldn’t understand half the jokes in the show.

That’s not to say it didn’t have its fair share of timely and sharp political and social commentary. One sketch, featuring an Iowan husband and wife lamenting the influx of “California Gays” into their state, was particularly funny (and not a little taboo). Even more politically incorrect (read: hilarious) was one which encouraged the adoption of “regular black babies,” and criticized the faddish obsession with acquiring more “exotic” offspring. Another involved the actors playing various presidents throughout the centuries—from George Washington to Obama—and it had its moments. Perhaps the best parts of the show were the audience participation sections, and mostly because, for whatever reason, the selected audience members were either outrageous or patently uncooperative. This made for an unexpectedness that had the crowd rolling.