Second City

For those who don’t know what Second City is – it’s worth it to wikipedia them now. It has been an unbelievably successful comic training ground for 50 years. Many comics you know have walked to their current success through Second City’s doors. This includes older actors like Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, and Ed Asner; veteran SNL alums such as John Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner; recent SNLers Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers; and generally hilarious people such as Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Adam McKay, Dan Castalanetta, and Trey Stone. Let’s just say… Second City has many leather bound books.

We saw a show called “Between Barack and a Hard Place,” and let’s just say: it was a very high notch. I wouldn’t say they were significantly better than any other comedy shows I’ve ever seen, but they were trying to do something in a significantly different way from the United Citizens Brigade, for example. They tried to do individual sketches, disconnected from sketches before and after. There is a reason so many SNL stars come from Second City. What they do is the closest thing I have ever seen approaching anything that is Live from New York.

The Actors – I haven’t wikipedia’d them so I have little information on them. I think the only reason I am writing this is on the off chance one of these guys makes it.

• Joe Canale – Butch liked this guy
• Ithamar Enriquez – Solid
• Molly Erdman- she’s the woman form the Sonic commercials. That’s kind of cool
• Brad Morris- Hal and my favorite
• Amber Ruffin- mediocre
• Brian Gallivan – they call him the Bri man
• Mark Swaner – he’s funny cause he’s bigger than regular size

Some Selected Punchlines/ Jokes
“Attention Surplus Disorder”… IRA is pissed at radical Islam that no one is afraid of them… Sequels always suck, don’t buy the New testament… Why are you smoking? To keep my unborn baby small so it’ll be easier to push out… terrorists watching the local news to figure out how to pull off an attack… Thanks to Islam and immigrants- “It’s good to be black”…

That looks like the inside jokes written on the back of the Second City sweatshirt. If anyone can come up with a design for the front side, let us know…