The Second City

Last night, I attended a comedy show by this troupe called The Second City at James Madison University. I really didn't know much about them before going to the show, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and they were hilarious. Apparently quite a few comedians and actors today have gone through the ranks of this troupe such as Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert, and Mike Myers. It has been a starting point for many actors and comedians in the show business and its alumni have gone on to many different things such as SNL, Wayne's World, The Daily Show, 30 Rock, and Conan.  Second City is an improvisational comedy group from Chicago. Since starting in the late fifties, they have been touring all over the country performing at a wide variety of locations, including colleges and universities. 

Their skits ranged from awkward dinner dates to political debates and many forms of standup comedy. They also did a lot of audience participation which I thought was funny because they had to come up with stories and jokes on the spot and think fast about it. Even after just hearing something, they were always able to come up with elaborate stories and jokes to make everything in the audience laugh. In fact, I think some people never stopped laughing through the 90 minutes of the show. 

If anyone has the opportunity to see them perform live anywhere I would highly recommend it. Tickets were only $5 so it was a steal to see that much talent perform for so cheap.

Unprotected Rights

Protecting your work is extremely important! Here's a little story that stresses how important. One of my professors from my old school (Carey Eidel) lived in LA for a short period of time as an actor. He and his friends wrote a skit. The skit was that they had replaced the door man of the Ritz hotel with the decaf coffee crystals. At the time, coffee crystals were being advertised like crazy I guess, so they decided to make fun of it. In order to shoot this they wanted to ask permission of the Ritz hotel to film outside of the hotel. When they asked I think they were denied so instead of changing things around they decided to wait for the door man on his shift to go inside on a bathroom break. Once he did so they placed and can of the coffee crystals where he was standing, filmed it, and then interviewed people walking in if they had noticed that they had replaced the door man with coffee crystals. I think they may also have filmed each other being interviewed with some funny lines. When they put everything together and edited it and presented it and pitched it to SNL they said they liked the idea but they didn't want to buy it. The next up and coming Saturday Carey and his friends sat down to watch Saturday night live, this is what they saw: (not mirrored of course)

They knew immediately that they had stolen their idea. They contacted a lawyer and he said to them that basically there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. It would cost them more to sue them than what they'd get back if they won their case. So Carey and his friends took a punch. I personally loved the skit and am glad it was produced, however I do wish for my professor that their skit had been payed for even if it were a fraction of the price they usually payed, just for the idea. This was the original commercial that they were making fun of at the time.

 

I actually think I would have liked to have seen them replace the door man and have peoples same reactions. It would have been just as funny. Especially if SNL went the step further with Chris Farley's reaction to it.