Improv Review ...Because Improv is Art, Dammit

Watching Second City Alumni get together and jam should be on everyone’s list of life’s simple pleasures. Watching ten masters of the craft play together is a joy, and proves that the statement “all improv must fail at times” is a lie. Images that come to mind are watching veteran ballplayers at a game of pepper, or watching a master chef prepare a simple meal in his home as he carelessly and confidently knows by feel just how much paprika to add.

They took a bunch of suggestions at the top of the show, and then proceeded to perform sketches based on the words or phrases. For Super Bowl, we were treated to the male viewers discussing domestic issues like how to communicate with their wives, and for paperboy, the blind paperboy was urged to the abyss (At the Atheneum, the stage was separated from the audience by a ten foot deep orchestra pit, this was a literal abyss). I was surprised at how quickly I was able to suspend my disbelief and believe that paperboy was in trouble.

The explosion of the Hindenberg was explained: the kitchen staff left the stove on. The phrase “porn star” actually refers to a star in the Porn constellation, which of course leads to an alternative explanation of the Milky Way. A suggestion of uterus produces a scene about a post-operative hospital stand-up show, with the surgeon and the hysterectomy patient both taking turns at the mike.

One of the best sketches of the night was a status reversal scene involving a janitor and two high school teachers. While the teachers initially condescend to the janitor, he points out to them the similarity of their two positions, and the superiority of his own, in that he didn’t spend all those years in college just to come back to school. And he makes more money. By the end, the educators are quitting their jobs.

It’s sad that these players don’t work together regularly, but heartening that they’re spreading their talents over a wider field. If you ever have opportunity to see a similar gathering of Second City talent, don’t even think twice about it.

<<<<<<< Back to Improv Review

<<<<<<< Back to Improv Review