The Second City Mainstage: See the Funniest People in the World Before Everybody Else Knows They're The Funniest People in the World

I suppose that tagline is a bit verbose, but I assure you, it is apt. At 1:00 pm on Saturday March 31st, the RCPlayers Improv Troupe gathered departed to the Mecca of Improvisation, Chicago. By 7:30 am on April 1st, we had returned, and had packed more funny into one sleep cycle than recommended by the Surgeon General.

The Second City breeds funny people. Based in Chicago, the hub of sketch and improvisation has churned out more SNL alum than any other training center and sells out their main stage every single night. This year they performed their 100th revue, loosely entitled, "Who Do We Think We Are?" I say the title is loose because, although the show debuted in January, they build and rework their sketches constantly. How do they do it? Well gersh darn it, IMPROV! Two thirds of the show we saw was completely scripted sketch material, the last third was completely improvised. I am proud to say they used one of my suggestions, gumball machine, to do an musical improv game. It is here I shall focus.

When the scene began, one man was pantomiming working on some sort of device while his supposed lady friend watched. At this point in the scene, very little is happening. The battle at the top of any improvised scene is to find out what the true meat of the scene will be. Most of the time, this is fueled partially by the relationship of the characters within the scene. But there needs to be something else. Something that makes this scene unique. We call that, "the game." CHAD, THIS CLASS IS ABOUT GAMES AND YOU JUST USED THE WORD GAME. I know. It's pretty awesome. In the previously mentioned scene, the man working on the device, which we learn to be a gumball machine, fixes it and proves to his lady friend that he is a man and can fix things. She then comments on the fact that he may be a man in this case, but has hardly been one in the bedroom of late. Ooo, our relationship has taken quite the twist, and now these characters have a specific issue to discuss. But still, it remains relatively undynamic. Suddenly, we learn part of his issue with their bedroomness is that she wants to be called strange names during their stuffs. BOOM. Strange names in bed? Isn't that something that gets a guy in trouble? Yes. And that's why it's interesting. They found their game. Each continue to one up the quirks of the other, being very funny in the process. Also, THEY DID IT IN SONG. Improvising is hard, people. Singing is hard, people. IMPROVISED SINGING IS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE. These people did it. They even harmonized at one point. Yeah. It was crazy.

For anybody who actually read this entire post, I like you a lot, and I reward you with a thank you and a link to the Second City website.

http://www.secondcity.com/

Thank you

Chad Rhiness