Second City, the long-running improvisational troupe, is hitting the road to celebrate its 50th year at the forefront of comedy.
Over the years, Second City has been a breeding ground for performers who would go on to be huge names in comedy — from Joan Rivers, John Belushi and Bill Murray to Tina Fey, Jane Lynch and Steve Carell.
Out cast member Abby McEnany said, for her, it’s all about being in Second City, as opposed to seeing the gig as a possible stepping-stone to bigger things.
“We get to perform scenes that Tina Fey wrote and Steve Carell did,” she said. “So I think that if somebody is at Second City and their whole eye is on something that is going on after Second City, their time isn’t being well served. It’s pretty exciting to go out and represent this theater company that has produced these great people.”
The 42-year-old performer joined Second City three years ago, when she took the opportunity to enact a drastic career change.
“I worked for a long time at a real job and then I auditioned for Second City several times and finally got hired,” she said. “I worked at a company called Morning Star. It does financial analysis and financial data for investors. I worked for 10 years there: five years in the customer-service department and five years as a technical writer. It was definitely a shift.”
She added that even though Second City is one of the biggest and best-known groups in the world of improv comedy, making the leap from the corporate world to the stage came with sacrifices.
“Generally, it’s not enough [money] to live comfortably on, so everybody has little jobs whether it be teaching, coaching, waiting tables or temping. But this is what I do full-time. This has been my dream for so long and Second City was the job that I wanted. When I finally got it, I couldn’t believe it. It felt really right and I’ve never regretted it.”
When the Second City touring company pulls into town for a string of shows July 13-25, the group, which features Rob Belushi (son of Jim), Brooke Bagnall, Tim Ryder and Rachel Miller, will perform skits and sketches dating back to the ensemble’s early days.
But will sketches written 50 years ago hold up to today’s standards?
“I think it’s different,” McEnany said. “There’s one scene that was originally performed in 1960. The scene is the same but there are updates of the references in it. So it’s funny how something from 50 or 40 years ago still plays. It’s pretty incredible. We do a scene from 1960 and it works just great.”
While McEnany and the other current castmembers help to write and create new sketches for Second City, the retrospective nature of the show means there is little room for their own work on this anniversary tour.
“We are able to write our own material but all the shows we do in the touring company are sold as a best-of Second City shows,” she said. “So it’s usually 80-percent archived, 10-percent improv and 10-percent original. But I’m not sure how many originals are going to be in the 50th anniversary for Philly yet.”
McEnany added the 10 percent of improv is probably going to be the highlight of the show.
“We don’t have the final running order yet, but there’s a really fun one that I’m positive that we’ll be doing that involves audience participation, which is really fun. Sometimes when I go to shows I’m like, ‘Oh God, I don’t want to get picked.’ But when you’re at a Second City show, the goal is to make the person participating look like the star. So it’s not very scary. It’s real fun and they’ll be taken care of.”
Catch the Second City 50th Anniversary Tour July 13-24 at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St. For more information, visit www.secondcity.com or call (215) 985-0420.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].