The Second City theater is arguably the best improv group in America. For decades it has been the stepping stone to comedy immortality through Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and hundreds of movies and television comedies. Its roots stretch back to 1959 and it has produced the most impressive group of improvisational players this country has ever seen, including Mike...
more The Second City theater is arguably the best improv group in America. For decades it has been the stepping stone to comedy immortality through Saturday Night Live, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and hundreds of movies and television comedies. Its roots stretch back to 1959 and it has produced the most impressive group of improvisational players this country has ever seen, including Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Alan Arkin, David Steinberg, Joan Rivers, Fred Willard, Robert Klein, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, Brian Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Dave Thomas & Rick Moranis, George Wendt & Shelly Long, Jim Belushi, Tim Kazurinsky, Bonnie Hunt & Mike Myers, Dan Castellenata, Amy Sederis, Nia Vardalos, Ryan Stiles, Horatio Sanz & Rachel Dratch, Tim Meadows & Chris Farley, Jeff Garlin, Steve Carell, Jack McBreyer & Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert.
Taking a page from Tom Shales' backstage look at Saturday Night Live, THE SECOND CITY UNSCRIPTED is a roughly chronological, slightly guarded tell-all about the loves, hates, disasters and successes of the funny, ambitious, petty and brilliant people that spent night and day thrown together honing their comedic craft in the legendary crucible of comedy that made Second City great. It is not a funny book and it will disappoint those looking for laughs. Comedians hold grudges for decades. But it is at times inspiring for readers with an interest in satire and improvisational comedy. If the names above mean anything to you, then you will want to know how they got their start, who slept with and who hated who, and what they did before they moved on to the biggest stages in the world. The stories of Second City's naming after a disparaging remark by a New York writer, the development of the mainstage and the touring company system, the creation of a second Second City in Toronto and SCTV, the talent raids by SNL, the amazing rise and crushing fall of John Belushi and Chris Farley, are all narrated by the people who lived to tell the story.
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