Secs and the City

Second City, that is. One week ago yesterday I finished my first class at Second City in Chicago. It had been a dream of mine to train at Second City since junior high. Contrary to my normal self, last week I became a doer and not just a talker.

I drove out there Sunday morning in the pouring rain. 500 miles, 8 hours, and 1 time change later I arrived at my hotel. I stay in A LOT of hotels and the best perk of that is all the rewards points I accrue since I always stick with the same chain. Therefore, my stay was free for the whole week…thanks Silver Ring Thing *wink*. Since the room was comped, I was sure to upgrade as much as I could. I was still expecting a crappy little, poorly lit room in a falling down hotel on the South Side. Some of my predictions were spot on, but I was amazed by the room. Hands down this was the biggest hotel room I’ve ever had (not the nicest…don’t worry Canada…you’ve still got that title). I had a king sized bed, 2 easy chairs, 3 couches (with pull out beds), a fireplace, and a whirlpool tub. Plus I had vaulted ceilings and chandeliers. I traveled alone, took 1 suitcase, and my backpack…I’m so glad they made room for all my stuff!

After hauling everything up to my room, I hurriedly changed and departed for the city. I was scheduled to see a Second City Mainstage show that night. I asked at the front desk which way east was (don’t you love it when you print out directions from online “Head northwest for .7 miles.” Well ok then, my compass that I always, always carry with me says that is left. Too bad the super-computer over at Google couldn’t figure that one out.). The front desk girl pointed and I took off that direction. About 15 minutes later I realized that by saying east she apparently thought I meant west and sent me in the wrong direction. So I turned around and headed back the opposite way. Now that I was going east, I had no trouble at all finding the train station. The best part of the trip was that I was driving through these little neighborhoods and I rounded a bend and *bam* the city skyline sprang up in front of me! That’s when it hit me that I was finally there. The ‘Chicago’ signs for the past 200 miles apparently didn’t do the trick.

I had a little skirmish with the train system, but I eventually got on, ten off at my proper stop, transferred trains, and made my way to the Sedgwick stop. Since I didn’t have a helpful front desk girl to guide me to Wells street, I took a guess. In a few minutes I was at Second City and staring my long-time goal in the eye. In case you have any doubts when you arrive at Second City about how prestigious they are, the front of the theater is plastered with pictures of alum including Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Nia Vardalos…inside, there are pictures of even more- Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Tim Meadows, Chris Farley, Bill Murray, Bonnie Hunt, Ian Gomez, Gilda Radner, Scott Adsit, Adam McKay, Jack McBrayer…just to name a few. It was a little overwhelming, but extremely exciting at the same time.

The Mainstage show was great. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was different from whatever I was expecting. A lot of the show was scripted. It was sketch based like Saturday Night Live. But they did an encore third act that was all improv. I think that was more of what I was anticipating. As a Second City student, I got an ID card that got me into improv places throughout the city. I went and checked out ImprovOlympic on Tuesday. This is Del Close’s theater and is home to longform improv while Second City embraces short form. I saw Big News Chicago at iO. Also very good. I was expecting something like Weekend Update. It was similar, but with more sketches. On Wednesday I had Chicago style pizza before hitting up ComedySportz. CSZ was probably my favorite venue of the trip. It is much more family oriented…plus they had free snacks. Who doesn’t love free snacks!?!? CSZ does a lot of improv games- much like Whose Line is it Anyway. I didn’t get to see the professionals perform at CSZ, I only saw the students. I assume that it would only get better. There are CSZ theaters across the country so look them up!

I had class Monday through Friday. I spent three hours every morning studying improv with Tim O’Malley. O’Malley has worked with many of the greats and is certainly considered a great himself. On Monday morning he came in and had us all get up and stretch. I met all my classmates the night before, so we already related to each other somewhat. When Tim made us stretch, we all glanced around at each other but finally decided to just give in. A pulled muscle at the end of the week convinced me that he knew what he was doing. During class we would play games and build scenes. O’Malley taught us about building trust, agreeing with your partner, and seeing where the scene takes you. It was really fun! Speaking of O’Malley, he is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict- confirming all of my parent’s fears about me going to Second City! In the past 15 years, his life has radically changed. He wrote a show about it that ran in Chicago at Second City and elsewhere. You can catch it on YouTube. The name of the show is “Godshow.” Powerful stuff (Disclaimer: I know most the people who read this thing…Godshow has a lot of cursing and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that. But O’Malley makes a lot of great observations about faith and his journey. I think it is a great piece…don’t replace your Bible with it, but…well…just watch it… it will make you think and be thankful for all you have).

Over the past few months, I have developed a growing interest in writing and was looking forward to taking the Sketch Writing class at Second City. Although the class was good and I enjoyed it, there was something about building scenes and interacting with people in the improv session that I really loved. A lot of my sketches just didn’t seem to be that funny either. I realize now that part of the problem could be that I usually work alone in a quiet environment while I write the first draft and here I was writing in a room full of 11 other people talking and bouncing ideas off of each other. Still, I learned great stuff about character development and comic patterns. If fact, I have spent much of this week thinking of ideas for sketches or characters.

All in all, it was a great experience. I’m glad I went, I’m sad it’s over, and I’m looking for my next improv “fix.” Last week showed me that sometimes you have to figure things out as you go. If you don’t do things because you’re afraid, you miss out on a lot. You’ll be comfortable, but you’ll be bored- and worse, you’ll be boring. Stop sitting there reading this. What have you always wanted to do? What’s stopping you? Go do it.