December 2011 Feature by Sally Jo Osborne
Looking UP At Second City
Where
does the inspiration and ideas for Chicago's most famous comedy
company start? I had the honor of meeting Kelly Leonard,
Executive Vice President of The Second City Chicago to discuss the
upcoming opening of The UP Comedy Club. Kelly has been with
Second City since 1988, where he oversees all the company's live
theatrical operations, the mastermind behind such fabled evenings of
laughter as "Pinata Full of Bees," "Paradigm Lost"
and "Holy War, Batman." He is a friendly man who
made me feel very welcome and made me laugh. The energy and
enthusiasm of Mr. Leonard is contagious. His modest office has
a dry erase board full of ideas that may or may not ever come to
fruition, and it was fun to see how the great ideas could potentially
end up on the stage for us to see.
He explained that Second City is having a great year because people want to be entertained and have fun. There is a focus on family fun, including classes and training for kids and new performance shows for kids. His lovely wife Anne Libera works at Second City too, and his kids Nick and Nora take classes at Second City so it is a family affair. Families will be able to laugh together at the new UP Comedy Club beginning January 21 with Second City's "Improv Extravaganza Explosion," an hour of family-friendly fun where the sketch comedy created depends completely on the audience.
Mr. Leonard also told me about the unique joining of forces between Second City and Columbia College. Students can now take a semester and have the opportunity to enroll in full time Comedy Studies and receive college credit provided by Columbia College. How fun is that? Second City teaches so many great disciplines: focus, trust, truth, timing and expanding creativity. I graduated from Players Workshop at Second City way back in the 90's and it was great. Where else can you perform for a live audience, write your own sketches, choose your actors to be in the sketch and direct it all on a Sunday morning in front of friends and family members? I loved it!
Second
City will now be adding shows during the day at the UP Comedy
Club. Can you say corporate outing? They will be serving
great food (including Lou Malnati's pizza, for which they had to
purchase the special over to make), Vienna Beef Sandwiches, and Eli's
Cheesecake. If you remember "Tony and Tina's Wedding"
back in the day, that is the space where the new theatre is located
on the thrd floor in Piper's Alley. It is a very impressive
space, clean and sparkling new. They even purchased booth #1
from the old Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel complete with
vintage pictures of visitors and the famous phone for those special
occasions. I feel an engagement coming on!
"The Second City's History of Chicago," which began previews on December 21, exposes all of our Windy City history for the past 50 years. It will take material way back to 1959 and work its way up to our current scandals (Blago?) and such. Sounds like all kinds of fun! Beginning December 26, "The Second City Dysfunctional Holiday Revue" takes a look at the holiday season through funny songs and improv and a splash of holiday fun and frolic.
UP Comedy Club presents some of the best stand-up talent in the country beginning January 5. Pete Correale, Brian Posen, Ryhs Darby, Gary Owen, Christopher Titus and Mitch Fate are some of the headliners to break in the new club. "ChicagoLive" is a 60 minute show that brings the Chicago Tribune to life and features the interesting people and exciting stories that make up the news hosted by veteran reporter Rick Kogan. Beginning February 2012, this show is taped for a WGN Radio broadcast later in the week.
This
new club will also consist of "The Second City Improv
All-Stars" starting January 9 on Monday evenings at 8:30
pm. Under the direction of Mick Napier, the show is unscripted
and interactive. Beginning January 14, "Sex, Love and The
Second City" offers a look at finding a mate and social
networking and the online dating world that we live in today.
Such a scary time, it makes you wonder whatever happened to arranged marriages.
It was so great to learn about all of the shows and to see the new space. It was really fun to meet the man behind a lot of the success in the making. Kelly's son (I feel like I can call him Kelly now) told his dad why he enjoyed taking classes at Second City: "Dad, people like you if you are nice and if you are funny." Now isn't that the truth? I look forward to the upcoming shows, they sound fabulous. I told my five year old daughter Ella about Second City and my experience there and now she wants to take classes, which I'm sure she will. A chip off the old "middle aged" block.
About Sally Jo Osborne
Sally
is a native Chicagoan who has appeared at various Chicago theatres
throughout the years. She has performed at Circle Theatre in
Forest Park with roles in "Evita," "Hair,"
"Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Shrubtown".
She performed with The Malibusch Players in "Little Shop of
Horrors" and played her favorite role of Sheila in their
production of "A Chorus Line". She fell in love with
live theatre at the age of 12 when she saw her first play,
"Grease" at the Mill Run Theatre.
Sally graduated from The Players Workshop at Second City in Chicago and has completed coursework within Second City Writer's Workshop. She particularly enjoyed the challenge of writing and performing her own material. A financial planner by day, Sally resides in the North Shore area and she is very passionate about theatre. She plans to share the magic of the performing arts with her young daughter with hopes that Ella will teach her how to play "Angry Bird" on her phone. Chicago Stage Style is excited to share her enthusiasm and unique point of view with audiences of all ages and to make the performing arts a valuable and important asset to generations both present and future.