The Second City Unscripted

September 29, 2009
For 50 years, Chicago's Second City Theater has been the training ground for legendary comedians. From John Belushi to Stephen Colbert, many of America and Canada's finest comic talents have honed their skills on Second City's stage, and this collection of interviews brings together comedians and behind-the-scenes players to bare the secrets of the comedy laboratory where improv was birthed by lesser-known genius Del Close. From the egos, parties and conflicts to the camaraderie and familial ties, the world of Second City is brought together deftly through the testimony of its inhabitants, filling in readers curious about show business and comedy history as well as individual comedians (also including Joan Collins, Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Bonnie Hunt, Tina Fey, Amy Sedaris, and others). Though occasionally meandering, Thomas corrals his subjects' testimony in a historical framework paralleling the larger baby boomer narrative, progressing from fringe revolutionaries to institutional stalwarts. Testimony is funny, sentimental and hopeful, making this a winning collection for any fan of comedy's last half-century.

August 15, 2009
A Chicago Sun-Times staff writer weeds through hours of interviews to fashion an in-depth oral history of comedy's greatest talent factory, The Second City.

When Bernard Sahlins, Paul Sills and Howard Alk founded a coffeehouse in 1959, they had no intention of starting a comedy dynasty. Sahlins and Sills had produced a few plays around Chicago, but didn't think of putting together a show at their new club until it was nearly ready to open. They gathered up a few friends—many leftover from the defunct improv group the Compass Players—and started hosting comedy and political satire. A half-century later Second City is still a comedy institution, what many alums believe was"the purest and most fulfilling creative experience of their lives." Thomas tries to capture the group's vast history—its hundreds of performers and dozens of success stories, its multiple outposts and massive influence on SCTV and Saturday Night Live—and it proves to be a daunting task. The author focuses on Second City's early history and its most recognizable—and notorious—graduates, recounting tales of John Belushi's massive appeal and Chris Farley's excesses. Thomas capably builds a coherent narrative from all the backstage moments and business dealings, but the interviews often fail to provide adequate depth about what has made Second City so successful. There are also notable absences—particularly Mike Myers and Bill Murray—that create narrative gaps the author struggles to navigate around.

Not for casual fans, but a light treat for improv aficionados and comedy junkies.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2009
Chicago-based Second City has been a reliable launchpad for comedic talent since1959. It has branches across North America, and the Toronto operation rivals Chicago as a training ground and successfully tackled TV with SCTV. This gossipy oral history provides a very quick, shallow, highly readable overview of SC. Thomas has a flair for fashioning celebrity portraits from disparate sound bites, and each of SCs most notable and notorious alums, such as Joan Rivers, John Belushi, John Candy, and Bill Murray, gets her or his textual equivalent of 15 minutes. Thomas is less assured about the creation of a Second City show. He makes some stabs at describing improv and how SC uses Spolin-style theater games, but quickly lays down the scalpel to pick up the shovel for more celebrity dirt. More damning, he lets his subjects repeat inaccuracies, such as that Mike Nichols and Elaine May emerged from SC rather than its precursor, the Compass. But for a fast, easy SC once-over, this will do.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)