As the UK laps up another dose of US improv, here’s why it was really Saturday Night Live… from Chicago.
Comedy fans have long greeted the holler after the opening sketch announcing Saturday Night Live… from New York.
And while the weekly anarchic tilt at the week is shot now in New York, and its UK version in London.
It is Chicago where improv is rooted, and in particular The Second City comedy club.
Which spawned Belushi and Aykroyd, Murray and Gardner, Fey and Poehler and Louis-Dreyfus and Carrell.
The original and best
The Windy City is rightly proud of its hallowed place in the comedy firmament.
And it is not by accident with Chicagoans showing all the spontaneity and inventiveness.
Which led them to the Mid-West in the first place.
Viola Spolin is credited with being the Godmother of Modern Improv.
And that surely is a stage name given to gags.
And she passed on the funny gene to son Paul Sills who founded the Compass Players which led to the formation of the Second City.
Now what happens in Chicago soon gets taken up in the Big Apple and beyond… think skyscrapers.
And Second City has expanded since its inception in the 50s to spread the word to NY and Toronto and to the virtual ether.
Of course there is nothing quite like the original.
And if you want to discover the next SNL superstars then The Second City Chicago always put on the best show.
Sheer Pandemonium
As a sample Chicago is putting on Pandemonium, Please Hold through Friday.
Which they call The Second City’s 114th MainStage Revue Pandemonium.
A loud fast and gloriously unhinged night of comedic mayhem.
With the six-person cast cranking the amps and stage dives headfirst into the chaos with blistering sketches.
With tickets from $40-$80… and with a card and your own joke to go, In conjunction with The National Comedy Center New York.
And now the punchline
And because you’re you we’re sharing ours with you here for nothing.
Why didn’t the toilet paper cross the road?
Because it got stuck in a crack.
