Laugh out loud with Chicago's The Second City improv act
Get ready to laugh. The Kimmel Center is bringing The Windy City's most famous comedy troupe here to Philadelphia.
Chicago's The Second City is a world-renowned improv comedy theater that is no stranger to the city.
"They love coming to Philadelphia," says Frances Egler, The Kimmel Center's Director of Programming and Presentations. "We usually bring them in for a week every year."
The troupe was founded in Chicago in 1959 and now has locations in Hollywood and Toronto.
"And has some of the best-known alumni in the country," Egler points out.
Countless comedians got their start with The Second City, including Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell.
"The touring company is basically made up of a lot of the up-and-coming people that are in Chicago," Egler says. "If you come see this show, you might see these faces on Saturday Night Live or comedy and movies in the next few years."
The show titled "It's Not You, It's Me" has a theme of romance gone wrong.
"They'll be doing a collection of skits that they create all around that theme," Egler says. "Everything from sort of the horrible dinner date gone wrong to swiping left, swiping right, whatever you want to do online; everything that is sort of about dating today."
Egler says the audience also gets to join in on the fun, "They do these structured scenes where they have sort of a setup. But they might ask for, give me a noun, give me a verb, give me something that is small and something that is big. So you're engaged in the show."
While each show follows the same structure, she says, no two shows are the same. "So you could come to each one of the four performances that we have and definitely see a different show each night."
The troupe performs in the Perelman Theater, a 600-seat theater in the Kimmel Center campus. "It's a great intimate venue," Egler says, "It's a fun grown-up night at the theater."
The Kimmel Center Presents Second City Tour: It's Not You, It's Me
Jan. 30-Feb. 2
The Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater
300 S Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
