'Second City' show entertains at IMU

Senior Monika Chhabria made two mistakes Wednesday night at the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall. First, she chose to sit in the front row of the large auditorium, and second, she wore a bright pink sweater. \nWhen the stage lights came back on after the previous act and the man on stage pointed at her, Chhabria knew she was in for a surprise.\n"It was definitely weird, but fun," Chhabria said.\nChhabria was one of a handful of students chosen to participate in The Second City comedy performance Wednesday night presented by the IU Union Board. After asking the nervous Chhabria a number of random questions regarding what she last ate and her dream job, the group of comedians, without hesitation, jumped into a 10-minute musical number celebrating the fictional holiday Monika Day.\nFor Chhabria, who had attended three previous Second City shows in Chicago, the experience was unexpected, but also exciting.\n"They normally do a lot of improv, where they pick on people in the audience," said Chhabria. "I just didn't know they would pick me."\nThe improvisational comedy troupe, best known for making names for such comedians as Bill Murray and Chris Farley, got its start in Chicago 45 years ago and currently has a number of different stages in the United States and Canada, as well as a number of touring groups, according to www.secondcity.com. \nDuring the 1970s and '80s, The Second City also had a television program, "SCTV," which was modeled after "Saturday Night Live." Performing a wide range of original and classic sketches, the group at Wednesday's show kept the audience in stitches throughout the evening.\n"When you look for someone to do sketch comedy, you look for the best," said junior Cody Bell, the director of comedy acts for Union Board. "(The Second City) is one of the best."\nThe nearly three-hour show was part of the Union Board's IU Late Night Program, aimed at keeping underage students out of the bars, and was free for all IU students. The program supports local groups such as the Full Frontal Comedy troupe, who perform most Friday nights at various campus venues, as well as more mainstream acts such as comedian Dave Attell, who performed last month at the IU Auditorium.\n"I think it's cool that they got (Second City) to come out," said sophomore Becky Levi, who came to see the show. "I was also really glad that it was free."\nThe group, which last performed on campus two years ago, featured five trained improv actors who poked fun at everything from religion and politics to the national obsession with Sport Utility Vehicles and annoying grocery store self check-out lines. \nThe sketches ranged from short one-line jokes to longer, more elaborate skits, as well as a number of improv acting games where the players asked audience members questions and then based a skit off their responses. At one point the group made light of the Christian Science religion and conservative television host Bill O'Reilly, only to jump into a new scene about a superhero name Captain Apathy.\n"They're definitely one of the foremost names in comedy," Bell said.\nWhile The Second City is best known for its ties with many different "Saturday Night Live" alumni including Mike Myers and Tim Meadows, there are many others who have roots at the center. Comedy Central's "Daily Show" news correspondents Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, actresses Bonnie Hunt and Amy Sedaris, and actors Fred Willard and John Candy are just a few names that make up the list of alumni, according to www.secondcity.com. \nWhile the many stage performances are what The Second City is best known for, there are also a number of training centers across the country aimed at leading people toward the art of improvisation through workshop-type settings. \nFreshman Emily Chovanec, a member of Full Frontal Comedy, has attended many Second City shows and workshops in the past but said she was pleasantly surprised at this particular show. \nAt the end of the show, the group invited a number of Full Frontal Comedy members to join them on stage for some improvisational games. Having no time to prepare, the students jumped right into scene after scene playing off each other's reactions.\n"It felt very familiar being up there, only it was with Second City," Chovanec said. "It was a lot of fun."\nThe Second City touring company is currently performing in venues across the Midwest, but stage shows can be seen at theaters in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Toronto and Las Vegas.\n"(The Second City) represent a different brand of comedy," Bell said. "We knew they would bring us an entertaining show."\n-- Contact staff writer C. Warner Sills at csills@indiana.edu