The Best of The Second City

The Best of The Second City

The Second City

Berkeley Repertory Theatre

For sixty-four years emanating from its Chicago birthplace has come generation after generation of some of the world’s greatest comedian superstars, all getting their start doing improv and ensemble acts at The Second City.  The likes of Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Tina Fay, Chris Farley, Martin Short, and dozens more are alumni of this iconic factory of laughter, with stages now also in New York and Toronto as well as casts who regularly tour the world, bringing hilarity to over one million audience members a year.  To that number of both grinning, groaning, and guffawing spectators is added once again this summer what should be two weeks of sell-out audiences at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for the latest edition of The Best of The Second City, written and performed by members of the internationally loved company.

For ninety minutes (plus intermission), six members of The Second City provide on the blackened, blank stage of Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre a colorful selection of their comedic mastery.  A nonstop flow of scenes beautifully directed with deftness by Jeff Griggs is a mixture of popups lasting only seconds-to-a-minute, of improvisational sequences relying on audience suggestions, and of scripted sets based on subjects such as a first tattoo/therapy session, a friendly volleyball game turning into near-war, and a mystery writer’s story about the missing Dorito Twins (the last a hilariously clever combination of script and improv).

Each member of the ensemble has multiple chances during the evening to highlight the kind of skills that someday may land them in the same orbits of fame that John Belushi, John Candy, and Catherine O’Hara found themselves after sharing such a stage with their Second City colleagues.  George Elrod is the voice of a driverless car who befriends and counsels a rider en route to break up with her boyfriend (Phylicia McLeod).  In another scene, Elrod is a manic volleyballer who does not let a few broken bones here and there stop him from scoring the winning point (each break accompanied by audience-cringing sound effects).  Phylicia McLeod shares the spotlight with Annie Sullivan as two, mustached, elderly gay uncles who uproariously relive their earlier days on the dance floor in front of a somewhat amused but horrified, Gen Z gay nephew (also George Elrod).

Chas Lilly is a polite but increasingly annoyed stranded passenger at the Bismarck, North Dakota airport where Spirit Airlines gate agent (Cat Savage) cheerfully reminds him that “Bismarck’s the Spot,” all part of a training video with a surprise and of course funny twist.  Cat Savage is also over-the-top funny as a raging, ranting member of a student/parent tour group on the UC Berkeley campus whose tales of collegiate horrors send us all howling in laughter.  Max Thomas rounds out the cast and is time and again strikingly adept with his quick, witted creativity during audience-prompted improv sequences.

If there is a best of the best among this highly talented group of both spontaneous and practiced merriment, Chas Lilly might be the one.  He rules with the stage as a full-of-frenzy, arm-waving, disco-dancing CEO of PrimeTech trying to introduce his company’s latest gift to the world while being constantly interrupted by two, sexually-hyped-up women in the aisle (Cat Savage and Annie Sullivan) – all leading to another laugh-out-loud and surprising conclusion.  Lilly also solos as a good, ol’ boy with Southern accent as he counts off the “18 Most Important Things about Being A Man,” with his having to decide how to rank rivals like “God” and “public farting.”

All the above is only a fraction of the topics, scenes, and sequences afforded the constantly laughing audience by these six comedy stars on the fast rise to the top.  Sure, not every short episode is as funny as the last or the next and some of the improv suggestions by audience members work less well than others.  But overall, The Best of The Second City is a summertime treat hosted by Berkeley Repertory Theatre that will not fail to entertain with much glee and gusto.

Rating: 4 E

The Best of The Second City continues through July 28, 2024 in a ninety-minute (plus intermission) performance by The Second City in the Roda Theatre of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA.  Tickets are available online at www.berkeleyrep.org , by calling the Box Office Tuesday – Sunday, noon – 7 p.m. at 510-647-2949.

Photo Credits:  Timothy M. Schmidt