In times of stress and uncertainty, people sometimes need to have a laugh or two to get through the day.
On Oct. 16, “The Second City,” a sketch/improv comedy group established in the 1950s, performed a virtual showcase for the CLC community. The showcase consisted of several comedic acts.
Kiley Fitzgerald, the host of the event, brought members Rob Wilson, Claire McFadden, and Evan Mills to be the show’s comedians.
Alongside their crew member, Elise Wattman as the sound coordinator, the team performed a series of improv jokes based on prompts that they gave to the audience and the audience’s suggestions.
The first improv was a “Musical Revelation,” where the audience votes for a song for the comedians to dance to.
Once the music stops, the comedians must make a funny revelation about an object suggested by the audience.
Evan Mills
“When you’re going through a corn maze, are you just walking [through] popcorn?” Mills asked when he had to make a funny revelation about popcorn while dancing to “Like A Prayer” by Madonna.
Another example of a comedic game is to create some light humor in [the] current circumstances of being quarantined to our homes.
“Quarantine. It is [so] lonely in our homes,” Fitzgerald said.
They also created online dating profiles and had the audience suggest who the profiles were for and what their interests or likes were.
These profiles varied from real celebrity Emma Stone to superhero Cat Woman to generic reading glasses. Their interests also ranged from hiking to going to Bolivia to porridge with the three bears from Goldilocks.
One of the most interesting features was picking a person from the audience and asking the person to appear on screen to get live reactions to jokes they make and choose which answer they prefer the best.
Kiley Fitzgerald.
Some funny coincidences happened throughout the event as some of the participants related to some of the jokes that the comedians made. For example, one audience member could relate to waiting for an Amazon package when the comedians had to make a humorous reply for a statement of what would happen in five years.
There was also a lot of movement interaction between comedians and audience members alike. The audience members needed to get some items according to what the audience voted for, and the comedians had to make a funny reply to what they would bring to the person’s house if they were able to go there.
Overall, this hour of improv, jokes, and relatable humor left many people chuckling and laughing. Fitzgerald kept the audience engaged and created a lot of enthusiasm for the event, even if it was just behind a virtual screen.
Coming from Chicago and from other parts of the U.S and Canada, Second City encourages everyone to be safe and to stay positive, no matter where the audience is.
