OPENING: The Second City's She the People Is Back at Up Comedy Club 1/11-4/1/18

The Second City presents the return of

The Second City’s She the People: 

Girlfriends’ Guide to Sisters 

Doing it for Themselves

The hit sketch show is back to take on women’s issues with wit and wisdom

January 11 – April 1, 2018

*Run Time: 100 minutes (2 Acts with a brief intermission)**

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we love sketch comedy and funny women. Can't wait to catch this remount of The Second City’s hit, She The People.

Back by popular demand, The Second City’s She the People: Girlfriends’ Guide to Sisters Doing It for Themselves, a sketch show created, designed and performed entirely by the women of Second City, returns to the stage in 2018. Under the direction of Carly Heffernan with musical direction by Mary Mahoney, She the People runs January 11 – April 1, 2018, in The Second City’s UP Comedy Club. Tickets start at $26 and can be purchased at the box office, by phone at (312) 662-4562 or online at www.secondcity.com. UP Comedy Club is located on the 3rd Floor of Piper’s Alley at 230 W North Ave, Chicago.

We’ll bet you 72 cents on the dollar (or much, much less!) you’ll cheer for the women of The Second City as they roast the patriarchy! This mimosa-and-madness-fueled foray takes on everything from having it all to having that sick feeling your government is trying to send you back to the Middle Ages. It’s time for women everywhere to collectively reclaim comedy!

She the People is written by Carisa Barreca, Marla Caceres, Carly Heffernan, Tien Tran and Lauren Walker. Casting will be announced at a later date. 

She the People plays on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm at UP Comedy Club, located at 230 W North Ave, 3rd Floor of Piper’s Alley, Chicago. Tickets, starting at $26, are available at the Second City Box Office (230 W. North Ave, First Floor, Piper's Alley), by phone at 312-337-3992 or online at www.secondcity.com.

About the Artists
CARLY HEFFERNAN (Director) is an award-winning alumna of The Second City Toronto, where she wrote and performed in four Mainstage revues. She recently co-wrote the hit show The Second City Guide to the Symphony and toured with it across Canada and the United States. She directed the critically acclaimed Second City Toronto Mainstage revue Come What Mayhem!, as well as The Second City Touring Company and several Norwegian Cruise Line shows. Carly currently writes for Second Jen (CityTV), The Irrelevant Show (CBC Radio) and Air Farce Canada 150 special (CBC).

MARY MAHONEY (Music Direction/ Sound Design) has worked as a Musical Director for sketch and improv comedy all over the continent while touring with Second City Theatricals aboard the Norwegian Dawn and The Second City Touring Company. A former music faculty member of Western Washington University, she is now a faculty member at The Second City Training Center.

ABBY BEGGS (Lighting Design) When she’s not in the booth at The Second City, she can be found stage managing, directing and composing music for theatre around town. Stage management credits include: L'enfant et les Sortilèges, L'incoronazione di Poppea (Roosevelt University), The Out of Tooners (Off-Color Theatre Company), Gallo (Guerilla Opera), Blue Window (Brown Box Theatre Project), The Scene, Good People and Barefoot in the Park (Dorset Theatre Festival), among others.

Tickets: Starting at $26
Groups of 16 visit the Group Events page for party package options.

Box Office: 230 W. North Ave, First Floor, Piper's Alley
phone at 312-337-3992 or online at www.secondcity.com.

About The Second City
Since opening its doors 1959, The Second City has grown to become the world’s premier comedy club, theater and school of improvisation, entertaining 1 million theatergoers a year around the globe. Alumni of The Second City’s resident stages, touring companies, and theatrical divisions include some of the biggest names in entertainment, and in addition to the sold-out shows playing nightly on resident stages in Chicago and Toronto, the comedy empire has staged productions with a wide range of illustrious creative partners and theatre companies, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Goodman Theatre, Center Theater Group Los Angeles, Portland Center Stage, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, La Jolla Playhouse, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and even the Chicago Bulls.

OPENING: Chicago-based comedy duo, Poutine bring Thanks for Coming to CIC Theater

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Vienna Juvenile 

to Produce Second Full-Length Revue from Sketch Comedy Duo “Poutine” 

at CIC Theater

January 13 – February 3, 2017

Vienna Juvenile, the minds behind last summer’s hit comedy festival, Story Arc Sketch Comedy Festival, are returning this winter to produce a new, full-length sketch comedy revue from Chicago-based comedy duo, Poutine, titled Thanks for Coming. The four-week run will begin on January 13 and will be performed on Saturdays at 8pm until February 3 at the CIC Theater (1422 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL 60613) near the corner of Irving Park Rd and Clark St. Tickets are $10, and will be available for purchase at cictheater.com/shows-tickets beginning Monday, December 11.

“We are so proud and excited to announce our next producing venture, this time with the phenomenally talented Poutine,” says Vienna Juvenile Ensemble Member and Co-Producer Hank Greene. “Not only are they simply one of the funniest sketch comedy groups I’ve ever seen—they’re a thoughtful, patient pair of performers. They’re experts at mining their characters for depth and emotional insight, not just the easy laugh.”

Featuring the combined writing/performing talents of Chicago improvisers Taylor Overstreet and Tim Felton, Poutine’s first revue, What Might Have Been, was a smash hit at the CIC last February, and was directed by Tim Lyons. Thanks for Coming is directed by Jorin Garguilo, and introduces the audience to a “Cult of Nice”—a concept Overstreet says pokes fun at the obsessively pleasant personas she and Felton have cultivated in their lives… but that may not tell their whole story.

“While our first revue focused much more on the choices Tim and I made to get where we are—we wanted our second revue to tear away at what people can see, and explore a little more about who we actually are,” says Overstreet.

“It’s part being invited into someone's home, part peeking behind the curtain,” adds Felton. “I think this show is a fun exploration of what’s interesting and even worth laughing about in real relationships, playful imaginings, and abstract expressions. We try and make the real, the surreal, and the in-between engaging.”

It will be Vienna Juvenile’s first producing venture since last summer’s Story Arc Sketch Comedy Festival, which Overstreet says fell right in line with the kind of sketch comedy she and Felton hope to perform.



“Having seen Story Arc this summer and watching the groups involved, it felt like Vienna Juvenile would be a great producing partner for this show,” says Overstreet. “From day 1, we’ve been committed to doing a show that’s more than just funny or self-deprecating—we’ve wanted to blur the lines between Chicago comedy and Chicago theater. To have Vienna Juvenile backing us with that same kind of philosophy has helped us create the show we envisioned when we started.”

Greene says the feeling was mutual, and that if audiences have enjoyed Vienna Juvenile’s past shows, they’ll absolutely fall in love with Poutine.

“Tim and Taylor have an ability to make you think without ever losing that air of likeability or light-heartedness that draws audiences in,” he says. “Every audience member who goes to see them will be immediately taken with their honesty, and will leave with a smile on their face.”

For more information, head to ViennaJuvenileComedy.com or visit CICTheater.com  following the ticket release date (December 11).

Thanks for Coming

A new sketch comedy revue from Poutine and Vienna Juvenile Productions
January 13 - February 3 at CIC Theater (1422 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL 60613)

Meet Tim and Taylor. They're nice. They're very nice. Have you heard how nice they are? Because for one evening, they'd like to invite you into their very nice home to show you that they're so nice... you may never want to leave. From Poutine, the minds behind What Might Have Been, comes an evening full of slightly off-kilter houseguests... in one house party you won't soon forget.

Tickets available December 11 at CICTheater.com

Second City Comedy 2nd To None

There's a reason Second City is a world renowned breeding ground for comedians. They're very good at what they do and have a gazillion famous alums. Still, if you live here in Chicago it's easy to forget the ongoing shows in the onslaught of stellar short runs. So we're going to give a little love to the reigning kings & queens of improv and sketch comedy. 

I was just there a few days ago for a press preview/World Premier of What's Happy Got to Do With It? with the fabulously funny and insightful Doctor G (Author, Deborah Gilboa) in Second City’s ETC Theatre. Thanks to Second City for wining and dining us and hosting this program geared towards parents. Deborah Gilboa has a down to earth persona and an uncanny ability to impart truly useful nuggets of parenting wisdom without coming across as a know it all. Thanks to our friends over at The Silverman Group for the heads up. 

I have a background in improv and theatre arts and actively acted throughout high school, college and a bit beyond, though I never did work for Second City. I can't tell you though how many of my college improv colleagues and Chicago theatre pals have passed through those hallowed halls! Many of them are STILL teaching there and/or can be seen on stage. 

Here's Second City's Up Comedy Club current lineup:


UP COMEDY CLUB
(of course live theatre doesn't technically have a rating system like films, but do note, these shows are self rated "R" and make a better parents' night out than a family foray.)



Click here for all the stand up going down.

Nick Thune

THE SECOND CITY'S DEEP CUTS

SECOND CITY'S NEWEST ARCHIVAL SHOW (ending 10/12)

Join the cast of The Second City's Deep Cuts as they navigate the daily apocalypse of the internet age, where the end of the world is simply fodder for top ten lists and worldwide politics are boiled down to philosophical T-Rex memes. Too busy googling your ex-boyfriend to make a new memory at prom? Too many Big Macs ruining your profile smile?  It's easy to go to the hit single, but the deep cuts are where it really gets rewarding.

CAST: Bente Engelstoft, Peter Kim, Kelsey Kinney, Adam Peacock, Dewayne Perkins, Rashawn Nadine Scott

DIRECTOR: Anthony LeBlanc

MUSICALDIRECTOR: Vinnie Pillarella

STAGE MANAGER: Meghan Teal

Follow along with #SCDeepCuts.

90 minutes with a brief intermission.

Suggested Rating: R

The Second City’s Incomplete Guide to Everything 
Open Run
Tuesdays at 8pm
Saturdays & Sundays at 4pm Location: UP Comedy Club, Piper’s Alley, 3^rd Floor, 230 W North Ave
Tickets: $24 - $29 
Box Office: 230 W North Ave; by phone at 312-662-4562; online at www.upcomedyclub.com 

From the great books to the worst presidents, The Second City has spent half a century laughing in the face of our past, present and future.  And now it’s all in one show…sort of.  UP Comedy Club presents The Second City’s Incomplete Guide to Everything, a hilarious collection of scenes and songs that skewers everything that you learned in college – or that you should have learned in college on the days you slept in.  

Incomplete Guide is directed by Ryan Bernier with Musical Direction by Vinne Pillarella.  The cast of The Second City’s Incomplete Guide to Everything includes Second City veterans Sayjal Joshi, Shad Kunkle, Beth Melewski, Tim Stoltenberg, Daniel Strauss and Niccole Thurman.

Suggested Rating: R
Run Time: 90 minutes; brief intermission

Second City’s Game Night
Open Run
Wednesdays at 8pm
Location: UP Comedy Club, Piper’s Alley, 3^rd Floor, 230 W North Ave
Tickets: $24 

Box Office: 230 W North Ave; by phone at 312-662-4562; online at www.upcomedyclub.com 

Everyone wins at Second City's Game Night! Get ready to join in the fun with Chicago's best improvisers for an evening of unscripted improvisational comedy. Join in the fun by earning points for your team and playing classic game shows. So raise your hand for a chance to get on stage and to win a prize!

Game Night features Joey Bland, Brendan Dowling, Paul Grondy, Megan Hovde, Tim Paul and Sue Salvi with musical direction by Matthew Cohen. Meghan Teal is the stage manager.

Run Time: 90 minutes; brief intermission

Second City Improv All Stars
Open Run
Mondays at 8pm
Location: UP Comedy Club, Piper’s Alley, 3^rd Floor, 230 W North Ave
Tickets: $17 
Box Office: 230 W North Ave; by phone at 312-662-4562; online at www.upcomedyclub.com 

See Chicago’s finest improvisers under the direction of the legendary Mick Napier in an evening of unscripted and unequaled improvisational comedy.  This show is highly interactive, hilarious and thoroughly original.

Suggested Rating: R
Run Time: 60 minutes

The Second City’s Holidazed and Confused Revue
November 16 – December 27, 2014
Thursdays at 8pm
Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays 8pm and 11pm
Sundays at 7pm
Location: UP Comedy Club, Piper’s Alley, 3^rd Floor, 230 W North Ave
Tickets: $24 
Box Office: 230 W North Ave; by phone at 312-662-4562; online at www.upcomedyclub.com 

UP Comedy Club presents the hilarious sketch comedy show Second City's Holidazed and Confused. Laugh this season with family and friends as Second City skewers all that is right and wrong about the holidays.

Suggested Rating: R
Run Time: 90 minutes; brief intermission.