A Second City for Everytown

Second City: Don’t Quit Your Daydream

Second City these days strikes me as a “Chicago institution” not so much in the sense that it’s an annual must-see for native Chicagoans, but rather that it’s an essential stop for out-of-towners on their three-day itineraries, right up there with Lou Malnati’s, Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago.

I would love to get a peek into Second City’s ticket sale metrics.  My guess, based on regular visits over the years?  70% or more of their sales may be to visitors from outside the city limits — suburban day-trippers, tourists, and business people in town for seminars, conferences and sales meetings.  (Correct me if I’m wrong, Second City overlords!)

There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with this being the case; tourist attractions are usually attractive for a reason.  It does, however — on the basis of my observations over the years — exert a subtle influence on what a Second City show is all about.  

Despite passing references in the current revue to Ozempic, Nintendo Switch and Mumford and Sons — and one comic song on the hot-button topic of abortion rights — Second City seems to have migrated away over the years from the timely to the timeless, featuring humor that is not especially cutting-edge or political in favor of character-based comedy that is sometimes absurd, sometimes silly, and occasionally heartfelt.  

This is not at all a bad thing.  There is nothing inherently wrong with building a brand of humor intended to appeal to a broad and diverse audience of out-of-towners who want to “leave the 9-to-5 grind behind” (as Second City’s own press release puts it) and might not be as comfortable with cuttingly satirical wit as locals who’d know what to expect and are likely to be regular habitues of the even more cutting-edge productions at Chicago’s multitude of storefront theatres.  

In fact, Second City’s focus on timeless and mostly character-based humor pays off quite well in its current production, one that had the audience laughing uproariously and unanimously for nearly every moment of the show.  And they weren’t cheap laughs either, or cheap shots; much of the show, directed and choreographed by Carisa Barreca and titled Don’t Quit Your Daydream, consisted of creative and unexpected but all-too-human situations:  An interview with a delusional “background actor” who has appeared in more than 3,000 films (though many of his “appearances” are either in his own head or on the cutting-room floor); a woman who tells her friend how much she hates the book she is reading, until she’s forced to backtrack when the friend tells her that she’s the author; a surreally sinister business guru, played by Andy Bolduc, who strolls the audience, giving comically iniquitous advice to audience members; and a young man betrothed to an imaginary girlfriend named Flip-Flop with whom he conceives an invisible baby, which his sister proceeds to cuddle and croon to. 

There are some stand-out cast members and performances:  There’s Jordan Stafford, who is so anguished about not being invited to a party (because, horror of horrors, he wasn’t even invited into the group chat!) that he does a reverse crab-walk across the stage.  Stafford also performs in a dual-role slice-of-life dialogue as a dying man and his son that’s rather touching.  

Then there’s Claire McFadden, who brightens up a number of scenes with a presence and performance style that is, at times, reminiscent of a very young Carol Burnett.  And Evan Mills, who’s one of the most inherently and effortlessly funny performers I’ve seen in a long while, brings his flamboyant energy to every scene he is in — he’s the preening background actor who, he claims, brought his underappreciated or perhaps non-existent talents to movies as varied as Fight Club, Home Alone and Legally Blonde.

Don’t wait around when the show is over for the traditional concluding improv segment; there is none.  (Though there’s a brief improv interlude in the middle of the show as well as other moments that suggested that Second City is moving in the direction of making improv more well-integrated with the rest of the performance.)

All in all, it was a quite satisfying evening of comedy and craziness — either despite, or because of — I’m not quite sure which — the fact that there were no references whatsoever to Canadian dust storms, Trump’s latest or inevitable next indictment, or the future of the NATO alliance. 

Highly Recommended 

Reviewed by Michael Antman

Presented by Second City at the Second City Mainstage, 1616 N. Wells St. in Chicago, no closing date specified.

Tickets start at $39.00 and are available by phone at 312-337-3992 or online at secondcity.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found at www.theatreinchicago.com.