Word: secondings
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...Sills, a Fulbright scholar and former merchant marine, honed the Second City formula - an ensemble ethic and a focus on audience participation - with previous performance groups the Playwrights Theater Club and the Compass Players. Sills and Sahlins' professional relationship began while producing shows at the Playwrights Theater Club, and Alk had worked with Sills at Gate of Horn, a folk-music club in Chicago. When the three came together to build Second City, they stepped into an uncharted territory of comedy: improv did not exist outside of Sills and Spolin's projects. Comedy shows of that era were mostly rehearsed...
...They stepped out on a limb, and they were met with critical acclaim. Almost immediately, Second City set a standard for smart social and political satire. In March 1960, TIME wrote, "The audiences keep coming back to the Second City, on Chicago's North Wells St., where the declining skill of satire is kept alive with brilliance and flourish." (See 10 things to do in Chicago...
...Second City co-owner and chief executive Andrew Alexander attributes this to the intelligence expected of cast members: "Respect your audience. Keep the bar as high as you can. Don't talk down to your audience, and don't go for the obvious joke." The troupe - whose early members included Mike Nichols, Joan Rivers and Del Close - became known for its brainy wit as seen in sketches like "Football Comes to the University of Chicago." The routine shows a coach's unsuccessful attempt to teach four students the rules of the game. But they can't seem to operate outside...
...Second City moved down the street into a bigger venue. While its décor and ethos remained intact, the late '60s and early '70s brought a number of changes. The new generation of comedians - including Belushi and Harold Ramis - was coming in and bringing with it a style of comedy that reflected the radical attitudes of the time. Belushi performed six nights a week, perfecting the physical gonzo style of comedy he would later make famous. (See John Belushi in TIME's top 10 post-SNL careers...
...Second City opened a second theater in Toronto. When Sahlins scouted the city, he found not only an extensive talent pool, but also considerable local support. Sahlins enlisted Alexander, a Canadian entrepreneur who had briefly worked at a Chicago theater, to run it. The new venue "struggled for a while" as he remembers, but soon the outlook for Second City - and its brand of satiric comedy - changed forever. On Oct. 11, 1975, Lorne Michaels, along with fellow NBC employee Dick Ebersol and president of the network Herb Schlosser, launched Saturday Night Live, a genre-defining mix of music and sketch...