“Y’all can choose an ending for this next sketch,” came the word from the stage, at the late show of the Second City e.t.c. Stage. “Do you want heartfelt or funny?”
“Funny” came roaring back, an apt reminder that, for the audience, Second City always has been a comedy theater, or at least for the 25 years I’ve been in regular attendance. People go there to laugh. Past, present and, let us hope, future.
And the uncommonly smart e.t.c. Stage cast, directed by Frank Caeti and made up of Atra Asdou, E.J. Cameron, Mark Campbell, Laurel Krabacher, Alex Bellisle and Chuck Norment, has the talent to offer plenty of laughs. What’s lacking here are two things: sufficient confidence to commit to the material and an understanding that comedy has to be at least as much about the audience as the performer.
The title of the show, forged with some chutzpah, is “The Best Decision You’ve Ever Made.” But it’s bookended by a pair of sketches concerned only with the identities of the performers: at the top of the show they are reading a casting breakdown for one those Chicago crime procedurals, which they feel stereotypes them, and, in the final moment, they tell us who they really think themselves to be.
It’s a heartfelt moment born of veracity, for sure. But the title of the piece uses the second person. And although it’s much easier for a tight ensemble to pull up the drawbridge when its worldview is threatened, this whole live improv business requires a fuller intersection with the people in the seats. Second City has been finding that hard since 2016; understandably so, given that half the country is offended at the comedy of the other half. And now COVID-19 protocols only have made it worse. But there has to be a way back, somewhere in the middle with civility, empathy and tolerance as guiding principals.
A good chunk of this show actually is dedicated to worries about what should be in the show: are we allowed to like this, are we allowed to say that? That’s a legit concern, these days, but the cast controls the material so it should pre-negotiate and then make its choices boldly, willing to challenge it own values. And ruthlessly cut that which is not funny.
Their talent would then shine all the brighter. Asdou, who often recalls Gilda Radner, is a hugely promising physical comic and intellectual; Cameron is one of this improvisers who thinks for a moment and then forms a complex laugh line; Krabacher is verbose and spontaneous; Bellisle is dry and witty; Campbell, surely already on a lot of radars, has show-driving energy, when he is not apologizing; Norment’s honesty is at the heart of the show. They’re all very likable, both individually and as a group. And they radiate mutual kindness.
They now need to stretch. This first post-pandemic show also has an ordinary improv game far too early in its running order: the cast loses the chance there to assert its own identities. And in Act 2, the arc just seems to spin away from them .
Regroup, say I, and now focus not so much on performance (that’s all there) but on audience-tested material and the ever-enthusiastic audience. Heartfelt we have and we welcome. Funny still needs work.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Best Decision You Ever Made”
When: Open run
Where: The Second City e.t.c. Stage, 1608 N. Wells St. in Piper’s Alley
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $29-$61; 312-337-3992 and www.secondcity.com
COVID protocol: Audience members must have proof of vaccination; masks required in the theater.
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Review: Second City e.t.c. Stage - Chicago Tribune
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