By Claudia Geib, News Staff
Topics like divorce, presidential debates and the end of the world might not seem like laughing matters, but The Second City comedy group made them so when they visited Northeastern last Thursday. Northeastern’s Resident Student Association (RSA) and chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) teamed up to host five actors from The Second City in Blackman Auditorium.
The Second City show was part of NRHH’s weeklong Give5 Campaign. This program encourages students to give five of something to a worthy cause – whether it is five minutes, five hours or $5. This year’s Give5 week was centered around advocacy, encouraging students to make a difference despite limited time or sparse resources.
The $5 ticket price for The Second City performance will be going to Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization whose goal is to engage America’s youth in politics and encourage them to vote in every election. Volunteers for the organization lined the entrance of Blackman and encouraged students to register to vote in the upcoming presidential primaries.
The Second City was founded in 1959 in Chicago as a small cabaret theatre that put a spin on comedy performances, according to The group’s website. Since then, The Second City has been churning out hilarious performers who have become part of America’s daily culture, “developing the finest comedic voices of each and every generation.” Their alumni have worked in everything from theatre to movies to television, most popularly on the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
Blackman Auditorium might have been mistaken for that famous set on Thursday as Second City cast members kept the audience laughing and guessing, entertaining with the same flair for physical comedy and clever wit that has made “SNL” so famous. After opening with a series of short comedic vignettes the actors moved into more long-form sketch comedy, the themes of which varied from marriage and relationships to troubles at the office to the end of the world.
The audience particularly enjoyed the sections of pure improvisation in the show, in which the actors asked students to provide different words to inspire the actors on stage. For example, in one skit modeled after a political debate, “candidates” improvised their way through a political speech without knowing the topic they were arguing. The topic was created from three words volunteered by the audience: “disgusting,” “jambalaya” and “hyperventilating.” Each candidate navigated towards the correct answers with silent help from his “campaign manager” and the claps of the audience.
“It was hilarious,” said Colin Peters, senior journalism major. “I liked the improv bits the best, but the rest was really fun.”
Some of the sketch comedy highlights included two songs, one called “I Am Socially Awkward” and another in which the singer pondered things she would never know before the end of the world — for example, why weathermen have to go out in a hurricane to tell you there’s a hurricane.
“The funniest bits were the song about the end of the world and when the guys were connecting things,” said Brian Packard, a junior behavioral neuroscience major.
Freshman business major Julia Pizzuto also said she enjoyed the performance.
“It was so good,” she said. “I wish I could think that fast.”
The actors from Second City were not available to comment on their performance.
“This was so much fun,” said Tori Blanchard, a freshman business major. “I registered to vote and got to have fun for a good cause. It was definitely worth going to.”
