Humor, Second City style, has taken a little getting used to in the Northwest suburbs, but judging from the increasing popularity of the famous comedy empire`s Rolling Meadows outpost, the audiences are starting to get the hang of it.
”When we first started here, people complained because they thought it was like `Saturday Night Live,` but there was no rock band. Like they`re gonna see the Rolling Stones for $5.50,” says cast member Fran Adams with a chuckle.
For that first show, ”Pieces of `88,” a couple of years ago, ”We got very polite applause, like a piano recital. Now they love the stuff where we go into the audience. The word of mouth has really helped.”
Not only have suburban audiences learned more about the Second City approach to comedy, the writer/performers also have adjusted their approach to suit the suburbs.
”One thing we encountered in our first two revues: at Second City, the thing people expect downtown is all this Chicago stuff, where you complain about mugging, government, things like that. Out here, people don`t care!
That`s why they moved out here in the first place, probably, was to get away from all that.”
Also different from the home base Second City, where the mere mention of
”Skokie” or ”Wrigley Field” can bring laughs, is that the diffuse nature of suburban living makes name-dropping ineffective.
”There was a school board election in Arlington Heights,” Adams recalls, ”so we did something on that, but it didn`t go over because, on any given night, how many people are going to be from that exact town? As much as the audiences don`t care about downtown, they don`t really know that much about each other`s suburbs either.”
Instead, Adams says, ”Our humor becomes more of an attitude thing. Like last night, when we took suggestions from the crowd to improvise on, the really hot topics were `Things you do not tell your spouse` and `Jobs you did to put yourself through college.`
For Adams, Second City`s revue format is ideal for entertaining audiences that may have varied tastes. ”Right now,” she says, ”we`re opening our show with a blind date piece-I play (a) moronic hostess, and there`s a lot of groping and kind of raunchy physical stuff. I was hesitant to start off with that, I thought it might be too much, but it never fails to get the crowd going.
”So even if you invite your parents who might whisper `I can`t believe they said that,` two seconds later you hit them with something else.”
The Second City-Northwest was founded in 1988, when Second City`s touring company was taken off the road and planted in Rolling Meadows. Several Rolling Meadows alumni have since gone on to the Wells Street company, and one of Adams` cohorts from the first revue, Bill Murray`s younger brother Joel, was recently cast for a TV situation comedy expected to begin airing next year.
Adams and the rest of the cast-Steven J. Carell, David Razowsky, John Rubano and Claudia Smith-perform their current revue, ”Baked Alaska or This Fish Tastes Like Oil” at 1701 W. Golf Rd. (across the hall from Rupert`s Restaurant), Rolling Meadows, at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays ($5.50); and at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Fridays ($9) and Saturdays ($9.50) Reservations at 806-1555.
