The late-night “SCTV” reunion show was being simulcast in three screening rooms upstairs from the mainstage at Second City’s blowout 50th anniversary weekend, but Richard Kind wasn’t watching.
“I didn’t come here to look at a screen,” the “A Serious Man” co-star and former cast member scoffed while mingling in the crowded “alumni lounge” hallway. “I don’t even want to see them perform. All I want to do is sit, drink and talk and ‘how are you’ and talk about old times.”
Kind eventually would change his mind about watching his fellow alumni onstage. The lure of seeing the “SCTV” cast (Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas and Martin Short) on Friday night and dozens more gifted performers in two epic shows Saturday proved irresistible.
Regardless of their post-Second City fame level, the returning cast members found as much excitement and inspiration off the stage as on it over the weekend. If only high school reunions were this entertaining, exhausting and emotionally satisfying.
“When we were rehearsing before — this sounds very corny — but I got chills going through some of these scenes because they were such strong and positive memories that I have of this place, and they all came rushing back,” Steve Carell said Saturday evening while renewing connections in the lounge area. “You move away and you do other things, but then when you come back you are reminded once again of the importance to your life.”
Jim Belushi wasn’t buying the high school reunion comparison. “High school [reunions] you’re trying to [anger] the girls that you liked that didn’t like you,” he said in the wee hours of Sunday morning, after he and his son, Rob, had performed the classic, bracingly dark “White Horse Tavern” sketch. “This has nothing to do with that. This has to do with seeing people that you love, you’ve grown to love because of the connection you have onstage, and to see them again fills your heart.”
– – –
Late night treats
The official Second City cast party was Saturday afternoon, with alumni shuttling in and out depending on when they had to rehearse sketches they’d be performing later that night. But, really, the party started on Friday’s chartered flight from Los Angeles to Chicago (“The minute they said we were at 10,000 feet, everyone was up, drinking,” Nia Vardalos, writer-star of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” said.)
– The 7 p.m. Saturday general-public show ran so long — nearly four hours — that the 11 p.m. alumni-only show didn’t start until 12:15 a.m., even with Second City executive vice president Kelly Leonard asking for volunteers not to perform.
– By 2 a.m. the theater audience had become sparse while the adjacent bar was rocking to the gabbing and laughter of Belushi, Bonnie Hunt, George Wendt, Danny Breen, Holly Wortel, Jack McBrayer and many others. Just past 2:15 a.m., the show was cut short with six sketches to go. The reunion was more important: There was a photo to be taken and cake to be cut onstage.
