Mainstage News

With the depatures of Emily Wilson and Allison Bills from the mainstage cast, it was only time before we knew who would be promoted for the next revue.

Katie Rich, Holly Laurent, and Edgar Blackmon are confirmed to be joining the cast for the next revue.

Katie's last night

Katie Rich has set her last night with BlueCo for tonight.

Furman speaks

Eddie Furman was interviewed by Louisville's Courier Journal about Second City's Louisville-based revue, It Takes a Ville!

Q: Were you the sole writer on “It Takes a 'Ville” or was it a collaboration?
A: It's a two-person team, me and Tim Baltz, who's a very funny guy. We went down to Louisville for four days to learn all we could about the great city. Louisville has a great theater tradition, so I think it seemed like a natural fit, and people were genuinely excited to tell us things and show us things. It's a city both Tim and I really fell in love with, so the pressure was really on. We wanted to write a really great show for you.

How long does it take to write one of these shows?
You try to write quickly while everything's fresh in your mind, so it was about two weeks for ideas and treatments for scenes, with some shorter scenes written out, then meeting with Mick Napier, our director and a Kentucky native, and the producer to see which scenes are worth fleshing out. Then there's another two weeks of writing, before we handed off the script. There will be an improv element, too — we wrote a Louisville-specific improv piece for the show.

What did you do on your four-day cultural immersion tour of Louisville?
Bourbons Bistro. We met a lot of cool people there. We went to Yum! Foods headquarters and visited Colonel Sanders' grave (in Cave Hill Cemetery). The immersions are a funny thing because we want to see the things Louisville is famous for, but we also want to do the things that locals do.[...]

So what did you learn about Louisville and Louisvillians?
An interesting thing about Louisville is the dichotomy of it being the northern-most Southern city or the southern-most Northern city. You have the mega-churches and the Bible belt, but you also have bourbon and horse racing. It's very tolerant and everybody seems to get along and have a good time. I think more cities could benefit from that lesson.

What is Louisville's biggest idiosyncrasy?
Something you have in common with other cities where you are geographically — how you treat snow or bad weather. It didn't snow while we were down there, of course, but hearing the stories about how people react to an inch of snow in January. They're shooting the weak and the elderly and burying them in shallow graves so they don't have to endure the harsh winter, and the next afternoon it's 75 degrees again.

What's the big joke about Louisville?
I think it always comes back to people and how human nature manifests itself. That said, I think the biggest joke in Louisville is actually Southern Indiana.

Ouch! Why is that?
I don't know, but you all don't seem to be particularly fond of each other. It's a classic cross-river rivalry.

Louisville cast announced

The cast and musical director for Second City: It Takes a Ville has been named. They are as follows: Anthony Irons, Steve Waltien, Mitchell Fain, Lauren Dowden, Matthew Cohen (musical director), Jennifer Estlin, and John Hartman.

Of course, Mick is directing it.

I'm telling everyone I know about this show...being a native of Louisville but my heart is most definitely in Chicago.

Tim Ryder in ESPN

Tim Ryder was in ESPN Magazine for an Anchorman photoshoot with Danica Patrick.

The Baltimore show

TJ Shanoff and Megan Grano spoke to the press in Baltimore about the upcoming show, The Second City Does Baltimore.

Grano and Shanoff are aware that they are treading on sensitive ground. “What’s a little tricky—and we’re anticipating this in Baltimore—is that we’re gonna have reviewers come in saying, ‘Who the hell do these people think they are?’” Shanoff says. “We’re not trying to say we’re experts. But Second City has a certain pedigree, a certain way of doing things that’s very unique.”[...]

Shanoff has learned that you can’t always predict how a joke will go over. In Atlanta, one scene bombed so badly it was pulled from the show. The skit concerned a Georgia theme park called Stone Mountain. “It’s funny because it used to be the home of the Klan,” Shanoff says. “Now it’s where families—Hispanics, blacks, whites—all hang out and watch laser light shows and listen to classic rock music. But the gift shop had all these super racist items, like Mammy salt-and-pepper shakers and Confederate flag magnets.” So the comedy team wrote a scene spoofing on the gift shop; it included a line to the effect of, “Honey, we’re out of swastika magnets.” No one laughed.

Shanoff hopes to avoid falling flat in Baltimore by running jokes by locals prior to opening night. “Here’s an example,” he says. “I desperately wanted to find a piece that would rake Michael Steele over the coals and [the staff at Center Stage] wound up saying that even when Michael Steele was lieutenant governor nobody cared about him.” Despite his recent bid for re-election, the Republican National Committee chairman will not be appearing in the upcoming show.

Melewski joins Chicago Cash Cab

NPR News informs us that Beth Melewski is going to be in the Chicago spinoff of Cash Cab on Discovery.

The Discovery Network show that turns a New York City cab ride into an instant game show is launching a spinoff version based in Chicago next spring. Comic Beth Melewski, a "Second City" cast member, will be behind the wheel.

The expansion comes after a triumphant year for "Cash Cab." The series, itself a remake of a British TV's similar game based in London, won its second Daytime Emmy award for best game show. Ben Bailey won his first Emmy as best host.[...]

Melewski had the combination of smarts and knowledge of her city to work well in the cab, he said.

"Beth feels real-deal Chicago," he said. "You've got to have, for these shows at least, a feel for the city."

He doesn't expect expansion beyond these two cities in the United States, Bunting said. Other "Cash Cab" versions air in Canada, Japan and Australia.

The Chicago shows will begin airing within the two-hour block of four "Cash Cab" episodes that Discovery airs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time, probably after the broadcast networks end their season in May. Bailey has been taping fresh New York episodes that will begin airing earlier. He's already made more than 200 since the game began in 2005.