Playwright: Christina Anthony, Amanda Blake Davis,Tom Flanigan, Beth Melewski, Timothy Edward Mason,
Andy St. Clair . At: Second City e.t.c, 1608 N. Wells . Phone: 312-337-3992; $20-$25. Runs through: Open run
"I know it's a stereotype you've heard a thousand times," shares a taciturn, salt-of-the-earth American Gothic type midway through Second City e.t.c.'s new revue, Studs Terkel's Not Working. "But them California lesbians can start fires with their eyes."
No doubt the bit loses a lot in translation—sketch comedy is not funny when the sketch is sitting flat on a sheet of paper ( or confined to a computer screen. ) But believe us when we say that the epic tale of California gays thundering over purple mountain's fruited planes to get to Iowa to get married is an inspired bit of business.
Of course, some jokes all but write themselves ( "California said 'No.' Iowa said 'Yes.'" Long, incredulous pause. "Iowa U.S.A." ) but few can deliver them with the bullseye accuracy of e.t.c. As the Iowa-California role reversal indicates, these are strange days indeed. Thankfully, Second City is here to put them in perspective: Kim Jong-Il is like the TV show The Hills." Taiwan is to China as Alec Baldwin is. Funyuns. The non-sequituriest of non sequiturs work thanks to e.t.c.'s author/performers—Christina Anthony, Amanda Blake Davis, Tom Flanigan, Beth Melewski, Andy St. Clair and Cayne Collier ( filling in for Tim Mason the night we attended ) .
In all, Not Working shows Second City sallying forth in its 50th year as a comedic superpower. Directed by Matt Hovde, Not Working is polished, hilarious and alternately mensa-level smart and 10-year-old-boy stupid—both extremes being equally amusing. If Daley II is emperor-in-chief, Second City is the invaluable court jester who can criticize with the venom of a scorpion and get away with it simply because: a ) in the end, there's no arguing with truth and b ) the wit is so infectious you can't help but laugh even when the joke is oh so very clearly on you.
In under two hours, the cast skewers multicultural adoptions, female date-rapists, Eleanor Roosevelt ( who, BTW, could start fires with her eyes ) , unemployed Andersonville gays and an entire busload of miscreant tourists including but not limited to drunken-unto-puking bachelorettes, tongue-lolling paraplegics with mechanical larynxes, staggeringly stupid Germans and one truly moronic African-American woman with a distractingly lazy eye. All of it is profane. All of it is hilarious.
The improv portion of the evening is similarly fine, as one lucky audience member is pulled into an elaborate potboiler noir about a detective, a dame and ( the night we were there ) a stolen eggplant. A daisy-chain sketch explaining the recession—wherein one person's small economies mushroom into the cause for global economic meltdown—offers a primer in lightning comedic reflexes.
The production captures the zeitgeist of a city that's edgy from economic woes but instilled with the kind of unshakable optimism that defines baseball season. And at $20-$25 a ticket, Not Working is one of the most recession-friendly shows in town.
