Palm Arts: Legendary Comedy Troupe The Second City, 1/23

13 Jan Palm Arts: Legendary Comedy Troupe The Second City, 1/23

Telluride’s Palm Arts announces another great winter performance, this one featuring the legendary American improv comedy troupe The Second City at the Michael D. Palm Theatre. The show takes place Wednesday, January 23, 2019, starting at 6:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $35 GA seating; $45 reserved seating; $55 day of performance. All tickets are available at www.telluridepalm.com

Scroll down to watch the trailer of what’s in store.

One frigid Wednesday night in December 1959, in a partly refurbished Chinese laundry, a revolution in comedy began in a bohemian section of  the Windy City near Old Town. A small improvisational troupe, all students from the University of Chicago’s theatre department, calling themselves The Second City  – the title of A.J. Liebling’s derisive profile of Chicago in The New Yorker – took to the stage for the very first time to satirize the Eisenhower era before an audience of under 100 souls.

Success was instantaneous.

Praise for the actors included Time Magazine describing the company as “a temple of satire.” Soon the venue was packed every night and the nondescript club became a “must-see” stopover for locals and out-of-towners.

The Second City founders included iconic names in comedy: Paul Sills, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Zorah Lambert and Sheldon Patinkin. Then Second City then went on to become a North American theatrical institution once described by veteran New York Times theatre critic Clive Barnes this way: “The entire recent tradition of American theatrical satire can be summed up in three words – The Second City.”

Since opening its doors, alumni of The Second City’s resident stages, touring companies, and theatrical divisions across Chicago and Toronto have included some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and others.

And since that initial show, millions have attended The Second City theatrical happenings – such as the upcoming event hosted by Telluride’s Palm Arts: “It’s Not You. It’s Me.”

One of the human foibles The Second City has been laughing at for decades is love and its infinite scroll of side effects. In the world-famous comedy company’s latest laughter-inducing undertaking, The Second City takes potshots at heartbreak, missed connections and the mire of human relationships.

Your friends, your parents, even your blind date should find something achingly familiar to laugh at, thanks to comedy’s newest generation of writers and performers…all of whom fit squarely into the “it’s complicated” category.

“It’s a pleasure to be able to present such a iconic comedy tour de force here in Telluride,” says The Palm’s programming director Chris Vann, “If laughter is the best medicine then this show is about to cure all of us.”