Second City: second rate, or lower

EAST PEORIA, IL -- The Second City comedy troop from Chicago performed on Nov. 25 at Illinois Central College's Performing Arts Center auditorium. Billed as the "Non-Denominational Christmas Show" it should have been refreshingly funny. It wasn't.

The 19th century English actor Edmund Kean reportedly said on his death bed, "dying is easy, comedy is hard." Oh yes. 

'Lame' is the perfect word for this Second City show. Among the problems:

1. The skits were not really funny.  Nor were they well written.
2.  Most of the actors/performers talked too fast, and did not speak slowly or enunciate properly, so much of what they said was incomprehensible. (Why weren't these actors trained before they were sent out to perform?)
   
3. The auditorium is fine but too big for actors without microphones. And they were not using them, again making what they were saying unintelligible.
4. Most of the actors were not dressed well -- especially the females. This was a show, not a classroom. An all-black top and pants doesn't cut it on a stage.
5. There were no sets, just a few chairs. Boring.
   
6. A pianist accompanied the skits, and sometimes drowned out the dialogue.
7. But mostly the show just wasn't funny.  

Of interest was a take on the "Twelve Days of Christmas," with the lyrics a satire on Trump's year. "On his first day in office Trump tweeted to me... " witchhunt, fake news, etc.  Mildly amusing, though it got loud applause from the audience (good). 

The Second City has produced some of the finest comics and talents in show biz history.  But this traveling group was so second rate that we left during the intermission. There's no point in sitting through a comedy show that isn't funny, that is, what we could hear of it. Sad.

 -- Elaine Hopkins