Bill Murray. Tina Fey. Joan Rivers. Amy Poehler. Steve Carell. Steven Colbert. John and Jim Belushi. Harold Ramis. John Candy. Dan Aykroyd. Mike Meyers. Chris Farley. Bob Odenkirk. Keegan-Michael Key.
What do all of these comedy legends have in common? They all started their careers with The Second City, Chicago's historic improv sketch comedy enterprise.
This month, The Second City is bringing their best sketches and songs to the City of Roses. Featuring touring cast members Jenelle Cheyne, Laurel Krabacher, Scotty Nelson, Ian Owens, Jo Scott, and Lilliana Winkworth.
The Best of The Second City
Mar. 23, 2018. 7:00pm.
Newmark Theater
Tickets
Metro spoke with Ian Owens about improv comedy, the Myers-Briggs test, and taking the leap of performing comedy in front of an audience. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
How did you get into improv comedy?
I moved to LA to be a stand-up, and I pursued that for a few years. Then I auditioned for an improv job out in Amsterdam, and got to live in my favorite country of all time - Holland - for a little while.
I guess I've always been into [improv]. I've always been funny, always used comedy as my weapon. I wasn't tall or handsome or big or anything else - but I was funny.
I did a theatrical for Second City, called "Unelectable You", a political show that took place right before the 2016 presidential election. We toured the country with that show. About halfway through that tour, I realized Donald Trump was going to win based on how certain jokes were received. Comedy is a really great way to take the temperature of the country. I was a little bit ahead of FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver and that group, in that regard.
Then I came back to LA, studied under Second City and then became part of their national touring group which is my dream job. It's nice to have a job as a comedian here in Chicago, but it's also nice to be out of Chicago for as much of the winter as you can.
What differentiates The Second City from other improv troupes?
The history, for sure. Everywhere else I've been has some history, but Second City goes all the way back to the roots. It's the beginning of satirical comedy here in the States, unless you want to go all the way back to Mark Twain.
Just looking at the alumni, it's incredible. Being in a theater backstage and seeing a quote from Steve Carrell, and next to that a quote from Chance the Rapper, and next to that is a quote from a senator or someone else - it's wild to think about how many people have done this job and gone on to be successful.
The Best of Second City touring company. Photo courtesy of The Second City.
You list your Myers-Briggs profile on your official bio for The Second City. How do you think somone's personality plays a role in improv?
The Myers-Briggs is about measuring introversion versus extroversion, intuition versus reasoning, things like that. So maybe it has to do with where you pull your comedy from, or how you interact with your scene partner - whether you're intuiting and feeling, or what senses you're using to be good with your partner in a scene.
It's also a little bit like your Love Languages. Some people like to give a gift on stage in the same way that people like to give gifts in relationships. For me, I'm touch-oriented and need words of affirmation, so I like to give gifts on stage as well.
If you're going to talk about Myers-Briggs and Love Languages, you have to throw in Harry Potter houses. I always thought I was a Gryffindor, but when I took the test it turns out I'm a Ravenclaw - I was kind of hoping to be Slytherin.
But if we did actually have a sorting hat, I swear to you, this is the group I wanted. I coveted this particular touring company. I had seen a ton of their shows, and when I thought I might be considered for the job, I had my fingers crossed, thinking "please put me with these guys. They're so funny and talented." And they are the most loving, disgustingly in-love-with-each-other group of people that I have ever met, which makes it really fun and pleasant to tour with them. It sounds hokey, but it really does feel so much like a family.
We do have a database for our touring company with everyone's Myers-Briggs, their Love Languages, and their Harry Potter house. Anytime there's a great new BuzzFeed personality quiz, we'll take it together and add it to the list.
Ian Owens. Photo courtesy of The Second City.
Has your sense of humor evolved at all since taking up improv? If so, how?
It has - partially out of being either curious or bored. You get used to getting laughs certain ways, and start stretching yourself mostly out of boredom. If you do a scene ten times, by the eighth time you're asking yourself: "What else? How else can I do this line?"
At first, I loved to tell a completely witty, dry, English bit of humor. And then after a while it became predictable, and I started to use some of my weird, gangly physicality to see if I could get some jokes there. Then on to non-sequiturs, or whatever the next thing was.
It also came from watching the people you play with, where you go out and see them and say "Oh, I love how they do that - I wish I could do that sort of comedy. Let me see if I can do that!" That's the way that my improv comedy has evolved.
What would you say to someone who wants to get into improv comedy, but is nervous about their ability to make things up on the spot and still be funny?
You can 100% do it! You might be wildly successful. Please go out, because you have no idea how many ways there are to be funny. It's not always about being quick or witty or on-the-spot. I would say to roll the dice. You have nothing to lose, and at the very least you will get other qualities that you didn't have before. Like you'll be more comfortable in front of groups of people and live audiences, for example.
As far as performance arts go, improv is the least terrifying to do once you do it. Everything else gives me knots - having to sing or do stand-up gives me ten times worse anxiety. But when I have an improv show on the horizon, I don't care until I get there. Part of that is because you have so many people with you - you're never alone out there on stage. At the very least, if you're terrible, you're terrible with six other people and you can offset some of that blame.