An outpost of The Second City has opened in Brooklyn. Above, the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan skyline are pictured at sunset.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
The sketch comedy and improv group, The Second City, is famously named for its location: Chicago. And while some of its illustrious graduates, like Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey, have become famous New Yorkers, there’s never been an outpost in the First City, until now.
A new facility has been built in the Second Borough – Brooklyn. The trendy neighborhood of Williamsburg to be exact. On the site of an old record shop and club, the company has built a 200-seat mainstage, a 60-seat second stage, several classrooms, where improv and comedy writing are taught, and a restaurant.
It’s not The Second City’s first foray outside Chicago: There’s been an outpost in Toronto since 1973, which spawned the successful television series SCTV, and other companies have been in Hollywood and Detroit. In addition, there’s a touring company that crisscrosses the United States.
The Second City New York in Brooklyn.
Jeff Lunden/NPR
“We know that there is a really great comedy scene in New York,” said The Second City’s CEO, Ed Wells, “and a demand for comedy-based entertainment, but there is no one doing what we do.”
With the closing of several clubs in New York during the pandemic, he felt there was an opportunity. “I mean, New York is the home of Saturday Night Live, right?,” Wells explained. “Saturday Night Live and The…
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