More news and reviews from the Second City 50th anniversary weekend

Howdy, Zoners! I hope you’ve all been enjoying the stories coming out of the Second City anniversary weekend as much as I have. It looks like it was a weekend full of laughs, and for the lucky people who were able to attend the special alumni show on Saturday night, a rare opportunity to see dozens of talented and successful Second City “graduates” go back to their roots. The reviews are still coming in and all of them, without exception, cite the two sketches featuring Stephen Colbert as highlights of the show. We’ve already had our own reviews of the weekend from Zoners MaryLovesColbert and Wildlymissingthemark, and now I’ve got a zeitgeisty roundup of the best articles here to share with you.

The Second City alumni show

• The Second City: masters old and new gather and triumph at 50th Fest laugh marathon – Chicago Tribune: Colbert and Carrel dominated the show in many ways. But they did so in all the right ways. Not because of their mutual fame, but because their performances were so sharp, focused and funny.
• Behind the scenes at Second City’s 50th – Chicago Tribune: “When we were rehearsing before — this sounds very corny — but I got chills going through some of these scenes because they were such strong and positive memories that I have of this place, and they all came rushing back,” Steve Carell said Saturday evening while renewing connections in the lounge area.
• Second City celebrates 50 years – CANOE — JAM! Theatre: But a bit from ’94, taken from an audience improv suggestion of “Maya Angelou goes home,” provided easily the most sublime moment of surreality. Back then, Colbert and Carell took that near impossible improv assignment for two white guys and turned it into a veritable Twilight Zone episode in which Colbert takes his best friend “Steve” to his home town, where he inexplicably is addressed lovingly by the townsfolk as “Shirley Wentworth.”
• Second City turns 50 – TheStar.com: They played out a scene of turgid romance with deadpan sincerity, building to the moment when Colbert passionately kissed Razowsky on the lips. The capper of the scene was the hitherto-dumbstruck Carell bursting out in anger at the racial inequality that had occurred so many years ago and launching into one of his firecracker rages that prove so hilarious. It was a moment of sheer, anarchic, comedy bliss, first improvised 16 years before by two young men who were then struggling unknowns but were now at the top of their profession.

The Colbert Report panel

• Panel discusses ‘the guy’ behind the ‘Colbert Report’ – Chicago Tribune: Colbert said he “thinks of the show as one continuous scene” that just happens to be extended day after day. “Truthiness is the thesis statement for the show,” Colbert said. “I always tell the audience to have a good show because they are the second character in the scene.”
• Second City my ass – Peter Sagal’s blog: As Colbert said of his character, “He really wants to help people and help the country — he’s just really bad at it.” And then Colbert (the person — this does get confusing) said something that sounded like a practiced line, but was still wonderful: “Every night I say something I actually believe… I’m just never going to tell you what it is.”

Eye candy, etc.

• The Chicago Tribune has a photo gallery up at their site that includes pics from the whole weekend.
• ChicagoNow.com has a post up with videos from the early days of the Stephvens in Chicago. The clip featuring Steve Carell is especially interesting because supposedly the sketch was written by Amy Sedaris. I can’t confirm this, but it’s a hilariously twisted bit of comedy that certainly seems like it could have come from the hilariously twisted mind of Ms. Sedaris.
• And of course, we have a photo album from Zoner Chloe. Thanks for sharing with us!

(h/t Jennie and DB)