"The troupe that gave us SCTV and inspired Saturday Night Live and Whose Line is it Anyway!" - Chicago Tribune

"A temple of satire" - TIME

"Legendary" - The New York Times

The Second City Touring Company brings the best of sketch comedy, classic scenes, songs, and improvisation back to Turner Hall Ballroom. Always original, daring, and hilarious, The Second City is sure to entertain audiences both new and old. Tickets just $25.00!

The Second City Touring Company has been bringing laughter and joy to packed houses all over North America for over forty years. Their alumni list is a veritable "Who's Who" of comedy including Peter Boyle, Bill Murray, John & Jim Belushi, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, George Wendt, Ryan Stiles, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Tim Meadows, Joan Rivers, John Candy, Bonnie Hunt, Stephen Colbert, Chris Farley, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis and so many more.

The Second City is a long-running improvisational comedy troupe based in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959[1] and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto, metro-Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York. The Second City has produced television programs in both the US and Canada including SCTV, Second City Presents, and Next Comedy Legend. Since its debut, Second City has consistently been a starting point for several comedians, award winning actors, directors, and others in show business.

Second City evolved from the Compass Players,[2] a 1950s cabarets revue show started by undergraduates at the University of Chicago.[3] The troupe chose the self-mocking name "The Second City" from the title of an article about Chicago by A.J. Liebling that appeared in The New Yorker magazine in 1952.[1] In 1959, the first Second City revue show premiered at 1842 North Wells Street and moved to 1616 North Wells in 1967.[1] Co-founder Bernard Sahlins owned the theater company until 1985, before selling it to Canadian Andrew Alexander.[1]

The style of comedy has changed with time, but the format has remained constant. Second City revues feature a mix of semi-improvised and scripted scenes with new material developed during unscripted improv sessions after the second act where scenes are created based on audience suggestions. A Second City innovation is the inclusion of live, improvised music during the performance.

A number of well-known performers began careers as part of the historic troupe and later moved to television and film. In the mid-1970s, Second City became a source of cast members for Saturday Night Live, which borrowed from the writing and performing techniques pioneered by Second City and other improv groups, and members of the Toronto troupe created the program SCTV.