It seems almost inevitable: Whenever talented comic actors form a group to create new work, the quality of the performances exceeds the quality of the writing.
Think of everything from “Saturday Night Live” to improv shows like TV’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” to as far back as North Beach’s The Committee.
Think of Chicago’s storied The Second City, now appearing for a brief run at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Among all those companies, it’s probably the actors’ names you remember (Gilda Radner! John Belushi! Steve Carell, Alan Arkin, Fred Willard and so on), and often the personae they created (Roseanne Rosannadanna), but not the dialogue itself.
That’s all to say that this touring branch of Second City—three men, three women, racially mixed—has all the required quick wit, physical dexterity and comedic chops. They’re terrific.
In a 90-minute show plus intermission, the troupe mixes some improv (mostly based on audience suggestions) in with sketches.
For audiences, improv can be an acquired taste (my opinion based on improv classes is that it’s more fun to perform than to watch), its success depending on who the participating audience members are on any given night. On opening night in Berkeley, in a structured film-noir sketch, the troupe chose an audience participant who simply didn’t get the hang of it, which was a bit discomforting—we were laughing at the poor guy—but the quick-witted performers made the best of it, and it was one of the funniest scenes in the show.
These performers are indeed so quick-witted and play so well together that you’d be hard-pressed to choose a star among them. Particular characters they portrayed stand out: Cat Savage’s gleeful horror-addict tourist on a guided tour of the UC Berkeley campus (the troupe did its homework, adding in lots of local references); George Elrod as an awkward art teacher and as a dangerously overzealous tennis player; Chas Lilly’s panting, hyper-energized corporate speaker; Annie Sullivan, Max Thomas and Phylicia McLeod in a whole variety of roles.
Michael Oldham’s onstage piano accompaniment is fine-tuned, cutting off improvs at just the right second, and Jeff Griggs’ direction keeps most of the sketches at just the right length, although a few are a bit long. (An otherwise clever satire of pretentious wine-tasting goes on slightly past its sell-by date.)
The humor ranges from mild sexual innuendo to equally mild scatological quips to what is these days a practically mandatory artificial intelligence sketch (involving a self-driving car), spoofs of TV commercials and the like, most scenes ending with a punchline.
Since most of the sketches and improvs involve just a few of the performers at a time, it’s especially fun, toward show’s end, to watch an absolutely zany full-group interpretive dance about . . . fossil fuels.
This is a night of easy-going humor. Whether the next Joan Rivers or John Candy or Stephen Colbert (all Second City alums) will emerge from this talented troupe, who knows?
“The Best of The Second City” continues through July 28 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $22-$81 at berkeleyrep.org or (510) 647-2949.
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