Second City founded ~1962 — oldest improv group
Second City, founded around 1962 with alumni including Ed Asner, is the oldest of the major improv comedy troupes.
Where this was said
The Chicago Improv Scene That Changed Everything
At 23:35 · chapter starts 22:20
One show changed Ike Barinholtz's life. Attending the 10th anniversary performance of Improv Olympic, where he saw Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, and especially Tim Meadows, he walked out and immediately signed up for improv classes. The hosts map out the golden era of Chicago improv: Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Jack McBrayer, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, Scott Adsit, and Brian Stack all came through the same narrow pipeline. Will Arnett traces how UCB grew out of this scene — Amy and her collaborators moved to New York in January 1996, performing 'Bucket of Truth' at the West Bank Cafe, where his then-agent Peter Principato (now Ike's manager) took him to see them. Ike notes that Second City, founded around 1962 with Ed Asner, is the oldest of the troika, while Groundlings dates to the mid-'70s. The segment glows with genuine nostalgia for a time when American comedy was forged in Chicago.
The Improv Pipeline: How Chicago Built a Generation of Comedy
A single 10th-anniversary Improv Olympic show — featuring Amy Poehler, Adam McKay, and Tim Meadows — convinced Ike Barinholtz to abandon politics for comedy. The mid-1990s Chicago improv scene produced an extraordinary concentration of talent: Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Jack McBrayer, Jordan Peele, and more.
The Day the Clown Cried Reading: The Night Ike First Felt Cool
Around 2001, Ike Barinholtz, Will Arnett, David Cross, John Glaser, and Rob Huebel staged a reading of Jerry Lewis's notorious unreleased film The Day the Clown Cried — about a clown who entertains Jewish children as they are led to the gas chambers. It was, Ike says, the first time he ever felt genuinely cool doing comedy.
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