ARE YOU NOW, OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN MELLOW?
Second City
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Of course there are some easy targets (Prozac, unisex bathrooms, Chicago’s undermotivated schoolteachers, “Dr. Death,” Fabio) and easy sight gags (Secret Service agents hiding). Unexpected are strange charmers like “Maya,” a sweet spin-off of Prelude to a Kiss: a white man turns into a kindly old black woman whenever he returns to his hometown, and to his amazement, so does his buddy. By the end they–and we–are delighted by the goodness they trigger in townsfolk who cherish them for what they’re not. And a devastating depiction of a grade-school spelling bee from hell is classic Second City. In this twisted nightmare, an unseen voice taunts the victims/children with trick questions and barbed, anti-Semitic remarks. The spelling bee is supposed to prepare them for the real world–and the kids’ reactions show they’ve learned the lesson all too well.
Two strong skits offer sharp takes on the absurdities of current psychologizing. In one the Beatles, backstage at their American TV debut, suddenly recover a “repressed memory” of being sexually abused by Ed Sullivan minutes before. (Ringo was molested only by Topo Gigio.) In the other an infuriatingly indifferent therapist remembers nothing about his client except that he should be billed $85 an hour. (Unfortunately, proving the shrink’s forgetfulness requires a lot of repetition.)
Nate Herman, the director who gave Second City E.T.C. its sharpest shows, has quit the comedy empire–but, thank Thalia (the muse of comedy), he hasn’t stopped concocting satires of contemporary idiocies. Playing Mondays in “Vinnie Black’s Colosseum” (the reception hall for Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding) is his Semi-Dynamics, a wickedly mordant spoof of crackpot get-rich-quick schemes. Like Upright Citizens Brigade’s Conference on the Future of Happiness, this hour-long fake futuristic pep talk takes aim at feel-good success seminars that combine Leo Buscaglia with Dale Carnegie for fun and profit (not necessarily in that order of importance), promising huge fortunes and easy answers.
