Now Playing in Chicago: Second City's Dysfunctional Holiday Revue

When it comes to sketches about dysfunction intermingled amongst the holiday season, “The Second City’s Dysfunctional Holiday Revue” is top notch.

Where else in Chicago, can you go and see the traveling troop, dreaming of following in the footsteps of Jim Belushi, Dan Akroyd, or John Candy. improv on the outrageous topics of blow up dolls, Donald Rumsfeld, and a little white baby Jesus, all of this within one hour of sitting down in the theater?That same theater which allows you to bring your drinks inside, of course, before even beginning to ponder any yuletide dysfunction in the first place, which probably doesn’t hurt to make the audience feel a bit more festive.
 
The cast begins your evening with a choral inspiration telling you to turn off your cell phone and pagers, cause you ain't the “paparazzi", regardless of what kind of camera, pda, or digital video recorder that you brought with you. This advice coming from Pastor “Wilma and Joe”, the local captains of the melting pot, right before the audience is informed that is isn’t the 1990’s any more.

Oh, and yes, these same pastors are later singing for you to jump into “their chunky salsa”. The chunkiness, of course, being their mix of eclectic cultural “vibrations” which have nothing to do with any sort of dysfunctional salsa, and everything to do with the various cultural and religious groups that we all associate with around the holiday season.

Next the show introduces you to Kerry and David. David being the 32 yr old that learns of his co-workers still un-crushed belief in Santa Claus. You can almost imagine being the shmuck that has to do the job of any “half decent parent” and break it to her that Santa isn’t eating all of those cookies, when some of the houses don’t even have chimneys for fat Santa to get inside of the house to begin with. Regardless of what kind of sweet tooth that “fat”, cookie-eating man has, he still is not delivering gifts to all of those houses in one night!

Following the end of the show, the cast involves the audience in a series of improv skits according to topics thrown to the group by audience suggestions. “The Second City’s Dysfunctional Holiday Revue”, leaves you wondering, “what really is so different about your paranoid, plastic runner using, covered couch having, Sicilian family, compared to that of Joe Cool’s family this Yule tide season? With the answer probably not being far off from the lines of, oh well, nothing.

When it comes right down to it, The Second City traveling troop does a good job of hitting the dysfunctional nail on the head this holiday season. No matter which religion you practice, which city you live in, which political parties you affiliate with, or which nationality your family claims, nearly anyone can find at least a couple of skits that they can relate to within the show. And, with the improvisational comedy thrown into the mix, you can always throw them a bone if you feel the slightest bit off of center from the overhanging mistletoe.

Currently you can see “The Second City Dysfunctional Revue” in venues all over the Chicago area and surrounding suburbs. The skits are also being performed in various cities throughout the United States by The Second City Touring company, so check out Second City’s website to find their performance in a city near you this holiday season.