This article will be a review of a Second City show for people who have seen Second City shows before, and are at least a little familiar with the theater. If you have never seen a Second City show before this article might help you a little, because I will say to you now, "Go see a Second City show. Yes, you should get out of your studio apartment with the air mattress and go." But for those of you who are around the theater, let's talk about the E.T.C. stages' current show, "Pratfall of Civilization."

This show is exciting to me, and very interesting. Next door on the Mainstage, Second City is currently running a perfect example of the formulaic Second City show. It is very funny, very political and very current - it is a flawless execution of a Second City show - the only downside to that is that there are little-to-no-risks taken. It has to be scary to take a risk in such an established and successful theater, what happens if you deviate from the formula and fail? Well you would probably be out of a career. Right when I walked into the ETC theater I saw something new - something I haven't seen in the 14 years I have been seeing comedy in that cold room; I saw a video screen that was displaying a live feed of the lobby. Here are the thoughts that flashed in my head: modern, 2007, YouTube, digital short, Andy Samberg, update, moving with the times, trying something new, video! This is exciting! In the comedy community here I have heard people talk about whether or not SC would ever use video in one of its staged shows or if it should. Would it be appropriate? Would it still have the feel of The Second City? Would it work? Something else that is very exciting about this show is that the cast from the last show has been kept in-tact, which usually means there will be a lot of cohesion and chemistry. This was proven to be true, the cast writes well together and is excited to be playing with each other.

The show starts with a very brief opening credit-esque screen on the video-screen and the entire audiences head turns to the right, then lights come up and the heads turn back to the stage. The show opens up in a group song which tells me okay we are still in a Second City show. "Pratfall" has all the usual suspects; the sometimes ham-fisted political commentary disguised as a "scene", the songs with comical rhymes, the blackouts, the relationship scenes - everything is there. Except now a photo is shown on the video-screen that usually shows the environment that the current scene is taking place in - which adds a very nice touch! We see a photo of a messy garage while we watch a great scene showing Alex Fendrich and Niki Lindgren as Andy St. Clair's parents who use their sons method of rebelling, music, to get through to him. The best scene in act I is a father/daughter scene where Andy St. Clair is a worried father leaving his daughter behind at her new dorm, Rob Janas has a hysterical Al Gore impression as the former Vice President mirrors a cult leader and starts having everyone kill themselves by drinking the punch. There is a really smart song that shows a completely normal school girl (Amanda Blake Davis) who is surrounded by un-normal kids, which makes her wish she had a mother who left her, or was a test-tube baby - anything to fit in with her class! Some scenes are better than others as some feel forced or too political/boring/fake, and some scenes are wonderfully hilarious and honest and even surprising. Another fun element about this cast that deviates from the safe formula is that they love to play with their musical director, Chad Krueger. Chad gets up with the male cast members in an audience-participation musical scene that starts on-stage and ends in the crowd with the amigos talking to and trying to sing about audience members. When Chad gets up on stage a few audience members next to me said, "Who's that guy?", which added to my enjoyment - Chad's first line in that scene is hilarious and completely wins the crowd over. The very top of act II features my ALL-TIME favorite audience participation bit, that is also my favorite silent scene! It is so beautiful and funny and the audience member looks so happy by the end of it. It is a huge pop at the top of act II to get things back in gear, and I hope to see that little piece touring for years to come.

So after acting as a slide-show / lobby-camera for the entire show, there is finally a very dangerous - very new scene with Niki Lindgren and Nicky Margolis called "ICE". It features the ladies running through the audience as Immigration police with hand-held flashlights that are VERY bright and also have tiny wireless cameras in them - the video screen puts up the live feed to the flashlight-cam. The house is dark except for the flashlights and the two cast members cover the entire audience talking to people, shoving the bright light in their face and asking them the question, "What about you makes you an American?" I am told that the scene is to end with the girls talking to an African-American audience member, but on this particular night there was none! ZERO! I was in a room full of white people and one Asian, who was performing. So the ladies had to improvise and talk to a tan white person because he was "close enough". This scene is all of the following: dangerous, groundbreaking, fun (it is so fun to watch the audience members turn their heads between the live action and the video screen), loud, opinionated, and funny. This scene is the show. There is something about having people, white and black, prove they are American and seeing the audience members struggle to come up with one shred of American identity that makes an important point to me. Important. Old Second City shows used to feature Scott Adsit cutting up Blockbuster cards because he was angry and had an important point to make. That was dangerous then - this is dangerous now. That feeling was back! The feeling of what I want Second City as a theater, company, comedy insitution, etc. to be. That's what that theater means to me and it was so inspiring and relieving to have that moment back in the show. For YEARS the shows have been hilarious and fun to me, but it has not been important in a long time. "Pratfall" is an important show, and uses comedy to teach you something about yourself.

The E.T.C. theater was originally made to be different from Mainstage, to be a little edgier and to take more risks. Well that feeling is back, the Second City E.T.C. is the pissed off teenager in the family again. While this is by no means a perfect show, there are some boring scenes and some scenes with forced politics, overall what this show does is fantastic - and there are certainly enough "funny" moments to entertain your family from the suburbs. This show merges pieces of the traditional and safe SC formula with some use of photo/video, a lot of audience fun participation, an acting Musical Director, and a question that challenges you to discover about yourself what it means to be an American right now. The E.T.C. stage is the E.T.C. stage again - and there isn't a more fun and thought provoking show to see in Chicago right now.

"Pratfall Of Our Civilization" is written/performed by Amanda Blake Davis, Alex Fendrich, Rob Janas, Niki Lindgren, Nicky Margolis, and Andy St. Clair with musical direction by Chad Krueger. It is fantastically directed by Marc Warzecha whom I can't give enough credit to. Marc has found some sort of balance between the traditional sketch comedy show, while still trying new things and doing what he and the cast want. The show runs Thursdays - Sundays at The Second City E.T.C stage.

- Jon DeWalt