Second time around: Comedy troupe revisits Northwest Arkansas armed with political satire
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008
Every time Seth Weitberg walks into his workplace, he's reminded of those who have come before him: Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, John Belushi, Tina Fey and many others. Portraits of many of those well-known comedians and actors line the walls at Second City in Chicago, where Weitberg, an up-and-coming comic himself, has worked since January 2007. It's a humbling experience to work for Second City, said the Chicago resident by phone.
In the spirit of the topical skits, improvisation and cutting-edge satire that Second City is known for, the company's current tour delves into the subject that dominates many newscasts, especially every four years: politics. With the elections nearing, the troupe's "Second City: Deface the Nation"offers a funny and fresh look at presidential politics. The tour stops Sept. 5 at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville. The group last appeared in Fayetteville in August 2006.
Those worried their candidate of choice is going to take a beating are right. But don't worry. The other candidate is going take their lumps, too, Weitberg said.
"It's pretty even handed, as far as the shots go,"he said.
And it won't just be skits featuring caricatures of presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain, either, Weitberg said. Several of the sketches will feature married couples and their friends in scenarios affected by the political process. Such riffery can work, Weitberg said, because in our lives, social and political elements are readily blended together.
The two-act show is a series of sketches that have been developed through several different processes, Weitberg explained. The members of Second City sometimes write in groups, or others prefer to write on their own. A lot of the material is also built from the Second City stage in Chicago, where improvisational actors commenting on a topic say lines that are later expounded into the bits found in touring shows such as the one coming to Fayetteville.
The process is one of trial and error, Weitberg said.
He recalls a scene that the troupe had written about McCain, one he thought was rather funny. But the concept of the joke had to do with the presidential hopeful's time spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"We learned the audience wasn't willing to laugh at that,"he said.
The jokes that consistently do draw laughs are written so they have a broad appeal and are grounded in truth, Weitberg said. "There has to be an element of truth, something people have thought about,"he said. With that in mind, jokes saying "Obama is stupid"aren't likely to succeed, Weitberg argues. But calling him an elitist, something he has often been accused of, might draw a laugh in the right context.
"It's a matter of reframing the truth,"he said.
Like all Second City routines, there are elements of improvisation, both inside the script and out. There are holes in the script where cast members interact with the audience, changing the performance every night.
There is also what Weitberg calls the "Third Act,"a time at the end of the evening for the group to test new material on the audience. Expect something from the group's upcoming Christmas production to be tested on Northwest Arkansas, Weitberg said. Christmas? Hey, it's improvised. What can you expect?
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