Topic Guide
What Is Second city?
Second city is a subject covered in depth across 1 podcast episode in our database. Below you'll find key concepts, expert insights, and the top episodes to listen to — all distilled from hours of conversation by leading experts.
Key Concepts in Second city
Second city improv training
Richard Kind describes Second City as his "Harvard of acting," detailing its origins from University of Chicago intellectuals and its evolution into a comedy powerhouse [14:26, 15:13]. His personal experience highlights how nightly improvisation, even for someone who initially claimed "I don't improvise," became a rigorous and essential method for developing into a skilled actor [17:16].
Maple vs. satellite character acting
This is Kind's self-developed framework for categorizing actors within a production [22:18]. "Maple" actors are the central figures, like the lead in a sitcom around whom the show revolves. "Satellite" character actors, like Kind himself, exist to "spice up" the main narrative and are tasked with delivering specific comedic beats, often needing to "get a laugh every three lines" in a three-camera sitcom to maintain audience engagement [24:22].
"telling the truth" in acting
Kind's personal evolution in acting involved moving from merely being "entertaining"—a phase where he felt he "pulled the wool over people's eyes"—to a more mature stage where he learned to truly "tell the truth" in his performances [10:10]. He believes it takes "20, 25 years to become an actor," emphasizing that true skill comes from embodying honesty in a role, a quality he admires in actors like Mary Steenburgen [11:10].
What Experts Say About Second city
- 1.Richard Kind admits he "pulled the wool over people's eyes" as an actor for 20-30 years, becoming "much better" later by learning to "tell the truth" in his craft [10:10].
- 2.He describes his four-and-a-half-year tenure at Second City as his "Harvard of acting," where he learned improvisation nightly despite initially protesting "I don't improvise" [17:16].
- 3.Kind differentiates between "maple" lead actors and "satellite" character actors, stating his role is to "get a laugh every three lines" in sitcoms to prevent viewers from changing the channel [22:36, 24:22].
- 4.He reveals his personal struggles with psoriasis and vitiligo, linking his physical manifestations of anxiety to his deep nervousness about the world despite his successful career [00:00, 19:17].
- 5.Kind humorously recounts being confidently wrong about three major predictions: Farah Fawcett's poster, *Who Wants to be a Millionaire*, and Callaway's Big Bertha golf club [43:46].
- 6.He highlights the unexpected historical trend of undertakers being the most common prior profession for congressmen, emphasizing the importance of staff over elected officials for substantive work [31:34, 33:35].
Top Episodes to Learn About Second city
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend