The Second City: The Essentially Accurate History

by The Second City, Sheldon Patinkin, Liz Kozak

“Chicago's temple of improvisational comedy.” — New York Times

Since opening in 1959, The Second City has transformed the state of comedy as we know it, creating a wickedly funny culture of improvisation and training thousands of artists—who now dominate popular entertainment—in the art of improv-based theater.

This newly revised and expanded edition of The Second City tells the story of the legendary comedy institution and the Emmy-winning sketch comedy classic SCTV , folding new material and commentary in with tales of The Second City’s storied past. The giants who got their start at The Second City in its earlier years—including Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, Eugene Levy, Tim Meadows, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Catherine O’Hara, Gilda Radner, Joan Rivers, Martin Short, and Fred Willard—are joined in these pages by more recent alumni like Aidy Bryant, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Keegan-Michael Key, Jack McBrayer, Bob Odenkirk, and Jason Sudeikis.

The real stories of The Second City and its performers will make you see the comedy juggernaut in a whole new light. Did you know John Belushi got his start lifting jokes from The Second City? Or that many cast members—including Stephen Colbert and Nia Vardalos—sold tickets or waited tables at the theater before they made it to the stage?

The Second City takes you behind the scenes of the world’s leading improv theater. Now spanning six decades, the story of The Second City is both funnier and more poignant than anyone could have imagined.

296 pages, Hardcover

Published December 17, 2019

Reviews

[Harrison Rip · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Second City has always been a trash heap of untalented poseurs, except the brief period when Scott Adsit and Adam Mckay were there

[Jenni V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This oversized book felt cumbersome but read quickly. I read it for a day, didn't pick it up again for about a week, and then finished it in a day.

The formatting was rough for me in the first few chapters. Throughout the whole book there are lots of sidebars and text boxes highlighting specific people but in the first chapter it would be regular text stopping in the middle of a sentence, turning the page to find a page with completely random info, turning the page and completing the sentence. The first time it happened I thought I had missing pages because it was so jarring. It happened multiple times so by the time I got to the second chapter I went through and read all the extra stuff first and then went back and read the text of the actual chapter. It settled down and was less of an issue after the first few chapters but didn't start off on the right foot.

The content was fine but I would've liked a little more finesse in the storytelling and not so much "this person said this", a new person started, "this person said this", etc.

I considered rating it a neutral 3 stars because a bigger fan might find this more interesting but decided on 2 because of the issues mentioned above.

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Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:
- 11th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)
- A book I received for Christmas 2025 (my goal is to read all my Christmas 2025 books by the end of 2026)
- A book I own that is leaving my house for a new reader to find (my goal is to declutter and make progress on whittling down my shelves/boxes of books in my house)

Find all my reviews at: https://readingatrandom.blogspot.com

[Laura Deger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty easy read with some interesting tidbits. There were several events and cast members I wanted to learn more about, but alas, this was not meant to be a heavy, long book. I think they could have benefited from a better editor because there were quite a few typos and paragraphs that are repeated verbatim in later parts of the book.

[John Kussner]

M

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It’s a fascinating history of the place where SO MANY funny people got their start. Includes lots of great photos too.

[Paul Farahvar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for any fan of comedy and/or the second city.