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Latest Second City incarnation is quite tame
It was 15 or more years ago that the late Paul Pavis, entertainment director at Harrah's Atlantic City, brought The Second City comedy-sketch troupe to the long-gone Bay Cabaret, a casino-side lounge that typically hosted the likes of '70s game show regulars Jaye P. Morgan and Nipsey Russell.
Not surprisingly, the troupe's dark and edgy humor proved far too hip for the oh-so-square room and its older-skewing clientele.
Flash forward to the present. Atlantic City is now host to an exponentially hipper and more sophisticated customer base. Which, it would follow, makes it the perfect place for The Second City's hard-edged comedy.
But, as AyCee has changed, so, it seems, has Second City. The unit that is spending every Saturday night through Aug. 26 at the Palace Theater inside Bally's Atlantic City today appears to be much more intent on good, old-fashioned silliness than provocation.
To be sure, the musical numbers that bookend the 75-minute performance are quite satirical in nature. Both segments skewer Americans' overriding preference for empty-headed entertainment, and their bizarre interest in the personal lives of those who provide it, over concern for the truly important issues of the day. Or, as the six-member cast puts it musically, "More people know Donald Trump than Donald Rumsfeld."
But the bulk of the generally entertaining program is dedicated to matters of much less heft.
Most of the show is comprised of scripted pieces, some of them throwbacks to the kind of quick-hit "blackouts" that were a staple of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the late 1960s (and burlesque decades before that).
One such bit features two of the cast members in full Scottish drag, with one of them portraying (of all things) a bagpipe that the other one "plays." Another piece of chuckle-inducing goofiness has one of the female performers appearing as a malfunctioning inflatable "love doll" (the sequence, incidentally, is played entirely for laughs, and isn't smutty at all).
But the 46-year-old comedy troupe -- which launched the careers of stars including John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Rivers, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Chris Farley, Fred Willard and Gilda Radner -- has always been known as the mother ship of improvisational comedy. And this production carries on the tradition in an admirable manner.
Among the winning improv bits are the one in which the three male actors instantaneously create songs based on audience suggestions. Another, also using ticket-holder input, offers a wildly amusing twist on the parlor game Charades.
As noted above, Second City has been the laboratory from which has sprung some of the greatest comedic artists of the past half-century. When Harrah's hosted the troupe, one then-unknown performer who memorably impressed this reviewer was Richard Kind, the hilariously schleppy character actor who has co-starred in the hit sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City.
This time out, however, none of the six youthful entertainers really stands out, although all are obviously talented.
One final note: People under 18 are not allowed to attend the show. This prohibition is somewhat odd, as there are beer commercials that are dirtier than the group's performance last Saturday night.
Show time is 9 p.m. Admission is $25. For tickets and information, call (609) 340-2709 or go to www.ballysac.com.
Reach Atlantic City casinos writer Chuck Darrow at (856) 486-2442 or cdarrow@courierpostonline.com.
Published: July 27. 2006 3:10AM
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