Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City and The Compass Players (Paperback)

by Jeffrey Sweet (Author) "David Shepherd's association with the theater crowd at the University of Chicago began in 1952..." (more)
Key Phrases: catatonic fit, improvisational theater, suggestions from the audience, New York, University of Chicago, Paul Sills (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Prominent alumni (Mike Nichols, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, among others) bring theatrical improvisation to life, with all the vitality, the power and the exuberance--the satire and spontaneity--that they made famous and that launched their careers.

About the Author
Jeffrey Sweet

Product Details

• Paperback: 386 pages
• Publisher: Limelight Editions; 1st Limelight Ed edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879100737
• ISBN-13: 978-0879100735
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #652,827 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oral history of Second City, February 13, 1996

By A Customer

This is a completely self-serving comment because I wrote thebook. But it occurs to me that it's hard to tell from the listingwhat the book is about. Briefly -- it's an oral history of the Second City, the Chicago-based theatre that popularized improvisational comedy. There are extensive and exclusive interviews here with Mike Nichols, Barbara Harris (her only full-length interview in more than 25 years), Alan Arkin, Alan Alda, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, David Steinberg, Gilda Radner, Del Close, the late, great Severn Darden, Paul Mazursky and the founder, Paul Sills.Being a book about people who created classic comedy, it can't help but be funny. But, beyond that, it and Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theatre and Keith Johnstone's Impro offer concrete ideas on how to build theatre of all kinds -- not just improv. I have been told by several people that Something Wonderful helped them decide what kind of theatre they wanted to do. (Mick Napier, founder of Chicago's celebrated Annoyance Theatre, was quoted as saying this in an interview with him in Chicago Magazine.) Certainly, working on the book changes my own ideas about the theatre in general and playwriting in particular. (How is the subject of another book, The Dramatist's Toolkit. Incidentally, I'd be delighted to receive E-mail regarding any of my writing.Jeffrey Sweet -- E-mail: [e-mail]

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine history of the grandaddy of all comedy troupes., October 20, 1999

By	Captain Opinionated (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

For those not familiar with the Second City, it is basically the granddaddy of all comedy troupes. Started in the mid-'50s as the Compass Players, it transformed into Second City in 1959 and has been going strong ever since, even opening sister theatres in Toronto & Detroit. So many of our current and past comedy stars have started here, it's mindboggling. The Belushi brothers, Bill Murray, Alan Arkin, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, Chris Farley, Bonnie Hunt, Ryan Stiles, Richard Kind, David Steinberg, Alan Alda, Peter Boyle, the entire cast of "SCTV Network," Philip Baker Hall, Mike Myers, Bob Odenkirk, Tim Meadows, Dan Aykroyd... the list goes on and on. This book was written in the '70s and is a collection of interviews w/ several of the company's key writer/performer/directors, among them Gilda Radner, Avery Schreiber, & Mina Kolb. A must-read for anyone who loves improv, sketch comedy, theatre technique, and, specifically, the Second City!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and valuable to any student of improv, February 10, 1999

By A Customer

I read this book when I was first starting out in improv about 12 years ago. It features interviews with many of my heros and is still inspiring to me. I went on to work at Second City years later and found this book essential to my understanding of that place's traditions as well as the fact that traditions are made to be broken--with respect, of course.