“These may look like things you know, but this is not that Christmas show,” proclaims the opening number of The Second City’s Holidazed & Confused Revue. If you’re searching for the true meaning of the holiday season, look elsewhere. If you want a warm and fuzzy show to unite the family, keep moving. If you’re in the mood for a show where a grown man pretends to be a horse named Perseus being whipped by a pool noodle, you’re in the right place.
The Second City began teaching improvisation and comedy in Chicago in 1959 and has since expanded its operations to L.A. and Toronto. The school is often the farm team for Saturday Night Live: John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and Tina Fey are all alumni. The Second City’s Holidazed & Confused Revue, presented by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park through Dec. 31, is produced by one of The Second City’s touring companies. It is a generous mix of sketch comedy and improv that pokes ribald fun at the entire holiday season, from gift exchanges to horse-drawn carriage rides (poor Perseus).
As a recovering improviser myself, I can tell you that there tends to be a weak link in any comedy troupe. I found no such weak link among these six comedians — seven, if you count onstage music director Brian Heveron-Smith, which I do. If you are not familiar with sketch comedy and improv, a keyboardist such as Heveron-Smith will cue up music and sound effects that can make or break a scene — but this musician will also improvise right along with the cast, composing bespoke music for songs that are being created on the spot. Heveron-Smith hides in plain sight — he is the only performer who never leaves the stage — but his timing and wit snap the show into place.
The actors themselves hail from as near as Columbus (Tyler Davis) and as far as California (Amy Thompson). Together, the six form a well-oiled machine that can turn bawdy, Grinch-like or even touchingly sentimental at a moment’s notice. Emma Pope is everyone’s sweet Aunt Carol one minute, a frenzied pumpkin spice latte junkie the next. Nate Varrone is a hysterical Satan, even if we really asked for Santa. Katie Kershaw is a whip-smart improviser and a brassy Wise Woman (someone had to stay home while the Wise Men were on their pilgrimage). Charles Pettitt’s physical comedy is strong, and he plays a frisky grandmother with almost as much humor as he plays the beleaguered Perseus. Directed by Andel Sudik, the entire troupe is played to its strengths: they are confident in their improv, flawless in their timing and full of presence.
Any comedian can score a few easy laughs by localizing his or her material — throwing a “Who Dey” or a Skyline reference into a standard bit. On the other hand, the cast has clearly done its homework, as there are several sketches that would not make sense in another market. For example, one of my favorite moments begins as a scripted scene about selling cuckoo clocks and midway devolves into improv. In a gutsy move that only seasoned improvisers would dare, Kershaw and Davis solicit the audience for their neighborhoods and invent new clocks to reflect those locations, riffing as though they had been born and bred here. I could have watched them mine this joke for another quarter-hour; it felt so risky (would someone stump the cast?) and fun.
The content, appropriate for teens and adults, will likely change during the production’s run as the cast tests new material and spends another month getting to know the Queen City. That said, I doubt any tailoring will change the show enough for me to see twice, unlike an all-improvised show.
As with any live performance, the comedy barometer for the Holidazed & Confused Revue depends largely on that night’s audience. On opening night, our “come up onstage!” patsy was lukewarm, and an audience member being interviewed by Santa Claus insisted on responding giddily in Italian. You never know what you’re going to get, but you’re in capable hands with this crew from The Second City. They are all in, and they never say “humbug.”
THE SECOND CITY’S HOLIDAZED & CONFUSED REVUE, produced by Playhouse in the Park in the Thompson Shelterhouse Theatre, continues through Dec. 31. More info: cincyplay.com.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2016.