( Photo Courtesy of Derek Shipman)
Dallas is about to get funnier, at least until Sunday.
Chicago’s famous Second City Comedy Troupe is set to perform three shows at the Wylie Theater Center this weekend in celebration of 50 years of making people laugh.
Cast member Derek Shipman spoke to The Daily Campus about Second City’s “Dysfunctional Holiday Revue.”
Shipman, a Kentucky native, graduated for Western Kentucky University and made his way to Second City by performing with their Las Vegas branch.
“I really began to love improv comedy after I joined my college’s improv team,” Shipman said. “From there, I knew I wanted to be an improv comic.”
This is Shipman’s second year touring with Second City’s holiday show.
In celebration of their 50-year anniversary, Second City is combining its annual holiday show with a format that highlights the best material the comedy troupe has produced in the last half-century.
With famous comics like Tina Fey, Mike Myers and Stephen Colbert as alumni, the material is sure to be golden.
“It’s sort of surreal that we are in the same part of our lives as some of America’s most famous comics,” Shipman said. “It’s a bonus that we get to do their material too.”
Traveling with a group of comics may sound like a headache, however, Shipman claims that it isn’t that bad.
“When I first was assigned to the traveling troupe I thought it was going to be interesting to have 15 comics travel together,” Shipman said. “However, I’ve been quite surprised how polite and respectful everyone has been.”
When the show isn’t cycling through its famous alumni’s material, the Second City troupe gets to show off their real talent – improv.
“When we get to the improv section of the show, the pace takes a totally different direction,” Shipman said. “You never know what is going to happen next.”
A vital part of improv comedy relies on audience participation. The comics will usually ask the audience members for a time or a place to build a scene on. Sometimes the results are less than normal.
“We get some really weird stuff from the audiences sometimes,” Shipman said. “I think the weirdest response I’ve got had to deal with a woman yelling Possum Holler as a name of a town.”
Shipman, who describes himself as a clown who loves to play a gold prospector, is one of the many comics certain to bring the laughs this weekend.
Catch the Second City Comedy Troupe and the “Holiday Dysfunctional Tour” at the Wylie Theater Center this weekend. The comics have shows Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and an additional show on Sunday at 10:30 p.m.
