Chicago’s Second City is a legendary improv theater. The likes of Chris Farley, Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Mike Meyers have all walked through its doors. It’s an institution and acts as a farm team for some of the biggest names in comedy to learn their craft. Now, it’s having a bigger issue and that issue is a mass exodus of its staff because of racially-charged audiences.
To date, up to seven staffers (including four performers) have left the company and they are saying it’s because of the audiences attending the venue. People connected to the venue are stating that audiences are, “Trump-emboldened.”
Peter Kim, one of the members departing Second city believes that Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s brash speaking has given audience “carte blance” to behave hatefully against minority groups. Kim departed after witnessing an increase in anti-gay rhetoric and gave an account of a recently racially-fueled audience outburst.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was a man was sitting next to a Hispanic couple,” Kim said. “We asked a question to another lady, completely different lady, we said, ‘Hey, ma’am, what is something small that pisses you off, like getting stuck in traffic.’”The man, unsolicited, screamed out, ‘Sitting too close to a Mexican,’ while sitting next to a Hispanic couple. Kim said there was another time he felt physically threatened by a man who got too close to the stage.
Second City CEO Andrew Alexander, stated that a financial downsizing contributed to the exits. However, he did confirm that a greater proportion of the exodus has been prompted by the “racist audience taunts.” Alexander added that it’s risen to “unprecedented levels” in the last six months. Alexander insisted that he’s working to protect his actors but, “in 44 years of this work, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Alexander stated the vast majority of the audience members are still great but, “the jerk who used to keep his mouth shut now feels like he has the right to say something.”
This. Is. Nuts.
