After surviving the comedy club boom of the 1980s and creative torpor in the early 1990s, Second City is raising the curtain on the largest expansion in its history.
The 40-year-old showcase where performers such as Mike Nichols, Elaine May, John Belushi and Bill Murray honed their craft is looking to beef up its Chicago presence with a $1.4-million comedy club and workshop in the Bronzeville area and a return to the suburbs after a four-year absence.
Nationally, the troupe is establishing beachheads on television, in cyberspace and in other cities, including clubs and workshops in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Cleveland. It already has successful clubs in Toronto and Detroit.
And, in a nod to its past, Second City next year will release on videocassette and DVD compilations of its critically acclaimed early-'80s TV shows.
The growth spurt is expected to increase 2000 revenues 50% to about $30 million, compared with average annual growth of about 12% over the past several years.
But rapid growth brings peril as well as potential profit. While there's no shortage of would-be performers -- each cast requires only six people -- the company must quickly attract and train additional managers to supervise its far-flung outposts. If it doesn't, the new locations will fail.
Second City says it is being judicious in its moves and has the management talent to oversee the expansion.
Still, it is mindful of the overexposure suffered by other comedy franchises such as National Lampoon, which lost its reputation for abrasive, cutting-edge comedy by licensing its name to a string of films.
"We're not trying to be the McDonald's of comedy," Producer Kelly Leonard says. "But we can make artistic moves that will propel us forward and, at the same time, we can make more money."
Locally, that means a move into Bronzeville, a neighborhood that historically was the cultural center of Chicago's African-American community. The company is scouting for property near the planned Lou Rawls Theater and Cultural Center at 47th Street and Martin Luther King Drive.
"Over the past five or six years, we've been trying to outreach, to get more minorities into the Second City program," says co-owner Andrew Alexander, the Canadian who launched the Toronto outpost in 1973 and bought Second City in 1985 with partner Len Stuart, a Vancouver-based gambling industry executive.
"We came to the conclusion (the outreach) wasn't working," Mr. Alexander says. "The better way is to get the company into the community."
The company is looking for substantial financial assistance from the city, executives add.
Meanwhile, after losing its lease after nine years in northwest suburban Rolling Meadows, Second City will be a tenant at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, giving it access to suburbanites who don't relish driving to Old Town for laughs.
Local expansion will be aided by national efforts.
Fox Broadcasting Co. has commissioned the troupe to create a series, which will be produced in Chicago. If successful, the series will spread the Second City brand nationwide while creating a rich new revenue stream.
The company also plans regular Web-casts on the Internet and already has wired the Chicago and Toronto clubs for cyberspace. The first Web-cast will be an evening of improvisational comedy on Dec. 18 uniting current cast members with some of the more than 500 alumni who actively perform, write and produce.
Expansion of the franchise follows the creative re-emergence of Second City, which lost its edge in large part because its popularity with young urbanites and tourists kept the theater packed.
"There was a point where we may have rested on our laurels a bit," says Mr. Leonard, son of Chicago radio personality Roy Leonard, who joined the company 11 years ago as a dishwasher. "When you're selling out two months in advance, it's hard not to get a little complacent."
In 1995, the company premiered "Pinata Full of Bees," a breakthrough show that exploded the creative template. The troupe dispensed with sets, stopped dimming the lights between comedy bits, kept the entire cast onstage at all times and incorporated rougher language and situations into the story line.
"This was no show for tourists," Mr. Leonard says.
Today, the company, which closes only on Christmas Eve, continues to sell out most shows, an impressive feat given the number of comedy clubs that perished as fickle consumers moved on to other things.
Overall, the company sells 76% of its seats, even with nine shows a week. Despite strong tourist traffic, locals still account for 60% of Second City's audience.
"To hold your own as long as they have in this day and age is amazing," says Bert Haas, general manager of Zanies Comedy Club, which operates in Chicago, Vernon Hills and St. Charles. "By doing a revue every six months, they bring their hard-core fans back every six months."
Revenues from the shows in Chicago, Toronto and Detroit are augmented by three ongoing programs: three touring companies that primarily play college campuses and small performing arts centers; a training center that draws an increasingly large number of corporate workers, and the fast-growing corporate communications division, which is doing 200 to 300 events for companies such as Motorola Inc. and British Airways.
Some observers believe the company has strayed from its improvisational roots.
"The mystery behind Second City has kind of died," says Charna Halperin, owner of Improv Olympic in Chicago, who shares some cast members with Second City. "It's not a leader in improvisation. It's written revues."
But Mr. Leonard believes the company continues to push the envelope with its new material.
"The old comedy rule is, the laugh is in the truth, the honesty of it," he says. "Otherwise, we might as well be telling jokes in the Catskills."