Welcome to The Second City Archives, in which we post an exclusive clip each week of some of comedy’s biggest superstars performing early in their careers on the legendary Chicago stage. Second City has generously given us a glimpse into their extensive archive of live performances, and over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing some rare and retro comedy never before seen on the web.
Netflix is known for being very secretive about viewer ratings, but yesterday they revealed that some of their new series, including Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, brought in even more viewers than Netflix mainstay hit House of Cards, which premiered to 6.5% of subscribers compared to Unbreakable’s 7.3%. So, what better excuse to unearth an old clip of Tina Fey improvising on the Second City stage? This week’s clip comes from the 1996 mainstage revue Citizen Gates featuring Scott Adsit, Scott Allman, Kevin Dorff, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Jenna Jolovitz. In the clip, the performers play a game called “Connections,†in which they take audience suggestions for an everyday item and historical event (blenders and the Spanish Inquisition) and prove how the two have been forever connected. It’s a long, complicated story involving bagels, SpaghettiOs, wooden teeth, heroin, and Keith Richards, but rest assured these guys have done their research.