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.
Stephen Colbert’s birthday is just a few days away, so this week Second City sent us another clip from the 1993 revue Take Me Out to the Balkans, which featured Colbert alongside ensemble performers Fran Adams, Steve Carell, Paul Dinello, David Razowsky, Ruth Rudnick, and Amy Sedaris. In the above scene, Colbert leads a group of professionally lost souls in a seminar called “My Dream Career: Can I Achieve It?†The result is some timeless career advice, but not the kind of advice the group hoped for: “You all gave me $800 without knowing what the hell I was gonna talk about! Do you think that kind of behavior’s gonna put you people on the fast-track?†Check out some other clips of Colbert performing at Second City here, here, and here.