In a certain school in the windy city, being a class clown could just score one a 4.0. And, if everyone in a class is comical, being the class clown could mean a big career ahead. For theater majors aspiring to make audiences howl with laughter, the windy city is the place to be.
The Columbia College of Chicago launched a six-credit, semester-long comedy studies program in conjunction with The Second City, a nationally known improv comedy hall. Students earn college credit not only for learning the ropes of comedy but also for attending shows and networking with artists. The program culminates in each student hosting his or her own showcase.
The programs website states: “…That’s why these two great Chicago institutions have joined forces and created the Comedy Studies program. Unlike any other course of study in content, scope, or resources, it provides a unique opportunity to study full-time at The Second City, the nation’s center of comedy and satire, for an entire semester.”
The curriculum for the program contains classes including “Context for Comedy,” “History and Analysis of Comedy” and “Creating Scenes Through Improvisation.” In these classes, students will work on developing physical, vocal and improvisational performance skills needed for comedy, writing comedy in various forms and genres, discovering the historical bases for contemporary comedy, examining social and political contexts for satire, and supporting the individual comedic voice within an ensemble.
Junior and senior students who have an interest in performing from both Columbia and visiting colleges and universities can apply. The program is actually considered a study abroad program since students study full time within the comedy institution.
The idea for the comedy studies program came from Andrew Alexander, the executive producer of Second City. Alexander also happens to be a board of trustees member at Columbia College. During a lunch with the college’s president Warrick Carter and the theater department head, Sheldon Patinkin, he mentioned that a school in Toronto offered an improv class.
Patinkin also has a special connection to The Second City; he was one of the founding members.
Boston University theater major Jennifer Ducharme took a leave of absence from the New England school and caught a plane to O’Hare. She told the Associated Press, “Studying at The Second City is exactly what I was looking for. I really wanted to get into comedy, especially improv; it’s really what I need right now.”
Both Columbia College and Second City have high hopes for the program. In fact, Anne Libera, executive artistic director of The Second City training center was quoted by the AP saying they hope to become the “Juilliard of comedy.”
Libera added that she would have died to have had an education like Columbia’s. Libera was in a theater company with satirist Stephen Colbert, of “The Colbert Report” fame. Comedians-in-training whom take part in this program are in good hands. Actors and comedians such as the late Chris Farley, Gilda Radner and The Office’s Steve Carell studied at The Second City.
