Welcome to Second City Quotes, a curated collection of insightful and memorable quotes from the vibrant and ever-evolving world of urban life. The Second City, often used as a moniker for bustling metropolises around the globe, embodies the essence of modernity, diversity, and ceaseless motion. From the towering skyscrapers that pierce the skyline to the bustling streets teeming with life, these cities are not just geographical locations but pulsating hubs of culture, creativity, and human endeavor.
Within the intricate tapestry of city life lie stories waiting to be told, perspectives waiting to be shared, and wisdom waiting to be imparted. Second City Quotes seeks to capture the essence of these urban narratives through the words of those who have traversed its streets, felt its heartbeat, and experienced its myriad of emotions. Whether it’s a poignant reflection on the pace of life, a witty observation about the quirks of urban living, or a profound insight into the human condition amidst the hustle and bustle, these quotes encapsulate the essence of what it means to be a part of the Second City experience. Below, you’ll find a collection of quotes that encapsulate the essence of urban living, ready to be explored, shared, and celebrated in all its multifaceted glory.
It scared me to death to think about improv, but I got hired for a year at Second City in Chicago, which made me nervous, but I found I could improvise. Then I was in a group called the Ace Trucking Company, which we’d do, like, a half hour set of material, then open up for improvisation. Fred Willard
I would love to carry on with Second City and see where that takes me, but it’s always been a dream to work on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and do films. Sam Richardson
I took Second City out of desperation, and that’s what ended up working out. It shows that you should be doing a lot of different stuff, taking whatever opportunities are there, to see what works. Bill Hader
I did Second City, and Nia Vardalos also did Second City, so I knew her from there. Rachel Dratch
To romp along the connected rooftops and fire escapes of Chicago’s second city of garages was my young life’s passion. Lynn Margulis
I took one class at Second City called Improv for Actors, and that was it, and that was only because my agent told me I had to. Timothy Simons
I did a lot of commercial and theater work when I got out of school and was living in Dallas, and I moved to Chicago to go through the Second City Conservatory Program. Allison Tolman
I got an agent when I needed one, when I had a contract negotiation for the first time. I was doing the Second City E.T.C., and I got invited to audition for the last season, it turns out, of ‘In Living Color.’ Scott Adsit
We did a year of Uber in San Francisco before we went to a second city. You get those processes down, then you really get started. Travis Kalanick
There’s different kinds of improv. There’s Second City improv where you try to slowly build a nice sketch. There’s stuff you do in college coffee houses where you just go joke, joke, joke. Bring another funny character with a funny hat on his head. Christopher Guest is more the line of trying to get a story out. Fred Willard
When I came to Chicago, I didn’t even know what improvisation meant, as far as pertaining to comedy. I knew about Second City, but I didn’t know what the word ‘improvisation’ meant. Matt Besser
I had decided to go to a theatre school for a dramatic training but after a few months, I dropped out. I was not comfortable. I was kind of depressed. It was then that I went to Second City. Lauren Ash
I came out of the old Second City in Chicago. Chicago actors are more hard-nosed. They’re tough on themselves and their fellow actors. They’re self-demanding. Bill Murray
Second City should create a secret handshake, and when you graduate, you have to know it. Lamorne Morris
I had, like, two goals in my career: One was to try to get into ‘Second City.’ When I moved to Chicago, my goal was to try to work at ‘Second City.’ And beyond that, my goal was to make enough money as an actor to not do anything else but act, not have to go and wait tables again. Steve Carell
I took a class at The Second City, and it became contagious. Kay Cannon
My stepfather had a connection with The Second City and told me I should go there. I woke up in a cold sweat one night and said, ‘I’m moving to Chicago.’ That’s how I went to Second City. Ian Gomez
I graduated from Second City Los Angeles. It helped me tremendously, not only in my roles in films but in helping shape me into a writer as well. In improv, you will fail sometimes, so it teaches you to be brave and try anything. The worst that can happen is nobody laughs. Carly Craig
I had worked for ten years in theater; I had worked at Second City in Chicago. Then I got to Hollywood, and I was like, naively, ‘Where’s my pilot?’ Nia Vardalos
When I graduated from college, I moved to New York and started doing improv because I read all about the early ‘Saturday Night Live’ guys having come through Second City and learning how to improvise, so I wanted to get immediately into that. Andy Daly
I never looked at my future as comedy. Even at Second City, I always thought of it as acting. I knew I was going to be an actor financially, emotionally, egotistically. Scott Adsit
I started in Shakespeare. I’m classically trained, which, how hilarious is that? Then one night, I saw Second City and thought, ‘Wow, that’s what I want to do.’ But I never thought it would morph into screenplay writing. Nia Vardalos
It was my third Second City review before I even got mentioned in the review. It was the third review where it finally was like, ‘And Lauren Ash is here.’ Thank God, it’s about time! Lauren Ash
After college, I knew I wanted to work in comedy, so the first thing I did was go to where the comedy was. I moved from Charlottesville to Chicago, because that’s where The Second City and Improv Olympics are. You have to go wherever you need to go to study what interests you. Tina Fey
I’m crazy lucky. I was trying to be a filmmaker. I was doing Second City classes as a way to be creative. I was a PA for a long time. I was working as an assistant editor on ‘Iron Chef America’ when I got ‘SNL.’ It was one of those situations where you’re concentrating in one thing and the peripheral thing popped. Bill Hader
At Second City and improvising at iO, you’re creating a character in an instant. All of a sudden, you’re creating this history and this past for your character, and you’re discovering it while you’re doing it, and that’s part of the fun of it. Sam Richardson
I went down to Chicago to try to go into a place called Second City. I auditioned for that and got in pretty quickly, but I couldn’t stop partying. They gave me a warning: ‘If you do it again, we’re gonna kick you off the main stage.’ Chris Farley
I grew up on Don Knotts and Jerry Lewis and all the guys from Second City. Harland Williams
I never looked at my future as comedy. Even at Second City, I always thought of it as acting. I knew I was going to be an actor, financially, emotionally, egotistically. I still don’t think I’m in comedy. Scott Adsit
I went to Second City, where you learned to make the other actor look good so you looked good and National Lampoon, where you had to create everything out of nothing, and SNL, where you couldn’t make any mistakes, and you learned what collaboration was. Bill Murray
In college, I didn’t perform so much, but when I graduated is when I discovered Second City. Then I realized, ‘Oh, there are people who can focus on comedy and especially improvisational comedy and make a career out of it.’ Jack McBrayer
There’s such a freewheeling nature to ‘Second City,’ and the greatest thing about ‘Second City’ was having a sophisticated audience night after night who appreciated what it was. They knew it wasn’t all going to be great when you improvised, so they were very forgiving that way. Steve Carell
Well, actually, the Second City thing came about because I was taking a few improv classes there. I thought that the improv classes would help with my wrestling career, which it has. Trish Stratus
I always enjoyed writing. I did playlets in high school, I did radio shows in college. That’s one of the reasons I went down to Second City, because you could do acting and writing. Dan Castellaneta
I was at Second City L.A., going through the conservatory, and I graduated in 2004 and I got ‘SNL’ in 2005. Bill Hader
Out of 30 years of Second City I was probably the third African-American with the main stage cast. I was surprised when I first heard that. I think part of the reason that improvisation has never been popular with African-Americans is that it isn’t popular in the inner cities. Tim Meadows
I moved to Chicago when I was 28, and I wasn’t completely idealistic about going to Second City and making a living from comedy, but I knew it would be great for the resume. Allison Tolman
I met my wife, Nia Vardalos, at The Second City, and she was chomping at the bit to move to L.A. Ian Gomez
My first improv was Second City in Chicago. Before that, I worked at – with a partner, doing comedy sketches. Fred Willard
We come from Second City where you’re taught if you make your fellow stage partner look good, that makes you look good. Ian Gomez
I grew up in Chicago and was a huge fan of ‘The Second City’, so when I moved to L.A., I was looking for anything that resembled that… then I started ‘The Groundlings’, so I went to a show and it was very much like ‘Second City’. I was so impressed that that same night I went backstage and I went up to the funniest person there. Kathy Griffin
Tina Fey is part of a generation of women who have changed the face of comedy at ‘Second City,’ ‘SNL,’ in sitcoms and in film. Janeane Garofalo
When you get out of school, you just go where the wind blows: Here’s an audition; there’s an audition. And before you know it, you’re where you’re supposed to be. And that was Second City. Jane Lynch
I met Kevin when I was 19, at a Second City workshop. We were paired up together in the first class I went to. By the end of the class we formed our improv group, and over the next three years we performed leading up to the formation of The Kids in the Hall. Dave Foley
Second City Las Vegas is very different from Second City in Chicago on the main stage, where they do improv sets. That’s how they kind of hone material, kind of work up to new material. Kay Cannon
I started off at the Second City in Chicago… It’s an improvisational theater that ostensibly does social and political satire, but when I was there, we generally didn’t. We did character work, and we did just the silliest things we could think of. We weren’t all that concerned with, you know, changing the world through mime. Stephen Colbert
I’m a bug on acting, which distinguishes Second City from a lot of other revues. It comes from the character, the behavior, and not from the jokes. I don’t think jokes are funny. Humor comes out of character and out of situations the character is in. Bernard Sahlins
I had not met Tina Fey before I auditioned for ’30 Rock’. Some people think we’re old friends from ‘Second City’ days. I had always been a fan of Tina’s. But I actually never planned on being in a sitcom. Judah Friedlander
In my early 20s, I started doing comedy. I started doing auditions in Chicago. It led me to writing my own sketches for Second City. The team we had was called Forgotten City – that was the beginning of my writing. Deon Cole
I came up through Second City, so I’m used to playing 20 characters every night who are very different from each other. I wouldn’t want my career to be any different. Scott Adsit
That was sort of the ‘Second City’ approach, which was try to be intelligent and assume your audience is intelligent. We were influenced by ‘Monty Python,’ too, which would have philosophers in a wrestling match. Joe Flaherty
First, I wanted to be Chris Farley. When I was growing up, Chris Farley was still on the stages and fun to us. In my house, John Belushi was king. I didn’t grow up when he was – I was born in ’78 – the reruns of Belushi in ‘Animal House,’ and knowing he was at Second City, he was viewed as a king in my house. Jake Johnson
I joined an improv group in college, which was a lot of fun. After I graduated, I moved to Chicago to try to get into the Second City. Steve Carell
I thought of Second City as just the greatest therapeutic job anybody could ever dream of having. Bonnie Hunt
I think a lot of studios today are run by women, and we are entering a time when a lot of women have evolved in Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade and wanted to become writers and comedians. Judd Apatow
Improv Olympics, Second City are some of the most tolerant, accepting people. They’re like circus folk. They’re freaks themselves. Matt Walsh
Because I started my career in improv, performing with Second City and the Ace Trucking Company, I always enjoy being in situations where – as an actor – you have to think fast & be light on your feet. Fred Willard