Laugh Through Second City Dysfunctional Holiday Revue

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

November 19, 2007

Providing a perfect alternative to the same old holiday shows, The Second City returns to Charlottesville to present their Dysfunctional Holiday Revue. This fast-paced, interactive comedy show -- a raucous blend of sketches, songs, and improvisation satirizing the season -- comes to The Paramount Theater on Sunday, December 2 at 7 pm.

This performance is sponsored by M3 -- Marshall Contracting & Masonry, Inc.

With comedy that’s hilarious and thought-provoking; sophisticated and wild; fresh and topical, it’s hard to believe that The Second City has been making audiences laugh for more than 40 years. Their touring concept is simple: six actors and a musical accompanist perform a two-act revue featuring sketch comedy, songs, and improvisation.

In this case, the revue’s humor is completely holiday-based. From holiday film classics to family gatherings, Christmas carols, even Joseph and Mary, nothing is too sacred for the Second City ensemble. The goal of the musical numbers, skits, and scenes -- to make you realize “my family’s not so nuts after all.”

From a converted Chinese laundry on Chicago’s north side in 1959, The Second City has established itself as the premier comedy institution in the world -- a “comedy empire” (The New York Times) that stretches from theatres in Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, Las Vegas, and Denver, to corporate and TV/film divisions, to touring troupes that take the unique brand of improv-based sketch comedy all over the world.

The Second City’s touring troupes have been the springboard for generations of the comedy world’s best and brightest, with alumni including Alan Arkin, Joan Rivers, Robert Klein, Peter Boyle, Harold Ramis, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, John Candy, Martin Short, George Wendt, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Chris Farley, Ryan Stiles, Mike Myers, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and more.

Drawing from the vast archives of material that Second City has created, the touring companies also create on-the-spot, topical comedy that changes with every performance. With a diversity of venues matching the diversity of their shows, The Second City has brought its act to theatres, festivals, colleges, and performing arts centers in every state of the union and to international audiences from Singapore to Vienna.

The Second City’s Dysfunctional Holiday Revue will play The Paramount Theater on Sunday, December 2 at 7 pm. Tickets are $43.50, $45.50, $48.50, and $53.50. Half-price student rush seats and group discounts are also available.

Tickets and further details may be found online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more about The Second City, please visit www.secondcity.com.