Before launching into a bit of obligatory chat about her new CBS sitcom “Angel From Hell” on Monday night’s broadcast of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Jane Lynch and Colbert — who, early in their careers, both performed at Second City, though never together — reminisced a little about the comedy institution’s grotty environs.
For the record, you could do considerably worse when it comes to dank venues, but Second City has been based in its Wells Street location for nearly 50 years. To put it bluntly, that’s a lot of accumulated sweat and spilled drinks, but also of dashed dreams and careers on the cusp of something bigger. (The company was founded in 1959 and moved to its current location in 1967.)
Colbert spent more than a decade in Chicago in the ’80s and ’90s, first as an undergrad at Northwestern University and later performing at venues that also included iO Theater and The Annoyance, the latter of which is an old haunt of Lynch’s as well, where she starred as Carol Brady in the company’s hugely successful production of “The Real Live Brady Bunch,” which was conceived by sisters Jill and Faith Soloway. (Jill Soloway would go on to create the Amazon TV series “Transparent.” All roads lead back to Chicago…)
Lynch herself grew up in suburban Dolton, and her amused exchange with Colbert on last night’s show is as follows:
Colbert: What are you memories of Second City? Any fond or not fond memories of Second City?
Lynch: I remember the smell of stale beer and bleach. (Audience laughs.)
Colbert: Yes, (the smells) always fighting each other. Do you remember the floor at Second City? (Turning to the audience) Second City was a cabaret theater and it had been there since 1959, and it still is there …
Lynch: And wasn’t it carpeting? Or was it a sticky floor?
Colbert: It was as hard as concrete and I thought it was concrete, because I also waited (tables) there for a long time …
Lynch: Oh, you did?
Colbert: I was a waiter there. I was a waiter, I was a busboy, I sold T-shirts, I worked in the box office…
Lynch: Oh, you really worked your way up.
Colbert: Yeah, I did everything. I came right up the rat line, as they call it in the business. But I thought it was a concrete floor until I dropped something on the floor once and I went over to the side and I realized there was a little bit of nap left on the carpet by the wall. It was all carpet.
Lynch: And could you imagine the germs and bodily fluids that had been there from 1959?
Colbert: That’s what the bleach was for. (Audience laughs.)
It’s worth noting that Second City since replaced its carpet after a fire in the building in August.
nmetz@tribpub.com
Twitter @NinaMetzNews
