OLD TOWN — Whether you know everything there is to know about The Second City and the top-notch performers who graced its stages and or you only know the institution by name, there is something to learn at Second City's Neighborhood Tour.
Margaret Hicks, who has been performing and teaching at The Second City for 18 years, is leading a series of tours for the fifth year in a row. This year's installment is held every Sunday morning and Wednesday afternoon until around Halloween.
The roughly 20 people who joined Hicks Sunday shared her enthusiasm for the famous comedy troupe, which has produced some of the great comic minds of recent decades and has called Old Town home since 1967.
"It's like they're pre-vetted," Hicks said of the tourists. "If you're here, it's like you're ready to giggle and have a good time. Ninety-eight percent of the people, even if they don’t know what Second City is, they know what Second City is. There’s this familiarly and excitement that people have too. I love that."
Hicks led a two-hour tour Sunday morning through the tree-lined streets of Old Town where she explained the significance of the neighborhood and general Chicago history and told tales of the best performers to come out of the famous improvisation theater.
Joan Rivers performed on the main stage at Second City, but she wasn't any good
While Hicks admits it might be "too soon," she said Joan Rivers, who died Sept. 4, didn't follow one of Second City's guiding principles when she performed on the main stage with Del Close in the early 1960s.
That principle is called "Yes, and?" which asks improv performers to always add on to whatever reality the other performer has built, she said.
"Del starts the scene and says, 'Honey, the kids are being too loud,'" Hicks said. "And Joan Rivers comes out and says, 'What are you talking about? We don’t have any kids,' Now Del looks stupid, she looks stupid, the audience is done with you. Like, 'You guys don’t even know if you have kids or not ... I’m out.'"
Bonnie Hunt's film "Return to Me" was filmed inside Old Town's Twin Anchors Restaurant and Tavern
"Pretty much the entire movie takes place in Twin Anchors," Hicks said, adding that the beloved Old Town restaurant, 1655 N. Sedgwick Ave., is one of Chicago's oldest, dating to 1932.
"What you do in here is very Chicago," she said. "What happens in here is you eat meat and drink beer."
The film, which came out in 2000, stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, and was written by actress and talk show host Hunt.
Chris Farley, unlike other alumni, really liked to hang out in Old Town after he became famous
"When somebody from Chicago gets famous, you never see that person again," Hicks said. "No one has seen Oprah out in the wild ever. You never see Tina Fey walking down the street. But you would see Farley, you’d see him all of the time."
"He was like the mayor of Old Town," Hicks said of the actor and comedian who died in 1997.
Farley went to church at St. Michael Church, and he ate at the Mexican restaurant down the street, Hicks said.
Hicks added that Farley was rumored to never own a key to his Chicago apartment. Every time he came home, she said, he'd just "bust the door off the hinges."
She also pointed to an old saying to help anyone who might be unclear what neighborhood they're in: "If you hear St. Michael's Church bells ringing, you know you're in Old Town."
John Belushi 'was the best there has ever been,' despite his troubles
"There are stories of him wandering this neighborhood in the middle of January with no shoes on during a snowstorm," Hicks said of Belushi, who suffered from drug and alcohol addiction. "The guy's messed up. Then he goes up, gets on stage, and he's totally there ... completely present."
Belushi, who Hicks calls "the best there has ever been and the best there ever will be" of what Second City has to offer, went on to perform on "Saturday Night Live" and star in "National Lampoon's Animal House," among other films before he died at 33 in 1982.
Jack McBrayer is mostly just like his character Kenneth on "30 Rock" in real life
As it turns out, McBrayer is just like his friendly if not charmingly naive character on the NBC show "30 Rock," written by Second City alumna Tina Fey, according to Hicks.
A Second City alum himself, McBrayer walked the halls of Piper's Alley just like Kenneth, an NBC page, walks the halls of 30 Rockefeller Plaza on the popular sitcom.
"I swear no one has ever had one bad word to say about him ever," Hicks said, demonstrating his walk by widening her eyes and standing up very tall.
He's also known for doing the "single most disgusting and foul scene anyone in Second City has seen in 50 years," Hicks said.
"With that accent and laugh ... and then he says the most disgusting thing," she said, "And people are like 'Oh, I love him!'"
Tickets to the Second City neighborhood tour are $15 and can be found here.
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