“The Second City e.t.c.’s 50th Revue “Reality Detox: The Improv Experience” reviewed by Paul Lisnek (Curtain Call Chicago)

**/4

“Reality Detox finds some funny, but not its Groove….”

The Second City e.t.c.’s 50th revue, Reality Detox: The Improv Experience, is built around the promise that no two performances are the same, the show leans into spontaneity, audience involvement at the top of the show, and presents a challenge to these skilled performers to apply what they’ve garnered from the audience over the course of the show. The task is a tough one, the cast is a skilled one, but at least on this opening night, the show just didn’t seem to reach the level I anticipated coming in.

Candidly, I’m not sure it’s worth walking through various skits or moments because so much of the show is truly tied to the prompts asked of the audience up front. Each cast member asked for a commonly re-told family story, or a unique unexpected fact about yourself…all good prompts and on this night, the audience was up to the task. Their prompts and stories were often hilarious and that may have been the problem. The prompts were so good that they were funnier than most of the bits that used them. How do you improve on an audience member who shares that she’s just realized she’s bi-sexual and brought her girlfriend to the show, and oh by the way, it’s how she learned that her grandmother was a butch lesbian. Or a parent who goes dumpster diving and serves up what she finds to the kids. So funny these audience members seemed like they could be plants in the group, but they were real.

What works best here is the energy of the cast and their ability to connect with the audience. We wanted them to succeed for sure. The ensemble’s timing is quick, the pacing is brisk, and the format gives the cast room to turn small prompts into bigger comic ideas in sketch form. On the flip side, several skits were so short that their purpose seemed just to be making the audience prompt reference. There is a welcome looseness to the evening; the cast played off each other well at moments and at others, they watched from the sideline and you wish they jumped in.

The show’s strengths are also its limits. Because the structure is built around improvisation (with several scripted skits), the experience feels uneven from bit to bit, and the pleasure depends partly on how much you enjoy watching comedy take shape before your eyes as opposed to seeing something arrive more polished and fully formed. That unpredictability and unexpectedness is part of the appeal, but it also means the funniest passages may sit beside bits that don’t reach their potential.

Still, as a celebration of the e.t.c. stage and the company’s improv roots, Reality Detox makes a convincing case for the art form’s endurance. It’s playful, fun and often funny, even as it reminds you that true improvisation can be as risky as it may be rewarding. For audiences who want a polished, scripted evening, you might prefer the mainstage show. But if you like trying around the edges and as a live experiment, that roughness is the point, so appreciate it.

At the end of the show, one of the cast members offers a humorous closing comment saying, “if you liked the show, come on back because it will be different…if you did NOT like the show then come back because it will be different.” Valid point. And I’d like to think that a return visit would produce a funnier more biting evening, as long as the audience’s opening prompts don’t steal the spotlight.

Second City’s e.t.c. is located on the second floor at 230 West North Avenue ( at Wells).

Performances are

Fridays        9:30 p.m.

Saturdays  7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Second City’s e.t.c.Reality Detox: The Improv Experience”.