Whose Improv Is It Anyway?: Beyond Second City
Most accounts of improvisational comedy rely on the inspiring  story of Chicago's Second City company, founded in the 1950s,  and its many stars. Seham (theater and dance, Gustavus Adolphus  Coll.) takes a far more sophisticated look at the genre and the  history and theory behind it. Her basic point: Chicago-style  improv has been dominated both in numbers and in control of  content and style by young, white, straight men, which means  that it's harder for women and minorities to shape scenes and  conjure characters. (For example, men are less willing to accept  a female improviser's attempt to initiate a male role, and  whites are less able to grasp a minority performer's  references.) Relying on extensive interviews as well as texts,  she tells the story not only of Second City but of the 1980s  groups that succeeded it, like ImprovOlympic and ComedySportz.  The latter, she notes, were more committed to improvisation,  while Second City became commercialized and incorporated  pre-written sketches. Still, the power dynamics remained the  same. In Chicago, a third wave of improv began in the late  1980s, including the raunchy and outrageous Annoyance Theater,  minority groups like Oui Be Negroes, and all-women's groups.  Now, concludes Seham, an even newer wave is addressing the  paradoxes of improv. Though this well-detailed book lapses  periodically into academic jargon, it should well serve strong  performing arts collections. Norman Oder, "Library Journal"Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.