Since 1959, Chicago's The Second City improvisational comedy troupe has played a critical role in developing some of the most successful comedians in the United States and Canada. Comedians such as Alan Arkin, Joan Rivers, James Belushi, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, and Richard Kind, to name a few, have all performed with The Second City.

Since 1959, Chicago's The Second City improvisational comedy troupe has played a critical role in developing some of the most successful comedians in the United States and Canada. Comedians such as Alan Arkin, Joan Rivers, James Belushi, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, and Richard Kind, to name a few, have all performed with The Second City.

Hear music-comedy duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of the group Flight of the Conchords, writer Reynolds Price, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air. Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie hail from New Zealand and were named Best Alternative comedy Act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

If it’s navel-gazing you’re after, you’ve come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street, pedestrians being whacked over the head or gathering to watch as a man considers leap­ing to his death. There’s a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party - lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs.

The Best of Second City is an unforgettable ride through decades of hilarity, packed with classic sketches that helped make this America's foremost comedy troupe. Dubbed "a temple of satire" by Time magazine, The Second City has been convulsing audiences since its founding in Chicago in 1959, lampooning every aspect of modern American life with brilliant, improvisatory sketches.

In the mid-70s, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away".

Hi! I’m Seth! I was asked to describe my audiobook, Yearbook for websites and shit like that, so...here it goes!!! Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”) I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like.

The story of a pole, searching for his purpose in life. "The perfect gift to give a child or grandchild for their high school or college graduation. Also Father's Day. Also, other times."
—Stephen Colbert

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a 21-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from 45 years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

Based on the epic novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. Set during the Great Depression, tells the powerful story of the Joad family’s trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together.