Life after Second City

Fran Adams, ensemble member, 1988–94
Adams got her first clue about what life after Second City might be like while car shopping. She was working her way through the theater’s ranks in the late ’80s via its Rolling Meadows outpost and, while test driving a Toyota Tercel, she revealed to the pushy salesman her place of employment. Turns out the guy, David Blum, was an alumnus. “I was like, ‘I don’t get it, why would you want to be selling cars?’?” Adams says. But soon after Adams bolted for L.A. in ’97 to pursue acting, the showbiz bug was no longer biting. Instead, she got a job bartending at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey and has been there ever since. “All these people [Second City] had been skewering, they were our guests [at the bar],” Adams says of patrons such as Margaret Thatcher and George Stephanopoulos. “Honestly, I kind of feel like I have my own show five nights a week.”

Steve Kampmann, ensemble member, 1976–79
When Kampmann joined Second City’s Mainstage in 1976 it was, in part, to replace folks such as Bill Murray who left to star in Saturday Night Live. But a stint at SNL wasn’t in his cards. He eventually moved to L.A. to pursue comedy and, while a script about a female Animal House went nowhere, he did score a writing gig on WKRP in Cincinnati and a recurring role on Newhart. But wary of raising children in Hollywood, Kampmann took an offer from the Blair Academy, a boarding school for boys, to become a teacher and its writer-in-residence. That was 12 years ago and Kampmann, who still works occasionally in the biz, has few regrets. “[Second City] was the place to be,” he says. “What’s there to complain about?”

Abby Sher, ensemble member, 2000–03
As an ensemble member in Holy War, Batman!, Sher used laughter to help audiences work through their post 9/11 grief. But Sher had her own problems. “I was battling anorexia,” she says. “I thought I should commit to longer workouts and that would solve everything.” After leaving Second City in ’03, Sher moved to Brooklyn, where she took a writing course. A published essay recalling the time she thought she killed someone with a grocery cart attracted the attention of an editor with Scribner who suggested she write a memoir. Amen, Amen, Amen, published last month, recounts her ordeal with anorexia, OCD and the death of both her parents. It’s been recommended by O Magazine and landed her on The Tyra Banks Show. While Sher still performs, writing has taken center stage. “The rejections in the writing world are so much easier to handle [than in show business],” she says. “People tell you why it doesn’t work as opposed to saying, ‘Your nose is too big.’”

Judy Morgan, ensemble member, 1969–72
When Morgan took her final bow at Second City in July 1972, she did so alongside another performer, John Belushi. He left for New York. She left for Spain. Morgan spent seven months abroad before returning to Chicago to teach improv. But her life today is still wild—wild West, that is. Since the late ’80s, Morgan and her husband have divided their time between the rugged high desert of west Texas and the Pineywoods region of east Texas. “When we arrived in Texas I thought, Well, I can’t just stay home and play with the dogs,” she says. Instead, she sent writing clips to the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, where she’s now a contributor. While she loves her quiet life, she admits she misses her Second City cohorts. “I’m very used to working together and brainstorming,” she says. “I miss that with newspaper work. I miss the laughter and the silliness and the craziness. Who doesn’t enjoy going out and being appreciated by an audience?”

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