BY MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter/mthomas@suntimes.com September 10, 2012 7:18PM
Tim Robinson, who joins the "Saturday Night Live" cast this weekend, performs in the Second City show "South Side of Heaven."
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Updated: September 10, 2012 7:22PM
âSaturday Night Liveâ has always been shot in New York, but itâs long had a Chicago sensibility.
Since its debut in the fall of 1975, when Wheaton-born Second City alum John Belushi stormed living rooms across the country, NBCâs venerable late-night sketchfest has looked to Rahmland (formerly Daleyville) for fresh talent.
In the past several years, the poaching, which subsided for a while, has ramped up. On Monday it was officially announced that âSNLâ has added three featured players to its cast for its 38th season (premiering this weekend) â" all of them Chicago-trained. Not since the entire cast of a show by Chicagoâs now-defunct Practical Theatre Company â" Paul Barrosse, Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger and Julia Louis-Dreyfus â" were snapped up in 1982 have so many locals been chosen at once.
That doesnât mean Aidy Bryant, Tim Robinson and Cecily Strong will last in their golden gigs; not everyone does. Still, itâs a promising first step that puts them in the company of such other recent Chicago hires as cast members Paul Brittain (since departed) and Vanessa Bayer.
Recently added âSNLâ writers Tom Flanigan, Shelly Gossman and Michael Patrick OâBrien also honed their chops in Chicago, though of the three only OâBrien remains on board. Obama impersonator Fred Armison and âWeekend Updateâ anchor Seth Meyers have Windy City roots, too. So does Jason Sudeikis, who reportedly might scram. âIâd like the opportunity to use creative muscles that ... havenât been asked of me for the first nine years that Iâve worked there,â he told the Los Angeles Times in August.
Others with local ties whoâve made their marks on âSNLâ include Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows and Amy Poehler.
The network offered no comments on its latest hires in its press release, and the actors couldnât be reached independently.
Local improvisor and instructor Dina Facklis has worked with all three. âI remember one night in July at iO [Theatre] we were hanging out with Tim and someone said to him, âYou know, rumor has it that you got this [âSNLâ job] already,â says Facklis, who performs with Bryant and Strong on the all-female iO improv team Virgin Daiquiri. âAnd he goes, âYou are hilarious, because youâre like the seventh person to tell me that and Iâm the only one who hasnât heard this rumor.â â
The co-founder and longtime owner of iO, Charna Halpern, says she wrote to Robinson on Monday telling him he had âa year-and-a-half to be a star.â
âTim is wild,â she says of Robinson, an erstwhile member of iOâs team Cook County Social Club and portrayer of a loopy Richard M. Daley in Second City show last year.
âThe world is his oyster when everyone meets him.â
She recalls him in a television pilot called âMy Mans,â which was like âa live Monty Python show. And it was the strangest, funniest, weirdest show. Heâs high-energy, heâs goofy. But itâs not goofy-stupid, itâs goofy-brilliant.â
As for Strong, whom âSNLâ creator Lorne Michaels and a team of writers witnessed in action at an iO showcase in early June, sheâs âa very sharp improvisor, very quick, very giving.â At her âsmartâ (and smartly brief) audition, Halpern says, Strong impersonated Sofia Vergara from ABCâs âModern Familyâ as well as âa fat boy at an all-you-can-eat restaurant.â
With the âfearlessâ Bryant, Halpern thinks âSNLâ is âbreaking the mold a little bit, because Aidy is the first girl that isnât your Size 5 beautiful girl.â
For Annoyance Theatre co-founder and Second City director/artistic consultant Mick Napier â" who featured both Bryant and current âSNLâ player Bayer in the Annoyance show âSwear Jarâ â" the sweet and âfor-realâ Bryantâs size is a ârefreshing assetâ that demonstrates diversity and bodes well for future sketch possibilities that arenât so âtype-generated.â
âSomeone like Aidy can not only demonstrate her ability to use her mind onstage, but she also is not afraid of any kind of physical comedy as well,â Napier says.
He also is enamored of Bryantâs âhateful edgeâ and likens it to that of past Chicago comedy colleagues Amy Sedaris and Stephnie Weir.
At Second City, CEO and co-owner Andrew Alexander says heâs only disappointed when people leave the nest if theyâve got nothing in the pipeline. Going straight to âSNLâ is a boon, he says, and not only for the actors.
âThis is sort of the hub of improvisation,â he says of Chicago, âso to see Lorne coming in and grabbing three people is a validation for the whole city.â
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