Second City scouting what's funny about Philly

What's so uniquely funny about Philadelphia anyway? Maybe the cheesesteaks, or the fact that they're accompanied by a set way of ordering them. Certainly the politics, the Mummers, the sports. Perhaps it's the way we celebrate history that we also take for granted, or our sense of place - fervently proud neighborhoods, and yet an edginess about being so close to That Other City. (No, not Lancaster.)

Is any of this grist for a comic skewering by the nation's premier improvisational dart-throwers, Chicago's Second City troupe? We'll have to wait for summer to find out - or at least to discover what tickled Ed Furman and T.J. Shanoff, two Second City writers who spent last weekend in what they called a Philly "immersion."

At Christ Church graveyard, standing feet from Ben Franklin's resting place, Donald Smith, head of the church's extensive preservation efforts, told the writers: "Let's just start with the concept that Philadelphia is America's history center." At City Hall, they shot questions at veteran Councilman James Kenney, who told them about the Mummers (he's been one) and other things Philadelphian.

Outside an entrance to the Visitor Center near Independence Hall, they were taken by a sign for "Breakfast With Ben," offering all you can eat with the city's most visible Franklin interpreter, Ralph Archbold, who looks just like everyone's current version of The Man. It was American-history-coming-alive mixed with the endless American appetite that grabbed them.

"Hmmmm," said Furman. "More johnnycakes?"

"Breakfast burritos?" Shanoff asked, as if Ben might offer.

They are home now (Furman in Milwaukee, Shanoff in Chicago, and e-mails everywhere), putting together the troupe's newest show, a Philadelphia-centered pastiche of sketch comedy, songs, and improvisation that will play here for three weeks, with previews starting July 8.

The seeds for the show - it will have a name when Furman and Shanoff come up with one - were planted when Second City theater artists who knew Philadelphia colleagues began talking. The idea then germinated at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, normally dark during summer but now fully involved as producer of the show, which will play at the company's Suzanne Roberts Theatre on the Avenue of the Arts.

Philadelphia Theatre Company producing artistic director Sara Garonzik hired Jen Childs - artistic director of 1812 Productions, Philadelphia's theater company devoted to comedy - to choose three local actors to work on stage with three Second City actors and to head the production's Philadelphia unit in general.

While the two writers were running around town last weekend, Childs spent part of the time doing her own running - of auditions.

"I think of myself as a Philly ambassador, introducing them to the talent pool here," Childs, who had set up much of the writers' visit, said yesterday, "and finding interesting guest stars for them to talk to." Among them were Philly dramatist Bruce Graham, and Childs' husband, Scott Greer, one of the two major players in Graham's Something Intangible, now in its Arden Theatre Company world premiere.

For her part, Garonzik said, she anticipates "a piece that will spotlight what makes Philadelphia, well ... Philadelphia."

Second City, which began in a converted Chicago laundry a half-century ago and has exported Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, and a host of other talents who have become stars, has been successful three times in the past with city-centric humor - first in Denver, then in Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

In fact, the troupe has a touring division that is making such theatrical drive-bys a side business. It's directed by Second City producer Jenna Deja, who grew up in the Valley Forge area and was general manager of Arden Theatre Company (when she was Jenna Brickley) before moving to Chicago.

She accompanied Furman and Shanoff on their local exploration, which included historic sites, South Philly in general, talks with politicos, Friday night's Sixers buzzer-beating playoff victory (accompanied by actor-director Matt Pfeiffer, current winner of the $10,000 Haas Award at the Barrymores, who may or may not have bought the beers), South Street, restaurant sampling, and, of course, bar hopping.

Back in Chicago yesterday, Deja said the two writers called "to say they had a good bank of things to work with" and would have a bare-bones outline by week's end. The show will be largely scripted for two acts, fully improv for the third. Furman, 43, is responsible for the words and Shanoff, 35, the music.

"The city really showed itself off well over the weekend," Deja said. "I was really proud. I thought to myself, 'This is the city I wanted you to see.' " And - of course - to make fun of.