Lyric Theatre In Downtown Stuart

If a comedian is annoying somebody, he’s doing his job. That’s a time-proven statement, and one that the people at Chicago’s Second City company probably have tattooed somewhere on their bodies. “At any Second City show, something’s probably going to offend someone, no matter what we’re doing,” says vice president, writer and performer Kelly Leonard. “Because we talk about the things you’re not supposed to talk about at the dinner table — sex, politics and religion.” Inside the offices of the venerated organization that produced John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert is a file containing letters and e-mails from disgruntled attendees and subscription-cancelers. It’s like a trophy cabinet. “There was note just this morning from a customer who said our show was criminal,” Leonard chuckles. “Oh, really? We’re still not really sure why they though it was criminal. “Up on my wall are various pieces of hate mail that we’ve received over the years. As long as what we’re doing is smart, and is clearly satiric, it’s mostly a case of someone not getting what we’re doing. “I get this all the time: ‘You can’t talk about cancer!’ Well, yes I can. I work really closely with Gilda’s Club (a charity group started after Radner’s death from breast cancer), I’ve had cancer, and laughter is a huge thing for cancer survivors and people going through that. So the minute you start telling me we can’t talk about certain things, is when say ‘You don’t really understand the art form that we’re working in.’” The new show is called “One Nation Under Blog,” and Leonard insists you don’t even have to know what a blog is to find it funny. “We’re always trying to keep our material fresh and updated. And the universe of blogging has gotten completely out of control. To the point where Second City touring company members are doing it all the time! So that was a real good generic title that kind of spoke to the generation that’ll be performing for people. “We’re a 50-year-old institution, the face of which is always a bunch of 20-somethings. We’re training these guys and giving them the breadth of our history. In many cases they’re doing material written by the masters, but a lot of times the stuff they’re doing is taken straight from the stage. And that blogging world is the one that’s highly contemporary right now. “The title ‘One Nation Under Blog’ is just speaking to a generation that’s out there right now.” Although the show is fully scripted, it’ll occasionally take a detour into improvisation — that’s one of the thrills of seeing pointed-edge satirists at the top of their game. And it isn’t all sex, religion and politics, Leonard explains. Each show, in each city, is different. “We make very conscious decisions to look at what material we’re touring, and what can work in various locations,” he says. “Stuff that we do in Chicago is not always the same as what we’d do in, let’s say, Toronto. “There’s stuff that you get away with in your own house that’s very different when you go to someone else’s.”