Last year, Jon Carr was appointed as the artistic director of Dad’s Garage after Kevin Gillese stepped down.
Now, Carr is moving to the Windy City and overseeing The Second City’s three locations — Chicago, Toronto and Hollywood.
The comedy enterprise is known as one of the most-respected comedy clubs in the States. Notable alumni such as John Belushi, Bill Murray, Amy Poehler and many others have made their start with the troupe.
Carr joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to discuss his new position as executive producer for The Second City.
Interview Highlights
What his interview process for The Second City was like:
“One of the things that was most impressive to me is that there was an interview time that was set up with their diversity task force. It was made up of people from around the country — from directors, to performers, to staff members — that were across a wide range of ethnicities and genders. It was great because they’ve done a good job including so many voices in this decision so it wasn’t just a couple people in leadership, it was a decision by the staff and community.”
Since receiving accusations of racial discrimination and retaliation of The Second City’s work environment and culture, the company has taken steps to build an anti-racist, inclusive organization. In a statement on June 11 made to the public, they wrote, “We are prepared to tear it all down and begin again.” Carr talked about how they’ve made improvements so far:
“They’ve gone through a shift as to how they’re moving forward. The organization has been around for, you know, 60 years, and it’s so cool to be a part of reshaping what this new Second City looks like and moving into the future.”
Carr continued, “Second City has done a great job of saying, ‘Let’s put stuff in place that helps us move into the next years of Second City so that it becomes a place that is truly an example of equity and diversity and cultural acceptance.’ Being a part of that on the ground floor is really one of the things that made my excited about taking a job like this.”
How it has been for him as Dad’s artistic director during a pandemic:
“It was a pretty rough timing because I think I was interim for a month, but I officially took the job as artistic director in February. And then everything shut down in March, so I had whole month of live and in-person director and leadership there.*laughs*”
Carr continued, “We had to learn very quickly how to do online programming, and our performers were just willing to say, ‘We’ve never really done anything online, but let’s go for it, and let’s use the principle of improv and just put ourselves out there and see what happens.’”
Carr was the co-founder of the comedy troupe “Dark Side of the Room.” He was later awarded the 2018 Suzi Bass Award for Best Original Play for “Black Nerd.”
His last day with Dad’s Garage Theatre is Dec. 15.
