Second City comedy revues are always a guaranteed good time. Eight times a week, the cast of comedians at the iconic Toronto comedy institution performs a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud spectacle packed with sketches, improv, and songs. 

Touching on politics, pop culture, and everything in between, Duel Citizens is The Second City’s current mainstage revue, running all summer long and into the fall. To hear more about life at Second City and how they prepped for Duel Citizens, cast members Devon Henderson and Tiyawnda interviewed each other for SheDoesTheCity.

Tiyawnda: If you weren’t doing comedy, what do you think you’d be doing with your life?

Devon Henderson: I think a lot of people say, like, “oh, I’m in the arts, I can’t imagine myself working in an office or having a normal nine-to-five.” I think I totally could. I could totally work at a publishing house and, like, pick fonts, and then just go home and watch Love Island. And that would be totally fine.

T: I love that. I thought publishing house for you too, for some reason. I think if you worked in an office though, you’d be the funny person in the office, right?

D: I have worked in office environments, and there was always this feeling for the people working there, like…she’s not totally one of us. But I will throw that question back to you: If you weren’t doing comedy, what do you think you’d be doing?

T: I would probably be in the arts still in some way, like theatre writing, playwriting. But also, I think I would probably be a teacher. That feels really right for me. 

D: I can also see you with like, a booth at a fair.

T: Like running a dunk tank?

D: Or like, you’re selling wools or something.

T: Like crafting? Yeah, I love a craft. I could see that.

D: So, our show is famously called Duel Citizens. How do we come up with the titles? What is that process like?

T: A few weeks into the process, we’ll all bring in 10 or even 15 titles, throw them out there, see what sticks, and start a document that we add to throughout. The management in Chicago is a really big part of picking the title. They’re combing over that document and telling us which ones they like or what they want to see more of. We just keep brainstorming, and then we vote as a cast and the options get smaller and smaller until we land on one. 

D: For Duel Citizens, they said they wanted the title to be short and they wanted it to speak to the Canada/US vibe. Full transparency—we did not come up with that title. That was our Artistic Director Etan’s pitch. Because it’s an open Google Doc.

T: What were some of ours?

D: I had Declaration of Codependence. That was one in the mix. A Streetcar Named Short Turn. Some deep cut TTC ones. 

T: I had some punny ones. Merrily We Doomscroll Along. We liked that one.

D: I thought that one was good. But ultimately, Merrily We Roll Along was deemed too deep of a cut. So, when we write these shows, it’s a 10-week period called process, and it’s a famously intense, very fun, but also difficult time. This is your second mainstage process. So, going into the second one, did you approach it differently than you did your first one?

T: Yeah, I did. Not in a huge way. I just definitely prioritized rest more. I’m someone with a weird, difficult sleep schedule, so it can be hard to get consistent sleep, and that will really kill you in process. For the second one, I just tried to rest more and be more prepared. And pack my lunches.

D: It sounds so simple, but yeah, that does make such a huge difference. In this job, it’s a weird middle ground between a comedy job and a theatre job, when we do eight shows a week. But this job goes to comedy goblins who have lived in basements and aren’t super well prepared the way that someone who went to theatre school would be for taking care of themselves for an eight-show week. So we all had to figure it out on the fly. I have friends in musical theatre, and they’re like athletes. We’re not.

D: So, you are a cast member of the illustrious Second City Toronto mainstage. When did the concept of Second City first enter your brain?

T: I have an interesting answer for that. I grew up in foster care, and when I was 9, I moved to a really small rural town, but I would still have visits with an old foster parent who wanted to stay in touch with me. She worked in film and was really passionate about taking me to arts stuff. Once a year, sometimes on New Year’s, we would come to Second City. I loved it, and I’d always go back to Campbellford and talk about it. I remember during intermission, I’d see the cast pictures on the wall, and there was always one or two Black women. And I was like, “huh, maybe one day.” And now it’s the first time in the history of The Second City Toronto that there are two Black women on stage at the same time. So that’s pretty cool. How about you Devon? When did you first hear about Second City?

D: I was an SNL nerd. As a preteen, I would have SNL sleepovers with my friends, and so I was aware of it because I grew up watching Amy Poehler and Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch and all those women that came through Second City Chicago. I was reading Bossy Pants, and I was about to finish university, and I was like, “what do I do?” I was in Vancouver, and it occurred to me that Second City is a real place that I can go to. I can just go to Toronto and take classes. So I moved out here, not really knowing anyone. The second day I was here, I saw my first mainstage show. I was watching it, and I was like, “I think there’s one thing in the world that I know I would be good at, and I think it’s that. I don’t think there’s anything else.” I took all the classes here, I did as much as I could here with the intent of getting this job one day. So it was really, really cool when I did get it. 

T: We are running this show until November. We opened March 20, and we run until November 16. This is definitely the longest run of a show I’ve ever done. How do you see yourself mentally preparing for that?

D: Yeah, it’s easily the longest. It’s one day at a time. If you think of it as long of a run as it is, it can feel really daunting. What’s particularly fun about Second City is we wrote the show. So on any given night, if there’s a joke that I want to change, I will change it. And sometimes I’ll get a little email from our boss that says “please change it back.” But we have a little bit more freedom than someone who’s, say, doing Phantom of the Opera for like, 20 years. These shows kind of breathe, in a way.

T: You can’t change the lyrics in Phantom.

D: No, you can’t. Even in this show, there were some scenes that I never locked in a line. So I have a few spots throughout the show that I get to change every night.

T: And we have an improv set at the end of every show, which is a lot of fun and keeps it fresh. Improv has always intimidated me, but I’m so much more comfortable with it now. Especially now that this show is running so long, the improv set gives us such variety and freedom and fun and play. Come watch the improv set! It’s free.

D: If you could pick anyone to guest star on the improv set, who would it be?

T: Maria Bamford comes to mind. I love her. I’d love to work with her. What about you? Who’s your star guest?

D: I mean, this could never happen. But Melissa McCarthy would be fun to improvise with. There are a lot of people who did this back in the day and don’t anymore, but I bet if you do an improv show with her, she’s still got it.

T: Okay, another question for you. If there were a biopic about you, who would you want to play you?

D: Paul Giamatti. I think energetically, we’re kind of in the same space. A little small, a little wound up, a little ready to yell about something. I believe in gender blind casting.

T: As we all should. It’s theatre! 

D: Suspend your disbelief. He can wear a wig. So far in this run, what’s a moment that sticks out to you?

T: When I dropped the stick on stage. I do a cool martial arts stick thing, and it’s so awesome. I dropped it only once in the run so far, and it was so embarrassing. 

D: It’s funny because without that, the scene doesn’t have an ending. The ending relies on you pulling off that stunt. I remember hearing it because I’m standing on the other side of the curtain. Such a vulnerable rattle on the ground.

T: Having to bend down and pick it up in front of everyone sucked. And then they still cheered. 

D: So brutal. So, you’ve been a performer for a long time. What is your go-to wild theatre story?

T: So one time there was a bat in the theatre. We were doing a production of Urinetown: The Musical in Kingston, and there was just a bat flying around. We didn’t stop the show, we just kept doing the show because we were close to the end, but everyone was ducking because the bat would literally swoop on the stage. We were changing some of the lyrics to be about bats, which was fun. The audience loved it. Do you have any wild theatre memories?

D: In Grade 11, we put on Alice in Wonderland. And, you know, it’s a high school theatre, so we didn’t have a lot of money for a big set, but our teacher and one of the other kids built this revolving platform. 

T: High tech!

D: High tech for a play that was ultimately in a gym/cafeteria. But they managed to build this platform, and they finished it hours before the first night, so we never rehearsed with it. And what kept happening on the first night is we didn’t know what the clearance of the platform was, so you’d be doing the scene, and then your ankles just got swiped out by the spinning platform. 

T: I’d love to see a video of that.

D: Oh god, it probably exists somewhere. But people were crawling on stage. By Act Two, people were like, okay, so if you stand here, it won’t hit you.

T: I love the idea that they can’t stop it.

D: Like, once it goes, it goes!

See Tiyawnda and Devon Henderson perform in Duel Citizens, running at The Second City Toronto every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and 10pm, and Sundays at 7pm. More info here. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.