Second City—the Chicago-based comedy production that has launched the careers of such comedians as brothers John and Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and, more recently, Tina Fey and Steve Carell—is celebrating its 100th revue, with a show entitled Who Do We Think We Are?

Last year’s South Side of Heaven revue marked the Mainstage debut of ensemble member Katie Rich, a cute-as-she-is-hilarious comedienne in her second revue as part of the current cast. She talked to us about the improv process, and keeping a straight face (or not).

Was improv comedy always a career goal?
KATIE RICH: I got introduced to improvisation and sketch comedy when I was a freshman in high school and the fall play was a Second City-style revue. This was a very daunting and unique endeavor for a bunch of theater nerds, [so] our director took us to Second City one night to see how it was done. We saw Truth, Justice, or the American Way, which featured Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. During that show my brain glazed over and said to me, "THAT! [I’ve] got to get into THAT!"

What is the writing process like, and how much of it is improvisation?
KR: The cast writes the entire show; much of it is scripted, but there is always an improvisational element or two in every show. We create most of the material through improv—taking our ideas and characters in front of an audience and seeing what happens. If it works, we script it. 

What is it about Second City that makes you love your job?
KR: Mike Hagerty, an alum of the Mainstage and a very accomplished actor, came to the show recently, and what he said to us answers this question better than I ever could. I asked him, point blank, if being on this stage is going to be the best job I ever have. He said yes. "You have a moment on that stage," he said, "and people are listening." More than 2,000 people come to hear what we have to say every week. It's a dream.

Have you ever started laughing on stage?
KR: Yes! There have been three or four times when I full on burst out laughing, and my laugh is not delicate or subtle. In those instances I just walked off stage and got myself together. 

Who are the comedians that inspire you?
KR: My mother and father are so funny because they are honest and real and never ignore an opportunity to laugh. They taught me that the worst thing you can do is take [life] too seriously. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Tina Fey. She has paved the way for a different kind of mainstream female comedic professional—one that can be celebrated for her vulnerability and femininity, instead of using it as a constant punchline.

Who Do We Think We Are? runs through December 5 at Second City. Tickets start at $23. 1616 N. Wells St., 312-337-3992

Shirt, Paul Smith, $235; blazer, Marc by Marc Jacobs, $4,680; jeans, 7 For All Mankind, $169, Bloomingdale’s, 600 N. Wabash Ave., 312-324-7500; car, courtesy of Bentley Downers Grove, a Joe Perillo dealership

Lightbank, the company behind daily deal phenom Groupon, is giving Silicon Valley a run for its start-up money. The latest in the Chicago-based venture capital fund’s portfolio of successful start-ups is bodyshopbids.com, the brainchild of 31-year-old Brad Weisberg. Here’s how it works: A driver submits photos online of his dinged car and receives price bids and estimates from more than 275 local auto body shops. Consumers have more control over their choice of shop, and there’s no gender bias—or legwork.

It’s been just eight months since Weisberg’s been running his seven-man operation from Lightbank’s River North offices, and in that time, he’s saved users of his site more than $400,000. “I’ve had more than 450 people submit auto body claims in the last couple of months alone,” Weisberg says.

After graduating from Indiana University, Weisberg moved to LA and worked for HBO as a production assistant for Sex and the City, The Sopranos, and Deadwood. And it was during his time on the West Coast that his car got banged up. “Since I wasn’t from LA I didn’t know where to take my car; I shopped around and got three different estimates from three different body shops—it was very frustrating.” There had to be an easier way, he thought.

After deciding the entertainment business wasn’t for him, Weisberg moved to Chicago and began selling real estate for Coldwell Banker and @ properties—but his car repair confusion stuck with him. Ten years later, his seed of an idea grew into bodyshopbids.com, which he started with less than $500,000. His first round of funding from Lightbank came through last June. “Within the next six months I’ll be taking [the website] national; I’m negotiating my second round of funding, which will hopefully triple,” he says.

Not only is his free online estimate service a bonus for the consumer, but it’s also helping local businesses. “We accounted for 20 percent of Jordan Automotive’s revenue for September,” he says of the Humboldt Park shop. (The auto repair business is an estimated $35 billion-a-year industry.) Weisberg’s site also provides help for people who have been in major collisions: Bodyshopbids.com will send someone to your home to assess your car’s damages, and then shop bids around for you. And the site is so simple to use, even the most technologically unsavvy can navigate it with ease.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM NEWBERRY

STYLING BY JESSICA MOAZAMI FOR ARTISTS BY TIMOTHY PRIANO

When Shell Reyes asked Canadian singer-songwriter Mira Black in early 2010 if she would like to meet renowned Chicago-based music producer Vince Lawrence, she said yes. After all, Black thought, Lawrence is credited with founding House music. He has produced for Beyoncé. And, at the very least, he was offering a trip to Chicago.

“I didn’t really think anything would come of it because I was studying jazz at the time,” says Black, who once fronted the Canadian folk band Acoustically Inclined. “But then we met and it was like we fell artistically in love.”

Lawrence originally blocked out an hour to meet with the singer, but one hour turned into two, which turned into dinner, which ended in a 10-day stay in Chicago. “We just nerded out on music, playing our influences, and talking about who we are as artists,” says Black. During that visit, Black listened to more than a thousand of Lawrence’s tracks, wrote lyrics to one, and, after a little more than a week of collaborating, the first song was complete.

“After that I just went back home to Winnipeg, packed up my stuff, and made the move to Chicago, which I love,” says Black, who now lives in Ukranian Village across the street from Lawrence’s studio.

“Illusion,” the song that convinced her to move to Chicago, will likely be part of Mira, Black’s album that debuts early next year and is being released by Lawrence’s Slang Musicgroup label. (The album’s first single, “I Remember Love,” is available on iTunes now). The record is a combination of Black’s poetic lyrics and rich vocals, and Lawrence’s innovative take on electronic pulses. The result is a soulful mix of ambient electronica with a touch of jazz. And those lyrics? Well, they’re powerful too, and mostly about love, conjured up from heart-wrenching moments in Black’s own life.

Chicagoans can get a taste of her story this month at a live show Black and Lawrence are putting together. “It’s going to be a very tactile show, with audio and visual elements that will engross the audience and tell a story,” says Black. “And we’re going to remix the album and hopefully add some poetry in there, too.”

Black is no stranger to performing poetry live and off the cuff. She’s already a regular at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge’s famed Sunday-night poetry slams. “I’m really a storyteller and a poet. The music comes because I can just hear it, and my words become lyrical.”
Visit mirablack.com for information about upcoming shows.

You’d be hard-pressed to find two more accomplished people in medicine and nutrition than the Rosens. Dr. Steve Rosen is the Genevieve Teuton professor of medicine and director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He’s also the principal investigator for the Northwestern University Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, and oversees federally funded training grants for medical and pediatric oncology fellows, as well as training opportunities for minority college students pursuing careers in science and medicine. And that’s when he’s not treating 30 to 40 patients a week.

An oncologist for 30 years, Steve is widely regarded as number one in his field in Chicago. “The greatest reward is knowing you’ve made an impact on someone’s life and helped them through a challenging time,” he says.

His wife, Candice, is equally impressive. A registered nurse with a master’s degree in social work, a certification in health counseling, and founder/executive director of the Pancreatic Nutritional Program, Candice released her second book, The Pancreatic Oath: The Measurable Approach to Improved Health and Weight Loss, about what she deems the forgotten gland—the pancreas—last August. “The essence of my book is the practice of self-health,” she emphasizes. “You are your primary caregiver, [and you need to] listen to three ‘voices’: the mirror, the scale, and the glucometer [which measures the concentration of glucose in the blood].”

Her years of research started when her daughter was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome. Candice was determined to find a cure that didn’t involve her daughter pumping medicine into her body that would only mask the symptoms. “Instead, I bought a glucometer and we started eliminating foods that raised her blood sugar level.” The symptoms eventually went away.

The Pancreatic Oath (available through pancreaticoath.com) tells how to find foods that stabilize blood glucose levels. “But it’s not a one-size-fits-all diet,” Candice notes. “It’s a data-driven program—you’ll get an answer from your body 90 minutes after eating. Monitoring glucose levels and avoiding foods that raise blood sugar is an effective preventative strategy for such illness, including heart disease, diabetes, and possibly cancer.”

So how has Candice’s research impacted Steve’s practice? “I think it’s a revolutionary [approach],” he says. “[Because of Candice’s work,] I am much more aggressive about encouraging my patients to diet and exercise. I’m a believer.”

To seek nutritional counseling from Candice Rosen, visit pnprogram.com.

Sirott and Murciano framed a poster from their first news show together.

The witty banter between TV cohosts isn’t always representative of their off-air relationship. Despite their camaraderie on the 1990s morning show Fox Thing in the Morning, Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano were hardly friends away from the news desk. “I didn’t think he was very friendly,” Murciano says. “He wouldn’t speak to me off the air.”

At the suggestion of the news director, Murciano took Sirott to breakfast in the cafeteria of their Fox Chicago News Studio (“He can’t not talk if we’re having breakfast, right?” she says.) Thus a friendship—and later, a relationship— bloomed. At the end of the show’s six-year run, Sirott and Murciano, by then married, were announcing the birth of their daughter, Daniela.

Murciano’s almost one-year-old website, trainaman.com, came as a result of her relationship with Sirott, who currently coanchors Fox Chicago’s . “Bob came into my life when I was a single mom,” she says, speaking of her two children from a previous marriage. “I really needed him to get with the program or he couldn’t be a part of my life.” Thus the two developed a system of communication where they could speak up about what they needed and reward each other for fulfilling those needs—and Murciano saw the opportunity to show other women how this could work for them, too. Now with seminars and a book in the works, the Train a Man empire is thriving. “I’m okay with being in all these classes,” says Sirott, who not only lived the training but also starred in many of the early Train a Man YouTube videos—“I just don’t have passing grades in many of them.”

Thanks to their solid partnership and sheer exposure (the two also host a weekly show on WGN radio), Sirott and Murciano have become one of Chicago’s power couples. However, they won’t be found working the crowd at every high-profile event. “We very much like to do things with our family,” Sirott says. Although—in terms of influence—Murciano concedes, “a lot of people now have Bob’s neckties.”

When Frances Renk met her husband, she had no idea that she’d be coming into the priceless family jewels—the family jewelry business, that is.

With previous stints as a small business owner, Renk was itching to discover her next passion in life. That’s when her husband, Christopher, suggested she become involved in his sisters’ business, Sequin, a Manhattan-based jewelry design company. “They offered me an amazing opportunity to be a part of something so big,” she says.

That Sequin is “big” is an understatement. The company’s private label designs, distributes and manufactures for a range of prominent clients, acting as a ghost designer for big-name brands such as Badgley Mischka, Ralph Lauren, Kaufman Franco, J. Mendel and Frank Tell. Their creations have been worn by the likes of Cameron Diaz, Britney Spears and cast members of Gossip Girl.

When Renk’s sisters-in-law, Kim and Linda Renk, started the company from scratch in 2000, going “big” was just a dream. “They’ve always [worked with] jewelry,” she says. “But it was a risk for them to start a business after their own successes as buyers in the fashion industry.” Their past experience allowed the sister duo to have a keen eye on what the fashion industry was missing and now, thanks to a unique family camaraderie—one brother provides law expertise, the other, financial, and their father acts as an advisor—Sequin has become a go-to for dazzling accessories. Their success behind the scenes allowed the business to grow further by opening their own boutiques, and the Sequin sisters turned to Renk to head up the endeavor, naming her the director of retail operations. “Working behind the scenes has made me appreciate the business and believe in our brand even more,” says Renk.

Renk spends her days managing marketing and ensuring Sequin’s four store locations (two in Newport Beach, one in Palm Beach and the newest outpost in Chicago’s Lincoln Park) run flawlessly. Lately, though, the majority of her time is spent spreading the word about Sequin’s offerings. There’s an array of styles for any palate, such as the Cleopatra collection, which is adorned with gold and pops of color, mimicking an ancient Egyptian aesthetic; and the Links collection, which accentuates geometric shapes in necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Other styles are created with luscious stones, precious metals and exotic visions, and all collections are inspired by iconic moments throughout time. The wide range of prices allow Sequin’s collections to be the not-sohidden treasure of Chicago’s accessory scene.

But the true gem is Renk’s humble admiration: “It’s an honor be a part of this close family and their business. It’s a loyalty I’ve never experienced before.”

Giuliana Rancic, author of I Do, Now What?: Secrets, Stories, and Advice from a Madly-in-Love Couple (Ballantine Books; $25) with husband Bill Rancic, reveals her simple trick to long-lasting love:

“Bill and I do something called ‘checking in’ with each other. Instead of bottling up our feelings until a crazy fight breaks out, we check in with each other once or twice a week at any given time.

“If we have dinner with friends, on the way home I’ll say to him, ‘Hey, babe, just checking in. Everything good?’ Bill is free to say whatever is on his mind, good or bad. He may say, ‘I didn’t like how you kept interrupting me at dinner to finish my stories,’ or he may say something reaffirming and sweet like, ‘I love how you don’t get drunk like the other wives and make a fool of yourself.’ By checking in you nip any issues in the bud before they grow roots and become major problems.”

Ed Swiderski kept viewers guessing on the fifth season of ABC’s The Bachelorette, leaving, returning and finally winning Jillian Harris’ heart. But their ending wasn’t exactly happily ever after, so we quizzed Ed on the art of reality-show recovery.

1.) "Dress incognito while renting chick flicks such as Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman or Fried Green Tomatoes.”

2.) “Watch for voyeurs. They pretend to take a picture of their friends, but they’re really sneaking a photo of you doing that shot of Jameson.”

3.) “Don’t forget that you are still the same person as before TV. Fifteen minutes goes by fast!”

4.) “Only attempt to date one person at a time. Period.”

Follow Ed’s latest adventures in Chicago on his blog, You’re Ed to Me.

You may know Cheryl Burke as a two-time Dancing with the Stars winner, taking the top prize for seasons two and three. But in reality she’s much more than just a terrific dancer. Now partnering with Allstate to fight domestic abuse, an experience she went through firsthand, Burke is using her exposure to draw attention to a worthy cause. Below she tells us about Allstate Foundation’s Tell a Gal Pal campaign and discusses the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars, which started September 20 on ABC.

MICHIGAN AVENUE: How did you get into the Allstate Foundations’ Tell a Gal Pal Campaign?
CHERYL BURKE: Domestic violence is very near and dear to my heart. It’s something that I’ve been through, and something that I can talk about now. So I teamed up with Allstate Foundation’s Tell a Gal Pal campaign to be able to voice my opinion on domestic violence, and what you need to do if you’re going through a similar situation: be a gal pal or to tell a gal pal.

What exactly does the campaign entail?
You can go on the website, clicktoempower.org, for women or men who have gone through domestic violence and want to get helped. People who just want to donate can go on the Facebook page. You don’t have to donate personally, as Allstate will also donate. And all donations will be made to the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

What advice do you have for young girls, or boys, who are going through this?
It’s never easy. You know, when I was going through it, it was really hard to be able to open up. But the best thing I could have done was to tell a gal pal. Sometimes you feel like it’s your fault, or you feel guilty—but really, it is not your fault. And you need to be able to be open and talk about it before it turns into a serious, serious issue.

Of course. And moving to a different subject: Dancing with the Stars. Who was the funniest contestant you got to work with?
This season I am teamed up with Rick Fox, and he’s one of the tallest dance partners I have ever had. He’s 6’7”, I’m 5’4”—so there’s a huge height difference. So that alone is going to be interesting and a challenge. But he’s a great guy and we’re having a lot of fun.

How does he dance?
He’s not bad for a tall man! Usually with ballroom dancing, you don’t really see tall couples. But he’s not doing bad, and he’s got great posture. We’ll see where it takes us.

You won the competition twice, once with Drew Lachey and once with Emmitt Smith. How were the two wins different?
For me, Drew was more of an entertainer, so he learned differently than Emmitt did. And it was my first season, so I was completely new to everything. It was a big whirlwind, and my whole life changed from that season on. Emmitt and I just got along. He’s a great guy, really down-to-earth, and we had a lot of fun together.

What can we expect from the next season as a whole?
You’ve got some interesting characters in this season. I think it’s going to keep people entertained, so hopefully they’ll tune in and watch. It’s going to be a great season!