The Second City’s Reid Janisse pauses to reflect

For 17 years, Toronto-born and raised actor, writer and director Janisse has had the privilege of creating and presenting comedy for The Second City. During this time, he has written and performed four mainstage shows, including the Canadian Comedy Award winning productions Barack To The Future and 0% Down, 100% Screwed, and the Dora-Award nominated Second City for Mayor. He is also a full-time instructor of improv and sketch-comedy writing at The Second City Training Centre and Second City Education. 

 “I’ve always loved it,” he says of performing. “I think most people who perform for the first time get a bug, and you realize how incredible it is to be in front of an audience. In my case, because I really loved comedy, it was getting that first laugh on stage that gave me an incredible feeling.”

Yet despite this passion for performing, Janisse did not expect acting and writing would become a long-term career. “It was always a dream”, but “I’ve always been pretty pragmatic, so I never actually thought I would do it for a job,” he says. “I was actually going to be an engineer and figured I would do acting on the side, but that didn’t work out when I failed my Grade 13 calculus class.” Thanks to that fortuitous failure, Janisse instead studied drama at university, and got his first job at Canada’s Wonderland playing a Star Trek character. Since that time, he has worked many jobs and built a career practising multiple disciplines in the arts. 

For instance, in 2013, Janisse wrote and performed in Ross Petty Productions’ pantomime of The Little Mermaid. “I had a really fun character. I played a clownfish that turned into a human,” he says. “That was my favourite production, and to be able to do a show at the Elgin Theatre… it’s such a beautiful space, and the audiences are so incredible.”

Ultimately, Janisse is most proud of the work he has accomplished in his many years at The Second City. “It was always my goal to work at Second City, because that’s one of the places you can improvise and perform sketch comedy and get paid to do it,” he says. “It’s very competitive and hard to get into, and if you’re lucky enough to be able to work there, there are so many opportunities that don’t really exist anywhere else.” Janisse started in the education company doing shows at schools, “then I moved into the touring company, then onto where I wrote for main stage revues there, and eventually went onto writing and directing for the company.”

Early in 2020, Janisse wrote a family show for The Second City called In The Game. The story stars a family who are addicted to their smartphones, get sucked into the Internet, and have to work together to find a way out. The show opened at The Second City on March 14th, right at the start of March Break. Unfortunately, the cast performed only one show before the theatre was forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. 

Almost a full year later, a wistful Janisse still thinks about the show:  “It would be great to put that play on again, once everything returns to normal because I feel like it’s a great show . . . and it would be incredible to get the cast back together.” Even though “it was such a talented group that a lot of them have moved onto other things,” he has not given up hope. “We will have to replace some of them, but I think it’s a show that’s really fun and timely. It deserves a nice long run.”

At the moment, Janisse is a stay-at-home husband and dad who has been teaching virtual classes with The Second City since that first lockdown last March. “It’s very interesting how this pandemic has affected improv instruction and sketch construction,” he observes. “Before COVID, you would have to travel to Toronto every day to do this work and study with people who are experts in the field. Now you can be anywhere in the world and log onto Zoom and take a class with anyone you want to.” It’s been “really fascinating” to have classes “with people from all over the world, working together collaboratively, learning improv and creating sketch comedy.”

As an experienced writer and director looking back on his years at The Second City, Janisse’s advice to people who are just starting out in the industry is unaltered by the shadow of the pandemic: “Create. Do what you love. Do what makes you laugh, and create things that make you laugh that you’re proud of.” His rationale is simple: “If you do something you love, it’s so fun and rewarding. And if you create something that somebody else loves, you’ll hopefully get a lot of views, and turn that into something new, which could spark something that could start your career.” 

Janisse’s one caveat is equally straightforward and rooted in his lived experience as a failed engineer, successful clownfish and author of In The Game: “The most important thing is that you’re doing it because you love it and not because you want to be rich or famous.” Because that love – and the hope that emanates from it – is what can sustain and propel you for 17 or even 70 years.

© Tamara von Estorff, SesayArts Magazine, 2021