Chicago Improv Comedy Scene Gets Major Shout-Out From Jason Sudeikis As He Accepts Emmy Award

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago improv got a major shout-out on Sunday from Emmy Award-winner Jason Sudeikis.

He took home the Emmy for best actor in a comedy series for “Ted Lasso” at the 73rd Annual Emmy Awards.

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“Mentors and teachers – you know, people like Mick Napier, the folks at Second City, iO, the Annoyance,” Sudeikis said in his speech.

That remark, of course, did not escape Napier’s notice.

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“I was outside having a whiskey with my wife, and then I just started getting a lot of texts,” said Napier, the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre. “It was very touching, and I was really happy that he gave a shout-out to the Annoyance Theater, Second City, and iO – because the Chicago improv community, we’re pretty tight, and pretty supportive of each other.”

Sudeikis, a Kansas native, moved to Chicago to study at the Annoyance Theatre and iO, according to his Second City bio. He was a founding member of the longform comedy improv team J.T.S. Brown – which came into being in the late 1990s and which the Improv Network noted also included Ed Goodman, Jack McBrayer, TJ Jagadowski, Peter Gross, and Ike Barinholtz.

Sudeikis also performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, and then joined the Second City Touring Company. He was working for The Second City Las Vegas when he got hired at “Saturday Night Live” – first as a writer.

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Sunday night was the first time Sudeikis has ever won an Emmy. He took home four – including outstanding comedy series.