by Erin Conlon 
If you somehow thought Brooklyn was suffering from a shortage of local comedy, have no fear! The Second City — famed comedy club and improv school — is setting its sights on Williamsburg for a New York City outpost in summer 2023.
The outpost is reportedly moving into 64 N 9 St., not far from Dolly’s Swing and Dive and Marsha P.…
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Strauss Zelnick is the owner of the private equity firm ZMC whose claim to fame is the Grand Theft Auto franchise. He purchased The Second City about two years ago. He has a net worth of over $304,000,000. The management team he put in place to run Second City has no connection to improv or Second City’s storied history whatsoever. In the nearly TWO YEARS of negotiations with AICE (our teachers union), his team (and their $300/hr. union busting legal “expert”), ghost closed the LA location, somehow “found” the money to open a brand new complex in NYC, and yet continues to say they simply don’t have the money to pay their “best improv teachers in the world (-Ed Wells, CEO)” a fair wage. Second City teachers have not received ANY wage increase in nearly six years, and make, on average, less than half of what other improv teachers in the business make. $304,000,000. Two years of negotiations. No contract. “No money.” Shame.