How private equity bought Second City

Second City helped kickstart the careers of comedy legends like Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Keegan Michael-Key. But in 2021, it was sold for about $50 million to a private equity firm run by the CEO of the video game company behind Grand Theft Auto.

And grand theft is what they’re getting away with. Since then, they’ve been underpaying their comedy instructors causing them to strike. The broader problem with private equity is that they have a track record of treating every resource available to them, including people, like nothing more than line items to extract the maximum possible value out of.

And we should be worried because that’s just one example of how private equity is making broader moves in comedy in general. Blackstone, Silver Lake and more are pouring cash into Hollywood comedy. This combined with the fact that they’re also buying up comedy venues, introducing tiered ticketing systems, and prioritizing maximum potential for profit over ideas… means that comedy, which has long-sustained roots in punching up at people with power and money… is now owned by people with power and money.

Just like with local news, we should be concerned that private equity is taking an ownership stake in a crucial part of how people communicate information. Because once big money on this scale, with this profit-gouging intent gets involved, the information is no longer free.