By Shannon Sturgis Edgar Blackmon with The Second City touring show.

LITTLE ROCK — Sometimes, you just have to laugh, particularly when you’re dealing with funny people.

Last week I had a chance to sit down with two of the visiting cast members in The Second City’s 50th Anniversary Comedy Tour, which continues through this weekend at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. The idea was we’d review the show, but also get to know and write about members of the cast, too.

It was supposed to be pretty simple. We’d format the thing as a Q&A, which basically means we’d record the whole conversation and transcribe the interview when it was all over. At least, that was how it was supposed to go.

First, a little background. The Second City opened in 1959 as a cabaret theater in Chicago. Over the years it grew to include stages in other venues like Toronto and Detroit and today has four touring companies that go all over the world. In its time, Second City has produced a veritable Who’s Who of comedy. Distinguished alumni include names like John Belushi, John Candy, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Steve Carell and Tiny Fey.

Basically, without this place we would not laugh. Ever.

So after sitting down with cast members Edgar Blackmon and Megan Hovde Wilkins, I crack the ice asking how long they‘ve been in town. Since yesterday, they say. They talk about settling in, which involved a trip to Kroger. Which Kroger? It was down one street going straight for a very long time, passing the Red Door, a Waffle House and a motorcycle accident. Oh, that Kroger.

Then comes time to launch into the “let’s get to know” you part of the interview:

Sync: Tell us a little about yourselves. How long have you been with the touring company, where are you from originally and how did you get into it?

Blackmon: I’ve been in the touring company as understudy for I think two years. I just started with this company in August, so only two months of hard core touring. I started in Second City by taking some classes there in… 2003 maybe. It’s all a blur.

“I took some classes, and there’s a conservatory program where can you study in this stream of learning where you work on character development, scene work, how to share a scene and how develop scenes from improvising and all this stuff. You do that for a year and a half or so and put on shows when you complete each level. Just went and did some shows from there with Second City Outreach and Diversity Program and from that got into being an understudy. And then into this.

“I think I’ve always wanted to do something [in theater]. I’ve been in a million church plays; I think I’ve played everyone in The Bible. [Laughs] I did high school musicals and Shakespeare and whatnot in college with the theater. I’m a theater nerd, I think it’s fair to say.”

Wilkins: “I’m kind of a theater nerd, too. We’re finding out, as we get to do things like this, Edgar and I together. [When I hear his answers] I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah me too.’

“I started doing theater when I was a little kid, like community theater and things like that. I lived in Omaha, Neb., Kansas City, Kan., and the Chicago area is where I grew up. We moved a couple times. Then in 2000, [The recorder beeps.] Oh. Is it judging me? [Laughs.] It must be a lie detector. Okay, maybe it was 1999, I don’t know.”

(I explain the beeping means the recorder is running out of room).

“What if It’s not getting what I’m saying? This is gold! So in 1999 or 2000 — I’m not sure; sorry, little guy. [The recorder beeps again, to more laughter.]

“What you guys don’t know is that I’m getting an electric shock every time. But I’m hiding it really well.

“So in 2000, [Pauses, looks at the recorder.] I started at Second City, and I did same thing Edgar did. I took classes, did the conservatory and did as many shows around Chicago as I could. We have other theaters that do improv like Improv Olympic, The Annoyance and The Playground Theater, so there’s a lot of places to perform in Chicago.”

[At this point the hard drive on the recorder was full and it stopped recording.]

Wilkins went on to explain that she spent about a year and a half in the Second City touring group and then another year on the main stage at Second City Detroit. She also spent four months at sea on Second City’s stage aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines, two in the Caribbean and two in the Mediterranean. She said it was “the most amazing job you can ever do,” but “at the same time it’s almost jail-like because you’re sitting on the ship, stuck…. So it was also hard, but mostly wonderful.”

Of her time performing, she concludes, “adding all that up, it comes out to about a hundred years.”