A funny thing happened on the way to Second City

We saw three of our favorite funny girls on a quick trip to Chicago this weekend, where we caught the one-woman Grandma Mary Jane Show, now playing at the elegant Whitehall Rehabilitation Center; Katherine Biskupic on stage at Second City; and our funny little niece/cousin Erin, hosting a classic, sparkling pink fairy dusted sleepover for her tall cousin Charlie and us.

And that was just Friday night.

As we’ve mentioned before, Molly’s Grandma Mary Jane enjoys a sharp wit and a clever repartee. As she convalesces from an unfortunate fall, she has been entertaining guests at Whitehall. We popped in Friday afternoon and she took us on a quick tour of the place. “I’ll race you!” she said to a fellow guest as they made their way down the hallway, rehab walkers clicking side-by-side. She smoked the somewhat startled woman, then turned to us and said, “Look, no hands!” Mother of nine children, she is often asked how she dealt with the chaos. “Martinis,” she quips with a twinkle in her eye.

We left Grandma Mary Jane and headed downtown to see her equally funny, spunky granddaughter, Katherine on stage at Second City. It may seem incongruous for a classically trained Shakespearean actress to find herself on stage among the rollicking silliness of Second City, but our little mimic seemed right at home, which is good because William Shakespeare didn’t write for women and comedy writers often do.

We wrapped up a late night by tip toeing into the guest room area of Erin’s house, where in lieu of traditional mints on the pillows she left an array of welcoming stuffed animals and a prepared tea set for us. How sweet, we thought, until she spent most of the next morning turning us into polar bears and ordering us into caves she’d created on beds and in closets scattered throughout the house.

We treasure the time we get to spend with the funny girls in our lives because, as one of our favorite literary characters, Elizabeth Bennett said, we “dearly love to laugh.”