Second City kicked off its weekend of panels, screenings and discussions this morning. We missed the 10am Colbert Report panel starring Mr. Colbert himself, but caught the excellent “Voices of Diversity” panel featuring past and current minority ensemble members including MADtv’s Keegan Michael Key, Frangela’s Frances Callier and Angela Shelton, West Wing and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Suzy Nakamura, current ensemble members Anthony LeBlanc and Christina Anthony and also Ithamar Enriquez, Danny Pudi, EJ Murray, Aaron Freeman, Claudia Wallace and Dionna Griffin-Irons. NBC Chicago’s Natalie Martinez moderated.

Surprisingly, this one wasn’t sold out. What a shame, it was a hoot and an illuminating one at that. The group fielded questions like, how does training at Second City compare to elsewhere, which yielded Freeman’s quip, “[It was] crucial in understanding the proper management of white people.” Freeman also paid tribute to Second City’s first ensemble member Bob Curry. “Bob was at Second City back when it was novel to have a negro in this neighborhood.”

The group talked about a lack of role models, the founding of the Second City Outreach and Diversity Program, the influence of the Second City Detroit on increasing minority voices within the company, having to educate audiences and competition among minorities among other topics. When the subject was raised whether or not anyone was “too black,” Callier pointed at Shelton and exclaimed, “She’s got three bottles of pesto in her kitchen right now!” Likewise, Anthony affirmed the need for minority cast members (black, Latino, gay, Jewish, etc.) to make bold choices onstage by saying, “If you want to snap your fingers, snap your fingers.” We couldn’t agree more.