Shortly after dropping out of Temple University, Adam McKay drove to Chicago to study improvisational comedy. There, he co-founded the scrappy improv troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, which became known for producing some of Chicago’s edgiest theater. (One skit involved McKay advertising his own suicide.) It was a deliciously preposterous, taboo-busting brand of art that revelled in the absurdity of everyday life and exposed the often paper-thin veil between comedy and tragedy.
McKay went on to write for Saturday Night Live...