Life, love and hooking up with The Second City comedy.

Second City comedy bares no resemblance to George Carlin, Chris Rock or David Cross, because it’s not solo stand-up. It’s sketch comedy—a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes (“sketches”), often improvised and performed by an ensemble.

The legendary theater returns to Sunset Center with Hooking Up with The Second City, an all-new revue about love. Taking a close look at the crazy things we all do for love, the show makes ribald, risqué mirth out of girls’ night out adventures, missed connections and romance.

“It is the perfect date show,” cast member Martin Morrow said in a recent interview with What’s Up! magazine. “We talk about relationships, use couples in the show and improvise off how they met.”

Morrow is joined by fellow comics Ali Barthwell, Kelsey Kinney, Charles Pettitt, Jasbir Singh and Casey Whitaker in the cast.

“We tackle it all, from dating to family and work relationships; we even have a scene about a firefighter orgy,” Morrow said. “The show is all over the place in the name of love.”

Culled from the groundbreaking work of Viola Spolin, and founded by Spolin’s son, Paul Sills, (along with Howard Alk and Bernie Sahlins), The Second City opened its doors in Chicago in 1959. No one could have imagined the small cabaret theater would go on to become the most influential comedy theater in the world. With its roots in Spolin’s improvisational training regimen – called theater games – Second City was unconventional in its approach and created a unique way of making and performing comedy, at a time when mother-in-law jokes were more the fashion.

Spolin’s focus does not stress an intellectual approach. Theater games are exercises that militate against the artifice of self-conscious acting. “The games emerged out of necessity,” Spolin said in a 1974 Los Angeles Times interview. “When I had a problem while directing, I made up a game.” The results seem more meaningful than clever writing and pre-determined comedic scenes.

Spolin’s methods are responsible for The Second City spawning so many comedy superstars. Even a short list of the company’s alumni reads like a who’s who: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray. They all called Second City home at one time or another, and together they have cemented the theater’s reputation for developing the finest comedic voices.

HOOKING UP WITH THE SECOND CITY. 8pm Wednesday, Feb. 24, Sunset Center, San Carlos at Ninth Avenue, Carmel. $29, $39, $49. 620.2048, www.sunsetcenter.org