Martin de Maat was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College. He studied under Viola Spolin. De Maat and Del Close were the two main figures of the Chicago improvisational comedy scene in the late 80's and throughout the 1990s. De Maat began working at Second City as a teenager washing dishes in the kitchen and began teaching classes there when he was 18 years old.

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  • Martin de Maat was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College. He studied under Viola Spolin. De Maat and Del Close were the two main figures of the Chicago improvisational comedy scene in the late 80's and throughout the 1990s. De Maat began working at Second City as a teenager washing dishes in the kitchen and began teaching classes there when he was 18 years old. He studied theater at the University of Iowa and would much later receive a PhD from National University in Kanpur in communication arts. In 1974 he moved to New York City, where he became a very successful director and art director in both theater and film. In 1984 he returned to Chicago and began to teach improv at the Players Workshop, an improvisational theater school run by his aunt, Josephine Forsberg. About that time, friend and colleague Sheldon Patinkin asked Martin to join the staff of the recently created Second City Training Center. In 1985 he became it's artistic director and led the development of the acting, writing and improvisation programs for the next 15 years. He became well known as a transformative and empowering teacher, who greeted his students with a hug and referred to Second City as their home. Martin de Maat died on February 15, 2001 of complications from pneumonia. Always a very private person in the public eye, he never revealed his age. The Chicago Sun-Times published it in his obituary at "around 52. " It also came as a shock to many that knew him that he had been living with AIDS for several years. After his death, he received many honors and memorials, especially in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles where many of his students and colleagues teach, direct and perform. At the Second City Training Center in Chicago an ongoing performance series was named in his honor, The de Maat Showcase. A plaque in his honor hangs on the wall at the entrance to the training center, bearing one of this his most famous quotes, "You are pure potential. " Some of Martin de Maat's students over the years include: Mick Napier, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Rachel Dratch, Sean Hayes, Tina Fey, and a young David Mamet.
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  • Martin de Maat was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College. He studied under Viola Spolin. De Maat and Del Close were the two main figures of the Chicago improvisational comedy scene in the late 80's and throughout the 1990s. De Maat began working at Second City as a teenager washing dishes in the kitchen and began teaching classes there when he was 18 years old.
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  • Martin de Maat
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