by Ameen Belbahri
Bob Odenkirk: a cult legend credited with championing and evolving a subversive, acclaimed comedy sentiment. Birthday Boys: a hyped collection of vastly witty, silly sods. Together they formed a rousing precession of jubilant, sophisticated sketches, closing Sketchfest with a bang — bang, scream, yell, “He’s got a gun!”, “My baby!”. You know, comedy. [read the whole post]
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In the fast-paced, cutthroat, Wild West of Bay Area sketch, few are in league with enterprising comedy tycoon, Killing My Lobster. Barons and Baronesses of the Neo Internetdustrial Revolution, the troupe has made appealing regional satire a booming forte. Powered by live action and recorded skits, and coupled to A.J. Schroder Esq. and the duchess, Jill Bourque, the KML Express set across the Eureka prairie. [read the whole post]
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SF Sketchfest has a brilliant ability to capture the Bay Area’s attention and imagination. Benefactors of this allotted spotlight are local artists, made bolder and louder by proper production value. In the case of Scott Vermeire, Harmon Leon and Colin Mahan, the added bells and whistles enhanced their rustic independence, demystifying each artist’s vision. [read the whole post]
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by Tommy Lau
Fact: The Eureka Theater hosts some of the best comedy in the in the world. Fact: The Groundlings are a legendary Los Angeles improv company with alumni including Will Ferrell, Kristen Wigg and more. Fact: “The Black Version” is not a racially specific interpretation of Beverly Winwood Presents: The Actor’s Showcase. Fact: San Francisco’s black population was 6.1% in 2010. Fact: The black population of The Black Version’s cast was 100%. Fact: Comedy is proven to be simultaneously colorful and colorblind. [read the whole post]
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"Mrs. Fern Magnin" by Jakub Mosur
Dripping late from a brisk sprint through San Francisco’s saturated cloudiness, I stepped into an alternate reality. Everything looked copasetic: the expansive and brimming Eureka Theater with Phil LaMarr and Jordan Black beginning a scene. Not quite, the truth: the expansive and brimming Eureka Theater with Lewis J. Poole and Danger beginning a scene.
Polle and Danger are two African American actors separated by age but bonded by prior convictions and thespian rehabilitation. They were bad, objectively horrible, nightmarishly stiff and unflinchingly unaware. It was brilliant. [read the whole post]
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Cole Stratton, Janet Varney, David Owen. Not Pictured: Burritos (Photo By: Jakub Moser)
In 2002, three Bay Area comics organized a festival featuring some of their favorite local sketch groups. They dubbed it Sketchfest, and it was a success. The next year, comedy legend Fred Willard joined the event, and every year subsequent year, the event became bigger and bigger. This year’s festival has grown to 2 1/2 weeks long, and features the biggest line up yet, featuring the likes of Eddie Izzard, Amy Poehler, Wil Wheaton, Barry Bostwick, and scores of other people so famous that even your grandparents know who they are. (You may need to ask your grandparents who Barry Bostwick is)
SpinningPlatters had the opportunity to chat with founders David Owen, Janet Varney, and Cole Stratton about the evolution of the festival, the struggles of putting it on every year, where to grab a burrito, and a whole ton of hypothetical situations that were good fun to ask. Be sure to go to SFSketchfest.com to check out the line-up and purchase tickets.
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