Author: OJ Patterson

OJ Patterson is a Bay Area Native, who grew up on a diet of scathing satire and absurd surrealism. He is a comedy writer, performer and promoter. He has the best laugh in the room and loves you very much. Serving Size = 1.

Spinning Platters Interview: Jeff Zamaria of Doc’s Lab (aka SF’s Newest Happening)

Jeff Zamaria
Photo by Caity Quinn

 

Jeff Zamaria seems chipper in the face of increasing pressure. My computer is glitching from a hastily assembled Facebook video chat, but I’m sure he’s friendly as ever (if not a bit distracted). As crazy as it seems, and under the most creative-license laymen’s terms possible, Zamaria is the new “Mr. Comedy” of San Francisco—there’s always a new one—and it’s kicking his ass. His free time has evaporated and he’s answering “every e-mail”. Previously working on a food truck, and even more previously working at Punch Line San Francisco, has led him to organizing comedy at Doc’s Lab, an entertainment venue below restaurant Doc Rickett’s, which open last week. Its calendar is chocked with comedy nerd credibility: national headliners, stacked weekly showcases, chummy open mics, all costing less than $20 and having no two-drink minimum (i.e. an incredible deal). And yes, it used to be the legendary Purple Onion. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Jeff Zamaria of Doc’s Lab (aka SF’s Newest Happening)”

Spinning Platters Interview: Aparna Nancherla & Eliza Skinner

Good comedy is hard to find. I mean, it’s easy to find , but with thousands of voices permeating the ether, it’s hard to see the stars within the galaxies. How does anybody, especially comedy nerds, expect to stay up to date when there’s so many choices and unanswered questions: Do I want to have a good time? Do I want to be challenged? Who will champion the comedy I want to hear, excuse me, need to hear? Well, Aparna Nancherla and Eliza Skinner, of course.

One is acerbically imaginative, the other keenly effervescent, both are delightfully different with incredible style and substance. The duo worked on the gone-too-soon “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell” (aka the “OMG, Kamau has a show! OMG, they canceled it! Whyyyyyyyy!?” Show), together they’ve toured with the regal Janine Brito, and both are performing THIS SATURDAY—two shows—at our favorite indie comedy haunt, Lost Weekend Video (aka the Cynic Cave). It’s a highly-recommended happening of extremely special circumstance!

In this exclusive interview we discuss Disney, earthquake preparedness, and their biggest fear for the weekend. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Aparna Nancherla & Eliza Skinner”

Spinning Platters Monthly Guide to Bay Area Comedy – April 2014

the-knockout-4-5

I’m really bad at this. REEEEALLY bad. “Would you like to cover comedy on the site,” asked Dakin. “Sure!” says I. Two months after SF Sketchfest, a big pile of nothing! Apologies for underserving and under-performing. I aim to rectify the dearth with a slew of silly pictures and impassioned descriptions. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Monthly Guide to Bay Area Comedy – April 2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Picture This! on 2/8/2014

Mike Lawrence by Sam Varela
Mike Lawrence by Sam Varela

Picture This!, the amicable marriage of sight, sound and more sight just made it’s San Francisco debut hours ago at the Dark Room Theater. Concocted in Los Angeles by comedian Brandie Posey and animator Sam Varela, the show paired stand-up comedians with illustrators, each performing their due diligence to visualize this crazy thing called funny. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Picture This! on 2/8/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: The Slipnutz Variety Show on 2/1/2014

Ironically, it's hard to get a quality picture of the World Famous Slipnutz
Ironically, it’s hard to get a quality picture of the World Famous Slipnutz

It took a lifetime of fandom, four years of journalism and three previous 2014 articles to see a show that could only be described as “preposterous.” After consuming every brand of insanity, irony, and imagination, never have I seen such incommunicable ridiculousness. The Slipnutz Variety Show, presented by Andy Blitz, Jon Glaser and Brian Stack, three Conan-vetted writers/performers, was the quintessential Sketchfest experience: hilarious, subversive and unpredictable (above a fine, peanuty powder). Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: The Slipnutz Variety Show on 2/1/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: BriTANick on 1/29/2014

BRITANICK

The coincidently nautical showcase of BOAT and BriTANick (rhymes with Titanic) capsized before the show even started. Eureka Theater’s projector mutinied, died at a time most inopportune. It left behind a lobby drowned with humanity—a sold out show. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: BriTANick on 1/29/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Don’t Watch This Show Live! and Femikaze on 1/27/2014

dwts-live

Who will speak for sketch? When it’s all over, when the theaters are empty, when the stand-ups scatter, the celebrities fly away and the improvisers jam out, who will speak for the hardest discipline to sustain in San Francisco? It was important to find a line-up of pure, uncut, Mario-Savio-meets-Frank-Chu Bay Area Grease, and, with a gun to my head, I chose Don’t Watch This Show LIVE! and Femikaze at the Eureka Theater. Both are two sterling paragons of regional ethos, although diametrically opposite: social ills vs. social thrills; subverting media vs. subverting medium; pounding pop culture vs. pounding Pop’s culture. One hits the nail on the head; the other hits it in the balls. How many analogies must I make to convey that these groups are as different as night and day? Wait, damn it! Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Don’t Watch This Show Live! and Femikaze on 1/27/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Smug Shift on 1/24/2014

Photo by Mindy Tucker
Photo by Mindy Tucker

Another year, another Sketchfest, another installment of Smug Shift. It seems just yesterday I was ream-deep into my first SF Sketchfest, jotting notes with a juvenile sincerity dormant since the beginning of middle school (where it all went wrong). Over the overworked, overwrought ordeal, only one show reached personal perfection: Smug Shift, a concoction of former Bay Area-based boons Moshe Kasher and Brent Weinbach. Last night at the Verdi Club, the show stretched its wings and lifted its head skyward with rekindled opulence: a weird, phallic phoenix. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Smug Shift on 1/24/2014”

Spinning Platters Interview: OJ Patterson on OJ Patterson

OJ Patterson by Sadie Padial

SF Sketchfest will soon breach our atmosphere: bending sky, burning oxygen and causing birds to scramble for safety. In one week it will land in the San Francisco Bay. A torrential wave will surge through the Financial District, down Mission St, and swallow Twin Peaks in salt water. At least, that’s how it’s going to feel when the biggest celebration of comedy’s many forms comes to town.

There’s always commensal collateral to the lights and glitz, big crowds and big parties. The air feels different, the gravity heavier, especially for a few locals rocking the coveted “Artist” lanyard. Some are turning their hard work, talent, or streetwise into a high profile credit. Some are the new flavor, showcased as the emergent outliers. Some are “over it”, half distracted by growth, having fun before moving on. Some are returning with the Bay in their heart and another city on their mailing address. Some are debuting, honored and humbled, finally on the inside looking… around. Like me. After years of reporting, volunteering, (pining), I’m performing for my first SF Sketchfest @ Lost Weekend Video on 1/31. Spinning Platters’ top brass (a/k/a Dakin) requested an interview… from me, about me. Double the work, way less validation but I shall oblige on weirdness alone. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: OJ Patterson on OJ Patterson”