Comedy – Page 16 – Spinning Platters

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

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 Reviews: Thrilling Adventure Hour with the Workjuice Players and very special guests on 1/25/2014

One of my favorite events annually. — I look forward to this show every year.

Every year, Thrilling Adventure Hour is one of the events I most look forward to at SF Sketchfest. While this year was no exception, I did hit a most unfortunate snag that nearly ruined the event for me: Bay Area traffic. The early performance of the show started promptly at 7:00pm Saturday night at Marines’ Memorial Theatre, and usually it runs for about ninety minutes. Sadly, while I left with plenty of time to spare, an accident on I-80 backed up traffic from Berkeley all the way across the Bay Bridge, so by the time I parked, schlepped to the theatre, got my ticket and found my seat, I was a whopping forty-five minutes late. The first note I made: “I missed half!” Even worse, I was wrong. This year, for whatever reason, the show was shorter than normal. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Reviews: Thrilling Adventure Hour with the Workjuice Players and very special guests on 1/25/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Shitty Jobs on 1/25/2014

Well, four of these guys were there. I guess you only get the others in LA.

Shitty Jobs is a regular UCB show in LA with Sean Clements, Dominic Dierkes, DC Pierson and Charlie Sanders. It is another great example of the stuff people get in LA all the time, and we are thankful to get to watch during SF Sketchfest. This is an improv show where they interview the audience about their shittiest job then do an extended improv sketch about a particularly insane day at said job. This opens the show up for many brilliant possibilities and many awkwardly wonderful conversations with the audience. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Shitty Jobs on 1/25/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: The Watkins Family Hour on 1/26/14

I think, officially, we can all say that SF Sketchfest is more than just a comedy festival. It’s evolved into, more or less, a place where people that create can present their wares with as much or little levity as they so desire. The Watkins Family Hour performance was hardly a straight ahead comedy show. In fact, it was hardly even a straight variety show. Heck, it even lasted 90 minutes, so calling it an hour is, well, a bold faced lie! It was, however, pure entertainment from a crew of some of the most talented people on earth.

Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: The Watkins Family Hour on 1/26/14”

SF Sketchfest Review: Comedy Film Nerds Podcast on 1/25/2014

comedy film nerds

While preparing to go to the live Comedy Films Nerds show at Punchline today I came to the strange realization that I’ve been listening to the podcast for three years. Almost every episode. So you can say that I feel like I know the podcast hosts Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini and I was a bit apprehensive about how it would feel watching instead of listening to the action. Podcasts feel so personal, making you feel like the comedians are talking straight to you. But could it still feel like that in a theater full of people? I was about to find out. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Comedy Film Nerds Podcast on 1/25/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Nellie McKay with Tom Brosseau at The Verdi Club on 1/25/2014

Nellie McKay at The Rrazz Room, February 2012. The drummer and bassist did not come with her this time.

It’s been 4 long years since the last time Nellie McKay has released an album of original material. The last few times she’s come to California, she’s performed “I Want To Live,” a retelling of the story of Barbara Graham, the third woman every executed on death row through modern pop songs. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten to enjoy a set of Nellie McKay songs done by Nellie McKay. I was both surprised and delighted to see her on the Sketchfest line up doing an “all music” set. So excited that it was the first show I bought when Sketchfest tickets went on sale, and I’ve been waiting for this day for six weeks. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Nellie McKay with Tom Brosseau at The Verdi Club on 1/25/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic with Nato Green and Moshe Kasher on 1/24/2014

Iron-Comic-289x300

This was my second time watching Iron Comic with Nato Green at Sketchfest, and I was surprised at how different this time was. Some of it made it better (more well-known comedians) and some was worse (lukewarm audience). Overall though this is a fun show that I seem to leave thinking, “I need to go to this more often” then not doing that. But maybe I’ll go again this year. The concept is pretty simple. The audience suggests topics for the comics to write three minutes worth of stand-up material on. They get about 10 minutes to work out the material while someone else does some of their more scripted work with the audience. At the end the top two have a face off and one comic is crowned the Iron Comic, which really just means they get bragging rights and a big round of applause. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic with Nato Green and Moshe Kasher on 1/24/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: “Napoleon Dynamite” 10th Anniversary with Jon Heder on 1/23/2014

I wonder if Deb took this portrait... — I wonder if Deb took this portrait of Napoleon…

Ahhhh, Sketchfest. Because it’s how I first was introduced to Spinning Platters (albeit in a roundabout sort of way), it’s always a bit nostalgic for me. More importantly, I’m always impressed at the amazing mass of talented, funny people that flock to San Francisco to help us laugh our way through what semblance of winter we’re graced with each year. 2014 is no exception, and as Sketchfest enters its teen years, we celebrate milestone anniversaries of several funny films. On opening night (last Thursday), our first chance: Napoleon Dynamite turned ten, and a celebratory screening at the Castro Theatre packed the house with quirky-comedy-lovers. (Though I suspect the promise of an appearance by Napoleon himself, Jon Heder, didn’t hurt.) Though originally cast members Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) were promised to appear, circumstances beyond the control of the Sketchfest powers-that-be arose, leaving Mr. Heder to fly solo. Thankfully, though, he is more than capable of cracking up a crowded theatre… Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: “Napoleon Dynamite” 10th Anniversary with Jon Heder on 1/23/2014″

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

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 Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/23/14-1/29/14

Wake up and go to shows this week! So many shows... — Wake up and go to shows this week! So many shows…

The thirteenth annual SF Sketchfest is upon us, littering San Francisco with night after night of too many good things at once.

To help with these sorts of problems, please consult “A Nerd’s Guide To Sketchfest 2014.” Yes, Dakin’s full-on once-over of this year’s fest is just the right guide to help you make those wrenching nerd decisions about which one-of-a-kind Sketchfest show to choose from on each jam-packed night. Too much good stuff is a good/ANNOYING problem to have. You are fortunate. We are fortunate.

This week! We have Canadiens! Sleepwalkers! Metal! Tim! Punk rock benefit shows! And science! O you lucky person, you — to have all of these awesome things to choose from.

Here’s what’s coming up this week.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/23/14-1/29/14”