Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Spinning Platters loves Sketchfest. San Franciscans are generally really lucky, but for two and a half weeks every year, our lives get even brighter and more chaotic, because the best live comedy programming one could imagine is here, in the greatest place on Earth. Of course, it can be awfully intimidating. Hence this guide, to help you sort out everything that you should go to. For a complete schedule and tickets, please click here!
Scott Aukerman first came onto the national radar as a writer and occasional performer on Mr Show. In the year’s since Mr Show’s cancellation, he’s probably most famous for his Comedy Death Ray show, which later evolved into the excellent podcast Comedy Bang Bang. He also has created his own network of podcasts under the banner Earwolf.com. Recently, IFC has opted to pick up Comedy Bang Bang as a TV show. He is also bringing Comedy Bang Bang on the road, and he will be doing the show with guests Paul F Thomkins, James Adomian, and opener Kurt Braunohler at The Herbst Theater in San Francisco on August 3rd. Tickets are available here!
SpinningPlatters had the opportunity to ask Mr Aukerman a few questions about his career, his future, and learning that he might not remember every minute bit of every sketch he’s ever written. Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with Scott Aukerman”
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. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: 7-Man Sweater (2/5/2012)”
San Francisco has a cloudy yet storied history of nurturing eclectic, eccentric geniuses. The tradition spans from Irwin Corey to Ron Lynch to Brent Weinbach and every sideways side-splitter in between. Many are unsung, underexposed and uncompromised: the inspiration for peers with wider appeal and fans with sharp hearts and heads. Festivals, artistic hodepodge, are optimal for such comedians, an extended focus for latest convolutions and tinkerings in front of fertile or familiar audiences. Will Franken and Drennon Davis, two locally brewed humorists of the aforementioned ilk, evoked the spirit of a sentient armchair: alarmingly absurd, wonderfully witty, warm and comfortable. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Will Franken/Drennon Davis (2/4/2012)”
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. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Killing My Lobster (2/1/2012)”
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. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Mahan/Leon/Vermeire @ Eureka (1/25/2012)”
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. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: The Groundlings “The Black Version” (1/22/2012)”
Reviewing w00stock is a silly concept. I’ve done it once before. Because the event is performed under the Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution, share alike license (as is this website), the entirety of the thing is online in video form for your viewing pleasure. But which videos are the best? That’s the hard part. So rather than a standard review, I’ll instead give you a guided tour to The Best of w00stock Founders’ Night, as found on the Internet. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: w00tstock Founders’ Night at Marines Memorial Theater, 1/29/12”
Will Durst doesn’t shy away from political humor, and with 2012 bringing us one of the most entertaining lineups in Republican presidential primary history, it didn’t matter which one was chocolate and which one was peanut butter. Johnny Steele and four other comics made sure that both got all over each other.
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. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Beverly Winwood’s “The Actors Showcase” 1/22/2012″