Category: SF Sketchfest

Sketchfest Review: Risk! with Kevin Allison at The Purple Onion, 1/28/11

Onion with a side of Phirm

One of my favorite pastimes is looking up whatever happened to some of my favorite 90’s icons. I mean, almost everyone knows what happened to some of the lesser known folks in 90’s TV programs. Like Six from Blossom is apparently a struggling country singer, and Rayanne from My So Called Life is married to a lord.  But, my absolute favorite show from the 90’s was The State. It was simply the only TV program of it’s time that I felt emulated my brain functions. With the program now streaming on Netflix, I was reminded of two of my favorite sketches: the mailman that only delivered tacos and the Jew, the Italian, and the Red-Headed Gay. Hence me feeling the need to learn about Kevin Allison, one of the “forgotten” members of The State. Much to my surprise, he has a genius podcast called Risk!, where famous people talk about embarrassing situations they’ve been in. And it’s pretty awesome to say the least. Even better was getting to see it done live at the legendary Purple Onion as part of Sketchfest this year!

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Sketchfest Review: The Thrilling Adventure Hour at Marine’s Memorial Theater, 1/22/11

The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a monthly live performance podcast done at Largo in Los Angeles written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker.  For SF Sketchfest we were treated to two performances featuring many great actors of varying degrees of famous-ness.  The 10:30 show featuring Neil Patrick Harris sold out, as everything he has done at Sketchfest has, so my ticket was for the early NPH-less show.  But the show didn’t need Neil Patrick Harris to be great.  It was an hour of fun witty writing and excellent acting, so good in fact I came home and subscribed to the podcast. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: The Thrilling Adventure Hour at Marine’s Memorial Theater, 1/22/11”

Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic hosted by Nato Green at The Punch Line, 1/20/11

Per Brendan Lynch, this is a white person's problem.

To be honest, when I arrived at the Punch Line on Thursday night I still had no idea what to expect.  All I knew was that one of my favorite comedians, Matt Braunger, was performing and that he would be funny.  Since it is a SF Sketchfest show, I knew I wouldn’t be watching a standard stand-up performance.  What I got was an evening full of pleasant surprises, where women dominated, the guy with all the sex jokes bombed, and I laughed so hard I cried. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic hosted by Nato Green at The Punch Line, 1/20/11”

Sketchfest Review: Maximum Volume! with Greg Behrendt and Matt Nathanson at Cobb’s, 1/21/2011

Not top billed, but definitely the star of the show.

At Cobb’s on Friday night was a show called Maximum Volume!, a definite misnomer. For while the volume was never turned up — the electric guitar and amplifier sat on the stage like a tease — the one thing turned to the maximum was the length of the show. This was definitely the longest comedy show I’ve ever been to, and in comedy, like a lot of things, longer isn’t necessarily better. Lots of people, myself included, surely came expecting something similar to last year’s Bring the Rock! show, and got something completely different. So how did it all go? Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Maximum Volume! with Greg Behrendt and Matt Nathanson at Cobb’s, 1/21/2011”

“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” 25th Anniversary Tribute at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, 20 January 2011

This is the caption to the photo for the review of the tribute to It's Garry Shandling's Show

It’s the Garry Shandling’s Show 25th Anniversary Tribute review. This is the part where the review talks about what happened at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. And here’s the part where I start typing. Continue reading ““It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” 25th Anniversary Tribute at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, 20 January 2011″

Sketchfest Review: The Dave Hill Explosion at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/16/11

Moby, the famous pacifist, finally breaks and attacks Dave Hill

The attendance at this show was a little light. It might be because the show happened on a Sunday night. It might also be that few people in the west coast are aware of the genius of Dave Hill. Maybe people were just thrown off by the notion of Moby being involved in comedy. No matter how you slice or dice it, for the 2nd year straight, people really missed out on one of the best shows in Sketchfest.

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Sketchfest Review: Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Hour at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/15/11

AC Newman. In hiding.

Delocated is a show on Adult Swim about a family in the witness protection program that is moved to New York to appear on a reality show where they have their faces covered the entire time. Simple premise, but a difficult one to transfer to the stage. Also, the Sketchfest version of the show, which has been dubbed Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Hour we are missing, well, most of the cast. So, the real question is, what happened on that stage?

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A Music Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2011

This is a picture of Chris Hardwick. He's not related to me, but he will be in San Francisco for Sketchfest. I will be hitting him up for birthday money, anyways. Hopefully I can fool him.

To the uninitiated, San Francisco’s Sketchfest is probably the most overwhelming 2 1/2 weeks out of the entire year, in terms of live entertainment booking. Its closest cousin is probably Austin’s SXSW festival, where you have a wide array of up-and-coming talent mixed with veterans, all playing some very intimate spots.

As a person that considers himself to be an expert of sorts on taste, I am going to sift through this year’s line-up, and let you know what you should be going to at this year’s Sketchfest. I will guide you through which Emmy winners or CSI corpses (both of which are well represented by this event), in my humble opinion, is most worthy of your hard earned dollar.

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Show Review: Greg Behrendt’s “Bring The Rock”

Pre Mohawk Photo

Spinning Platters is, according to the banner, is a “Community Of Bay Area Music Nerds.” So when I learned of this show at Cobb’s, I got very excited. The premise is comedians telling stories about music, and singing a song relevant to the story with a live band. Of course, this event causes my music nerd soul to glow.
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SF Sketchfest Review: Red Wine Boys w/ Mates Of State, John Hodgman, Larry Murphy, Brendon Small, Eugene Mirman at The Mezzanine, 1/31/10

This is our last report from the 2010 edition of San Francisco’s Sketchfest festival, and this one might be the most impressive show of the festival. I showed up before the doors opened, only to find the longest line that I have ever seen at Mezzanine before a show. I made my way to the front, only to glimpse that Dave Eggers was on the guest list.

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