SF Sketchfest Review: Kirsten Vangsness: MESS w/The Right Now and Kevin Yee at PianoFight, 1/15/2017

The lovely Kirsten Vangsness is a MESS.

It’s that time of year again: SF Sketchfest 2017 is in town, and as always, brings with it the promise of some great talent and good times. It also marks yet another anniversary for me with Spinning Platters (my 6th), which also always makes me smile. Anyway, this year is no exception in terms of the fun shows I went to, the first being this past weekend, at PianoFight. Kirsten Vangsness may be best known to many of us as her character Penelope Garcia on CBS’ Criminal Minds (or, as Shemar Moore’s character Derek Morgan called her, simply “Baby Girl”). But even if this is the only thing you know her from, my guess is that you, like me, adore her for the quirky, sweet lady she plays on the show. Her original one-woman show MESS intrigued me: I learned that she wrote it based on ideas from a TED Talk (which, admittedly, I haven’t had time yet to watch). I wondered if she would be anything like Garcia, or something else entirely. I admit, I had no idea what to expect, but I couldn’t wait to find out.
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SF Sketchfest Review: Upright Citizens’ Brigade: A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. at The Curran, 1/21/17

Saturday, January 21st, 2017 was a historic day. It marked the most significant single day of protest the US has ever experienced. Nearly one out of every hundred Americans went to the streets to protest the agenda of the incoming administration. It was an amazing and profound experience, and I was proud to  participate in it. With it, another, smaller record was broken: on this fateful day, 1,667 people experienced what will be known as the largest improv show in history. (Please don’t fact check this. It’s a joke. Don’t be that person.) Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Upright Citizens’ Brigade: A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. at The Curran, 1/21/17”

Spinning Platters Interview: Anne Norland & Scott Hayes, Silence! The Musical

Silence! The Musical opens at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco on Friday, February 3rd — tickets here. The “unauthorized parody of Silence of the Lambs” is a show you are not to miss. In eager anticipation for the show, I got the opportunity to ask the two leads, Anne Norland (who plays Clarice Starling) and Scott Hayes (who plays Hannibal Lecter), some questions…

Before landing your roles, had you seen “Silence of the Lambs” and what were your thoughts on the film?

Anne: I am such a scaredy-cat when it comes to scary films or images. I was familiar with Jodie Foster’s accent and style in the movie, but I actually only really sat down and watched the movie start to finish in preparation for my callback for Silence! It scared the shit out of me. Psychological dramas are the scariest for me. It’s not gore-y or sneak-out-of-the-closet-and-spook-you like a slasher movie, but it’s freaky because that Giallo style gets under your skin (…no pun intended?). Any minute, someone might try to shove me in a well or bite into my face.

Scott: I actually saw the film the night after it opened back in 1991. Not only do I recall it being terrifying, but also remember the audience as a whole responding with gasps and screams. It was a genuine collective experience in the best way.

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SF Sketchfest Review: Hound Tall Podcast with Moshe Kasher at Swedish American Hall, 1/21/17

Moshe Kasher’s podcast Hound Tall takes several comedians and one expert on a subject and makes either a glorious or terrible mess of things. When the podcast is great, it is so great. And when it misses, it really misses. Last year I watched the electronic music episode and it was so much more than I thought it would be. This year the topic was “Planning a Non-Violent Revolution in the Age of Trump”. The topic was exactly what I needed, and maybe what everyone needs after spending a day being inspired by the Women’s Marches around the country. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Hound Tall Podcast with Moshe Kasher at Swedish American Hall, 1/21/17”

SF Sketchfest Interview: Adrian Villegas from Latino Comedy Project

The Latino Comedy Project is a sketch troupe out of Austin, Texas. They do a healthy mix of political and cultural sketch, and are bringing their live show, “Gentrifucked,” to SF Sketchfest this year for four shows this Friday and Saturday night. Tickets are available here, although you might want to act fast, as some performances are already sold out.

We had a chance to talk to one of the troupe’s founders, Adrian Villegas, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration. We were both a bit feeling a bit raw that day, as you are about to see after the jump!

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SF Sketchfest Review: Laraine Newman: The Audition at PianoFight, 1/21/17

Photo by Heather Wilson

In the world of comedy, Laraine Newman is an industry legend. She’s been consistently working for over 40 years, starting as a member of the legendary first cast of Saturday Night Live, and branching out into dozens of roles in television, film and voice acting. She has an amazing amount of stories, and when I heard she was going to be doing a one-woman show as part of Sketchfest this year, I jumped at the chance to experience her live.

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Film Review: Split

Shyamalan works really hard to avoid his own traps, and manages to deliver an entertaining thriller.

Creepy personality #1

I really wish M. Night Shyamalan would share a writing credit for once. His screenplays are constantly in need of supervision and a seasoned story writer to cut the fat. The stunted dialogue, contrivances, and lecture hall exposition can sometimes take precedent over plot progression. The same is nearly the case in Split, Shyamalan’s newest film and the most promising return to his mid-late 90s form after many disappointing tries. Split is a tense thriller and features a tour de force from James McAvoy. The film still succumbs to a few stereotypical pitfalls of the thriller genre, but the final product is still an entertaining, and at times chilling, experience featuring shades of Hitchcockian tactics.

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Final Goodbyes of 2016: Notes on Who We Will Miss

2016 will go down in history as the year in which all of our heroes died. Most everything that happened felt like a cold darkness, and the world feels like a worse place. Here are a few thoughts from our writers about a few of our favorites who passed away this last year…

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SF Sketchfest Review: Crabapples with Bobcat Goldthwait and Caitlin Gill at Brava Theater, 1/13/2017

Our Crabapples: Bobcat Goldthwait and Caitlin Gill

It was a happy Friday the 13th to start this year’s epic SF Sketchfest Journey. Full of delicious burrito and needing some relief from a long day at work I was excited to get the funny started. On top of that all proceeds for this show are being donated to Planned Parenthood so it felt good to be in the company of people trying to help this messed up world. Bring on the Crabapples! Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Crabapples with Bobcat Goldthwait and Caitlin Gill at Brava Theater, 1/13/2017”

Film Review: Patriots Day

Flawed but well executed, third Berg/Wahlberg collaboration is worth seeing

Boston police officer Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg, center) assists FBI Special Agent Rick DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon, l.) and Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman, r.) with their investigation.

The third time may be the charm for director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, who collaborated on two previous films (Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor) with middling results. Patriots Day, their new film, is definitely the best of the trio, although it’s not without its problems. Another film based on a true story, Patriots Day recounts the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and the investigation and manhunt that immediately followed. Working from a script based on the 2015 book Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy, Berg and a quartet of screenwriters manage to bring the recent and familiar story alive without glorifying or exploiting the tragedy or the bombers, who are secondary characters here, serving only the plot.
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