Tag: Eliza Skinner

A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2019

It’s that time of year again! Time to scour through pages and pages of SF Sketchfest listings, trying to decide what shows to buy tickets for, and never actually going to anything because it’s all too intimidating. Well, fear not! Instead of thinking for yourself, just go to everything I tell you to. Because I have fantastic taste, and you’ll love all of these.  

Don’t trust me? Well, you can always go straight here to pick out shows and buy tickets.

Thursday, January 10th Continue reading “A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2019”

Outside Lands 2018: 27 Instant Gig Reviews

Ate a lot of food. Got a lot of steps. But it was mostly Janet Jackson.

All photos by Dakin Hardwick unless otherwise noted

Outside Lands reached its 11th birthday this year. I’ve been to ten of those eleven installments. This year, the folks booking the festival decided it was time to take some risks… They added an extra stage for acoustic sets and magic, called “Cocktail Magic.” They added a whole pot awareness area (not that folks at a music festival need to be *more* aware of weed). Continue reading “Outside Lands 2018: 27 Instant Gig Reviews”

Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 2

Rae Livingston and David Owen both help book the Barbary at Outside Lands, and have for several years now. This, is course, means they have a lot to talk about. So we split the interview in two, because we here at Spinning Platters understand that your time is precious. In this one, we talk about the bookings that they are most excited about this year, as well as some favorite memories of passed years.

If you missed part one, it’s right here! And if you still haven’t purchased tickets yet, what are you waiting for? You can find those right here!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 2”

Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 1

Outside Lands generally does quite well with the music lineup. However, I have always thought that the real gold at the festival has been the bookings for the Barbary. This year, we finally found time in their busy schedule to talk to some of the people behind those amazing bookings: Rae Livingston of Another Planet and David Owen of SF Sketchfest. We got to spend a little time with them to discuss the history of the stage, the booking process and their careers, and for a bit, we just got to nerd out about comedy.

Limited 3 Day and single day tickets to Outside Lands are still available! You can also check the full Barbary schedule!

SPINNING PLATTERS: So you’ve got Another Planet and SF Sketchfest, both doing that booking. How does that collaboration work? Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 1”

SF Sketchfest Review: Turnt Up with Eliza Skinner at The Eureka Theater, 1/27/17

Freestyle rap and improv comedy have plenty in common. First, both have some very strict rules: you aren’t supposed to come in with any pre-written material, and you have to adhere to a commonly expected rhythm that is consistent with the rules of your craft. So it seems almost obvious that improv comics would want to at least try their hand at freestyle rap. And, who knows? Maybe they might actually be good at it. Comedian Eliza Skinner decided it was worthwhile to find out, so she put together a show that challenges comics to attempt to freestyle rap. And she brought that show to SF for the first time as part of this year’s Sketchfest, just to show us that it kind of works a bit.
Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Turnt Up with Eliza Skinner at The Eureka Theater, 1/27/17”

Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic with Nato Green and Moshe Kasher at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 2/8/15

Iron_Comic_289x300

The last night of SF Sketchfest is so bittersweet. This year I attended 9 shows in three weeks and they were all great, but a girl with a day job can get quite tired. But I powered through, hurrying from one event to another to end my Sketchfest experience with an excellent stand up show thanks to Iron Comic. This is my third time watching this show, and this year was the most enticing with some of my favorite comedians competing:  Eddie Pepitone, Todd Barry, Emily Heller, Rory Scovel and Chris Garcia. It was going to be quite a competition. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic with Nato Green and Moshe Kasher at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 2/8/15”

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”