Tag: improv

SF Sketchfest Review: UCB East (Highwater) vs. UCB West (Leroy): The Harold Competition at PianoFight, 1/24/2020

I’ve studied improv throughout the last 15 years, but nothing has been more simultaneously challenging and rewarding than studying the Harold, a longform improv style that became popular back in Chicago, thanks to legendary improvisation teachers Del Close and Charna Halpern. This particular style of improv is taught at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Training Centers in New York and Los Angeles, where house Harold teams perform weekly to packed houses. It is a genuine treat to see UCB’s Harold Night, and I was delighted to catch two teams from New York and Los Angeles come together to compete for SF Sketchfest.

Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: UCB East (Highwater) vs. UCB West (Leroy): The Harold Competition at PianoFight, 1/24/2020”

Sketchfest Review: The Groundlings “The Black Version” (1/22/2012)

The Black Version by Tommy Lau
by Tommy Lau

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)”

Sketchfest Review: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza at Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 1/27/2012

Photo By Jakub Mosur

I confess, I didn’t know that Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza was a television show. I never had a chance to even watch it. What I did know, however, was Whose Line is it Anyway?, the long-running hysterical show imported from the UK and beloved by improv fans like me. With so many fantastically funny people roaming our fair city during Sketchfest, sometimes choosing the shows you’ll attend can be hard. Not for me, at least not last night: I couldn’t wait to get myself to the Marines’ Memorial Theatre for the second weekend in a row for an Improv-a-Ganza with Drew Carey, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Chip Esten and Jeff B. Davis.

Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza at Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 1/27/2012”

Sketchfest Review: Hill/Jones, Don’t We Boys, and Knuckles & Tits @ Dark Room Theater, 1/21/2012

Dark Room Theater, a charming, janky barge, landlocked in the heart of the Mission. People are packed to the hypothetical rafters, forced to face their obvious claustrophobia to catch a glimmer of comedy. Young professionals, holding burritos, are held in anticipation (and melancholy due to confiscated beer). Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Hill/Jones, Don’t We Boys, and Knuckles & Tits @ Dark Room Theater, 1/21/2012”

Theatre Review: Stuffed and Unstrung by Henson Alternative at Curran Theater, 8/18/11


Stuffed and Unstrung is an improv show put on by the Henson Alternative using 80 Henson puppets and six performers.  This sentence makes it sound good and intriguing, but actually watching it is like an explosion of joy in your brain.  When I left the theater Thursday night, with tears in my eyes from laughter and an added spring in my step, I said to my friend “We should watch it again!” Continue reading “Theatre Review: Stuffed and Unstrung by Henson Alternative at Curran Theater, 8/18/11”