Jon Glaser – Spinning Platters

A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2024

Whoa! This is my 12th Nerd’s Guide to SF Sketchfest! And after 14 long years (including two really, really long years not too long ago) of writing these, I can declare that SF Sketchfest has finally done it! They’ve booked the holy trinity of surreal sketch comedy! Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame), Kids In The Hall, and The State are all appearing! These three are the unifying forces that brought together both the stoners and the kids afraid of weed. AND I AM HERE FOR IT! Honestly, this year’s SF Sketchfest, which I believe is the 21st edition of the event, is probably the most bonkers year yet. I have barely started to figure out what gigs I’m seeing… I need to write this almost for myself as much as for you, my loyal reader.

A complete schedule and links to tickets can be found here!

Thursday, January 18th Continue reading “A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2024”

A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2020

First of all… WHOA! It’s weird to write “2020” on something. Even crazier is to think that this is the 19th SF Sketchfest! That means babies born in the year of the first Sketchfest are now able to go on their mission for The Latter-Day Saints. (Or vote. Definitely, please — everyone born in 2001 MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER TO VOTE AND DO IT!) I’ve been writing the Nerd’s Guide for eleven years now. Which means for the twentieth year of Sketchfest, you can read the eleven th anniversary of my Nerd’s Guide. I plan to go all out for that one. This year’s guide — I’m not gonna lie — I’m totally phoning it in. Which is fine, it’s like ten minutes of reading. Don’t worry, the good people of SF Sketchfest did NOT phone in the bookings this year.

Tickets and a full schedule for everything can be found here.

Thursday, January 9th Continue reading “A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2020”

Spinning Platters Interview: Jon Glaser

Jon Glaser might not be a name you recognize immediately, but you definitely know his work. He spent years working on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, playing a slew of different cast members. He’s also Jeremy Jamm on Parks and Recreation, Laird on Girls, and Jon on Delocated, in addition to a slew of other projects. His current show, Jon Glaser Loves Gear, just kicked off it’s second season on truTV.

Glaser will be performing at SF Sketchfest on Saturday, April 19th at Cobb’s Comedy Club, and then heading up the coast to play shows in Seattle and Portland. If you can’t make any of these shows, you can always check out new episodes of Jon Glaser Loves Gear every Wednesday at 10:30/9:30CST. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Jon Glaser”

SF Sketchfest Review: The Slipnutz Variety Show on 2/1/2014

Ironically, it's hard to get a quality picture of the World Famous Slipnutz — Ironically, it’s hard to get a quality picture of the World Famous Slipnutz

It took a lifetime of fandom, four years of journalism and three previous 2014 articles to see a show that could only be described as “preposterous.” After consuming every brand of insanity, irony, and imagination, never have I seen such incommunicable ridiculousness. The Slipnutz Variety Show, presented by Andy Blitz, Jon Glaser and Brian Stack, three Conan-vetted writers/performers, was the quintessential Sketchfest experience: hilarious, subversive and unpredictable (above a fine, peanuty powder). Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: The Slipnutz Variety Show on 2/1/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: The Greatest Event in Festival History on 2/01/2014

It would be impossible to fill out a standard account of the events of The Greatest Event in Festival History, a panel for the shockingly popular Adult Swim series where Adam Scott (Party Down, Parks and Recreation) painstakingly recreates the opening sequences of 80’s tv shows. The panel featured star/creator/co-director Scott, co-director Lance Bangs (acclaimed music video director for acts such as Green Day, Belle and Sebastian and The Shins) and co-star/professional Ted Knight impersonator Jon Glaser (Parks and Recreation, Late Night with Conan O’Brien) and was moderated by Kumail Nanjiani (Franklin & Bash, The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail).

However, what happened during the 90 minutes that these stars were on stage defies all sense of narrative cause and effect. So, in order to give you an idea of what occurred that day, I present to you a list of real actual things that for real happened during The Greatest Event in Festival History.

Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: The Greatest Event in Festival History on 2/01/2014”

A Nerd’s Guide To Sketchfest 2014

Florence Henderson in a sleeping in a nighty, while a dog eats pizza. Just one of the many things you will see live on stage at this year's Sketchfest. — Florence Henderson in a sleeping in a nighty, while a dog eats pizza. Just one of the many things you will see live on stage at this year’s Sketchfest.

Wouldn’t it be great if cloning was already a thing? So we could be at 8 places at once and not have to decide which Sketchfest events you are going to? Well, until science improves greatly, we are stuck with one body and being in one place at a time. Because of this trouble, I have taken the time to dissect the entire Sketchfest schedule and help you out by highlighting the best of the fest. A complete schedule and tickets can be purchased here. A lot of shows have already sold out, and more shows are selling out every day, so don’t forget to purchase in advance!

Continue reading “A Nerd’s Guide To Sketchfest 2014”

Spinning Platters Interview: Janet Varney, Cole Stratton, and David Owen, Organizers Of SF Sketchfest

This is the 13th year of the SF Sketchfest, and it seems to be getting bigger every year. The event’s founders, David Owen, Janet Varney, and Cole Stratton tooks a few minutes out of their day, busily putting together another epic line up, in order to chat with me. Tickets for all dates go on sale on December 15th, and you can find a full line up of festivities here:

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Janet Varney, Cole Stratton, and David Owen, Organizers Of SF Sketchfest”

Our Guide to the 2012 Outside Lands Music Festival

segwaypolo — Poor guys… Gonna have to find someplace else to play Polo next weekend.

Every year, every festival in America claims to have the “best line up ever!” Well, San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival has made to its 5th year, and they really are going to have a seriously difficult time topping this year’s event. Of course, this means that there are conflicts galore! You’ve got six stages of entertainment to try to decide between at any time of day.

The schedule can be awfully intimidating. Which is why I’m here to help guide you through the complex maze that is the Outside Lands schedule. Without further ado, here is SpinningPlatters’ Official Guide to Outside Lands 2012.

Continue reading “Our Guide to the 2012 Outside Lands Music Festival”

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

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?

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

A Music Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2011

chris hardwick — 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.

Continue reading “A ~~Music~~ Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2011″