SF Sketchfest Presents: FESTPOCALYPSE!!!

Normally, right about now, we’d be carefully analyzing the 300 or so events that would make up the 20th Anniversary of SF Sketchfest in preparation for putting out our annual “Nerd’s Guide to SF Sketchfest.” Sadly, due to the COVID pandemic, the 20th Sketchfest is going to be delayed a bit, at least until it’s safe for us to congregate again. However, the festival organizers haven’t been resting on their laurels. Instead, they have put together a ridiculous line-up for a variety show that will be getting beamed to your computers on Saturday, January 30th at 5pm PST / 8PM EST, and it’s called: FESTPOCALYPSE!!!! 

Headlining are The Kids In The Hall, The State, and Mr. Show’s David Cross & Bob Odenkirk. You know the three most important sketch shows ever after SNL, In Living Color, and SCTV. There will be appearances by all of your SF Sketchfest favorites, and pretty much anyone that has ever made another human laugh EVER, if you look at the poster above. And everyone is doing all-new performances just for this special event.  

Tickets are $20 and all of the proceeds go towards helping the good folks at SF Sketchfest keep the lights on and can afford to put on the event that you expect them to when they are ready. The regular ticket lets you watch it all weekend long! And for $50 you can enjoy a “virtual VIP after party” where you can actually walk around and mingle via avatar. I don’t know how they are going to do it, but I’m curious enough to find out. There are also a BUNCH of other packages for those who can spend a little more to help keep these folks afloat! Tickets are available here!

Film Feature: Carrie and Chris Pick the 2018 Oscars

Film critics Carrie and Chris on who will – and who should – win the 90th Academy Awards

The 90th Academy Awards air this Sunday, March 4th on ABC at 5:00 pm PST (pre-show festivities start well before, if you want to weigh in on Oscar fashions). Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chris Piper share their predictions – and hopes – for the major categories, and discuss their reasoning for six of the biggest categories in the podcast below. Will there be another Moonlight/La La Land fiasco? Tune in on Sunday to find out – and to see how we – and you – do on the big night! 

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Film Feature: Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2017

If you didn’t get out to the movies as much as you’d hoped in 2017, it’s not too late to catch up on these worthy titles!

Spinning Platters Film Editor Carrie Kahn shares her ten favorite films of 2017, presented in descending rank order. You can also check out her list from last year here

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Film Review: Fist Fight

Run, don’t walk, away from this fight

Mr. Campbell (Charlie Day) and Mr. Strickland (Ice Cube) moments before they get into a… wait for it… fist fight.

I’m going to try and keep this review short, since you, gentle Spinning Platters readers, deserve better than even to have to read about this painfully awful, joyless, and unfunny new “film.” And I use that term loosely. Suffice to say I sat through 90 minutes of the most mean-spirited, petty, and demoralizing material ever presented as comedy on screen just to bring you this warning: Do. Not. Go. See. This. Movie. It hurts me to even say its title, but in the spirit of educating you so you know what to avoid, the picture in question is called Fist Fight; if you see it on your local theater marquee, now you know to instead choose to see literally anything else that’s playing.
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Film Feature: 2017 Sundance Film Festival Spotlights #1

… in which our intrepid California-bred Senior Film Reviewer defies an epic winter storm and a fierce chest cold to bring you highlights from this year’s famous Park City fest.

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival ended last Saturday evening after ten days of showcasing over 200 films from around the globe; you can see all the winners here.

For the third year in a row, Spinning Platters was on the (snow-covered) ground trying to take in as many movies as our limited time and budget would allow. And so we bring you the first of our posts spotlighting the 17 films we managed to squeeze in to just over five days.

Many of these may receive distribution deals (if they haven’t already), so you can know what to watch for in the coming year with these handy capsule reviews, which use our patented Sundance Viewing Priority Level (VPL) Guide:

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Film Review: Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Winning cast brings solid laughs to predictable picture

Mike (Adam Devine, l.) and Dave (Zac Efron, r.) are aghast after being chastised by their parents for their boorish behavior at family events.

Back in the pre-Internet days, an old creative writing teaching technique used to be to have students read the classifieds and generate a short story based on gems they found there. Screenwriters Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien obviously understand the imaginative gold of such an assignment, since, for their post-Neighbors 1 and 2 screenplay, they’ve turned an actual Craigslist ad into the decently funny picture Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Directed by TV comedy director Jake Szymanski in his first feature film foray, Mike and Dave is neither no more nor no less than what you’d expect from a raunchy-but-sweet summer comedy.
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Outside Lands Journal: Day 3, 8/10/14

Photo by Paige Parsons
Photo by Paige Parsons

Ending a festival is always a little bittersweet. Because you had fun, but you are also tired. So tired that you will end up seeing fewer acts, but it’s OK. Quality over quantity, eh? And these were probably the best sets of the weekend.

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


The Greatest Event in Television History

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.

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SF Sketchfest Review: You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 2/2/13

You+Made+It+Weird+with+Pete+Holmes+34343

Pete Holmes’ podcast You Made it Weird is funny, deep and as the title suggests, weird. The greatest thing about it though is how the podcast can be so funny and so personal at the same time. Since all my favorite parts of the podcast are the little personal moments, I was a little apprehensive that the deep moments might be dropped for more humor with the live audience there. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 2/2/13”

Sketchfest Review: The Meltdown with Kumail Nanjiani, Jonah Ray and many more at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/28/2012

This one was taken in the actual world famous comic book store.

On Wednesdays, in Los Angeles, you can go to Meltdown Comics and see comedy in the back of a comic book store. On Saturday night in San Francisco, hosts Kumail Nanjiani and Jonah Ray brought the comics but left the store behind. What this meant is that  we were treated to a  long and varied night of stand-up from a number of Meltdown regulars without a single back issue in sight.  A small group of Spinning Platters writers were there, and Marie Carney and I are going to take on the task of telling you as much as possible about each comedian while saying as little as possible, and of course not burning material. That’s right: capsule reviews! Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: The Meltdown with Kumail Nanjiani, Jonah Ray and many more at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/28/2012”