Do you know what today is? Today is D-Day. Freedom isn’t to be for granted, especially these days.
Speaking of freedom, let’s talk about concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: tall people, people benefiting other people, and people doing things with the air.
So, let’s preview. Time to preview. It’s time to preview now, and now here are the previews.
Let’s preview now. Preview start. Time to preview the coming week and the time to preview is now. Let’s do it! Preview!
Paco Romane is one of the greatest Bay Area comedians. In addition to doing stand-up all around the Bay all the time, he hosts the Sup Doc Podcast with George Chen. He’s also performing at the Outside Lands Music Festival this weekend, where he has curated a set of his favorite comics to open the Barbary tent, and will also be doing a “Hipster Chef Roast” at the Gastromagic stage on Friday. If you can’t make it out to Outside Lands on Friday, Romane is doing a warm up show at Plate & Camera Productions on Thursday Night!
That Mortified has been selling out shows for the past decade shouldn’t surprise me. What should is that this year was my first time getting to find out why. It was Sketchfest 2016’s final weekend (Saturday, 1/23, to be exact), and while I had booked myself back-to-back shows for the evening, I wasn’t concerned since both were taking place in the same venue (Swedish American Hall). The only minor caveat was that I got so excited about this fact (and that I have been to the former venue next door so many times I know the area well), that I forgot to take what a bitch it is to find parking in the neighborhood. Making matters worse, I stood in a line of people wanting to buy tickets for at least five minutes before I realized I could bypass them all and go find a spot in what was now standing-room-only. And yet, it was absolutely worth it! (The only thing I’d do differently is give myself an exorbitant amount of time for parking next time…) Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Mortified (The Extra Dirty Version), 1/23/16 at Swedish American Hall”
How can you not enjoy these two? (Photo thanks to Tommy Lau.)
Okay, it’s taken me almost a week and I still haven’t been able to decide: do I want to call Sally Field “radiant,” or is “luminous” the right word? I swear, that’s a big part of the reason it’s taken me five days to publish my review. (It also doesn’t help that I’ve been as lazy as my crazed-grad-school lifestyle will allow…) And here I am, I still haven’t decided. Suffice it to say, Ms. Field is all that and more. Anyway, so when SF Sketchfest announced this year’s schedule, I immediately zeroed in on this chance to attend the tribute to Sally Field and screening of her quirky new comedy, Hello, My Name is Doris last Friday night at the amazing Alamo Drafthouse. (Bonus: the Q&A after the film also featured the film’s director/co-writer, Michael Showalter!) Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Tribute to Sally Field, ‘Hello, My Name is Doris’ Screening and Q&A with Sally Field and Michael Showalter, 1/22/16 at Alamo Drafthouse”
Boots Riley and Patton Oswalt (photo by Steve Agee)
Patton Oswalt, comedian and actor extraordinaire, isn’t sure why he’s getting a “tribute” from SF Sketchfest. Sure, he’s been touring the comedy circuit since ’88, has amassed millions of fans, exudes a remarkably conscious presence on social media, and generally is utterly recognizable in voice, manner, and his own creative palate — but is that really the sort of thing to have a “tribute” for? This, more or less, was the way he asked the question that kicked off the afternoon show, which saw Oswalt discussing his history, perception of comedy in decades gone by and in the modern age, and the vastly-deepening social awareness that exists to meld the worlds of comedy and reality together in (hopefully) wonderful ways. Despite the fact that the tribute was for him, and Boots Riley — the frontman of Oakland’s own hip-hop masterminds The Coup — was the one he was “in conversation” with, Oswalt was the first onstage, and introduced both the show and his guest, and remained the driving force for the conversation for the rest of the afternoon.
The podcast, “We Got This With Mark and Hal,” has a very simple concept. Mark Gagliardi (Drunk History, Thrilling Adventure Hour) and Hal Lublin (Welcome to Night Vale, Thrilling Adventure Hour) get on the microphone and settle the most important disputes of our times, and some other ones. Episodes include “Sweet or Sour pickles,” “Worst Christmas Song” and most importantly, “Socks: Fold or Roll?” While I hardly ever agree with their conclusions, listening is always a pleasure, and I wouldn’t miss the chance to see them settle a VERY important debate, live at SF Sketchfest: “Star Wars or Star Trek?” Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: We Got This With Mark and Hal”
There is no shortage of great talent that graces our SF stages during Sketchfest. Tonight, however, we got not one, but two, of the most important comic minds ever. Everyone knows Billy Crystal, star of Soap, Saturday Night Live, When Harry Met Sally, etc., and, although you may not know Alan Zweibel by name, you may have more of his words memorized than Billy Crystal’s. He was one of the main writers during the first few years of Saturday Night Live, as well as It’s Gary Shandling’s Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Monk, and many, many more.
Put Your Hands Together turned out to be the perfect start to my 2016 Sketchfest experience. It was a room full of friendly people and a lot of great stand up comedy. I had become a fan of the hosts, Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher after seeing them at You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes last year and was excited to get the chance to see them again. Now I am so happy I did.Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Put Your Hands Together at Cobb’s, 1/8/16”
This wouldn’t have happened if Chuck just went to a few comedy shows instead.
WHAT?!? Sketchfest is already here?!?! It’s quite a bit earlier than usual this year; I’m sure that this is due to some strange event — wherein grown men run around and throw objects at each other in order to help promote the new Coldplay album — interfering with everything in the Bay. If you are actually interested in the big football game in Santa Clara, this list probably isn’t for you. However, if you’re like me and have never seen a football game nor got picked for anything athletic in their life, this is your list. This is where you go to determine which of the 824,422,122 amazing comedy events will be happening in San Francisco over the next three weeks.
SF Sketchfest runs from January 7th – 24th. A full schedule of events can be found here.
