SketchFest Seattle

SketchFest Seattle opens tomorrow! (Thurs., Oct. 7)

2010-10-06T14:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Evan

SketchFest - Seattle's #1 Comedy Festival - explodes into action this Thursday (Oct. 7) at 7:30 with an Opening Gala show featuring:

Teasers from SketchFest groups!
The return of the SketchFest Video Contest!
A set from The Cody Rivers Show!

The Friday and Saturday lineup is:

Friday October 8th - 7:30 pm - Sketch comedy groups Charles (Seattle) and Ubiquitous They (Seattle), plus great stand-up from John Keister

Friday October 8th - 9:30 pm - Sketch Comedy from Generation Friends (Olympia) and Audience of Two (NYC), plus great stand-up from Owen Straw

Saturday October 9th - 7:30 pm - Sketch Comedy from Killer Donut (Seattle) and Last Call Cleveland (Cleveland), plus great stand-up from Travis Simmons

Saturday October 9th - 9:30 pm - Sketch Comedy from The DK & Morgan Show (Bellingham) and Hey You Millionaires (Chicago) plus great stand-up from TBD

The details:

Theatre Off Jackson - 409 7th Ave. S. (in Seattle's International District)
Tickets: $15 ($10 with Student ID) - Available at the door or through Brown Paper Tickets: Click Here to Order

Don't forget to tell your Facebook friends about the lineup. Click here to view the SketchFest page on Facebook.

Thank you for making comedy happen!

Andrew Connor

Artistic Director - SketchFest Seattle

SketchFest 2010 is right around the corner! (October 7th to 9th 2010) Wednesday, September 22, 2010 12:30 PM

2010-09-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

SketchFest's 2010 line up has been announced and once again Seattle's premier comedy festival will be featuring a top-shelf lineup of great sketch and stand-up comedy from Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, and across the U.S..

Come put your troubles behind you and laugh your ass off at the funniest festival in town.

Opening night is Thursday, Oct. 7, featuring The Cody Rivers Show, the 3rd Annual SketchFest Video Contest, teasers from participating sketch groups, and some fine fine stand-up comedy.

Here are the wicked hilarious details for this year's fest:

Oct. 7-9 (show times vary - see www.sketchfest.org for details)
Theatre Off Jackson - 409 7th Ave. S. (in Seattle's International District)
Tickets: $15 ($10 with Student ID) - Available at the door or through Brown Paper Tickets: Click Here to Order

Don't forget to tell your Facebook friends about the lineup. Click here to view the SketchFest page on Facebook.

Thank you for making comedy happen!

Andrew Connor

Artistic Director - SketchFest Seattle

SketchFest 2010 - October 7th through 9th

Theatre Off Jackson - 409 7th Ave. S. (in Seattle's International District)
Tickets: $15 - Available at the door or through Brown Paper Tickets:
Click Here to Order

Showtimes:

Thursday, October 7th - 7:30 PM - Opening Night with The Cody Rivers Show, video contest and SketchFest previews

Friday, October 8th - 7:30 PM - Lineup To Be Announced

Friday, October 8th - 9:30 PM - Lineup To Be Announced

Saturday, October 9th - 7:30 PM - Lineup To Be Announced

Saturday, October 9th - 9:30 PM - Lineup To Be Announced

Participating Groups and Special Events

Groups:

Audience of Two (NYC)
Charles (Seattle)
Generation Friends (Olympia)
Hey You Millionaires (Chicago)
Killer Donut (Seattle)
Last Call Cleveland (Cleveland)
The Cody Rivers Show (Bellingham)
The DK & Morgan Show (Bellingham)
Ubiquitous They (Seattle)

Special Events (details at www.sketchfest.org):

The SketchFest Video Contest
Workshops
The SketchFest Forum on Professional Development in Comedy

Support SketchFest Seattle

Did you know that we're a charity? That's right, we've been an honest-to-god 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization (just like the Salvation Army!) since 2001.

For the last 12 years SketchFest Seattle has been cultivating homegrown funny in and around Seattle - non-profity style - by supporting and developing the local comedy scene with shows, classes, festivals and so much more, while simultaneously bringing the best comedy in the world to our fair city to the joy of all.

We couldn't have done it without the help of our donors, however, so please consider making a donation to help keep SketchFest cruising. There will be opportunities to give during the festival, but if you're eager, you can mail a check today. Contact Evan Kentop begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting at 206-229-4656 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 206-229-4656 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or evan@portagebay.com for more information on becoming a SketchFest sponsor or for corporate matching details.

SketchFest Seattle
1122 E. Pike St. - PMB 773
Seattle, WA 98122
(Be sure to include all of your contact info, including email, so we can send you a big smooch and a receipt!)

Visit us at the Arts Crush Kickoff
Oct. 3rd

Arts Crush is a month-long festival that connects artists and audiences with invigorating new experiences at hundreds of events across the region. The Kickoff Fair is a chance for over 80 arts organizations to show you the arts patron what we are made of and give you a chance to get some of the best arts values in town (Including reduced price tickets to SketchFest 2010). Visit the SketchFest booth and say hello.

Friday October 3rd, Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion - 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
Get there early as you can expect a crowd. Click here for more info.

SketchFest Seattle application information

2010-08-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

SketchFest Seattle Accepting Submissions for 2010 Festival

(See bottom of message for video contest submission info)

Application Deadline: Sept. 6, 2010
Festival Dates: Oct. 7-9, 2010

SketchFest Seattle is the world’s original sketch comedy festival and has established a reputation for presenting the best and most original comedy from around the globe. We have a very liberal interpretation of what it means to do sketch comedy, so if you think what you do might be sketchy, bring it on.

Application process:
1) Post a 10-15 minute sample video of your work online. Video must show at least three sketches performed live, and preferably (but not necessarily) will be an unbroken portion of your show so that we can get a sense of how your show flows.
2) Email answers to the following questions to: info@sketchfest.org

a) What is your group name?
b) What is the link to your sample video?
c) Primary contact name:
d) Primary contact phone# and email:
e) Primary contact postal address:
f) How many years has your group been performing together?
g) What venues and festivals has your group performed at?
h) Please include links to or attachments of any press that you have received.
i) What else should we know?

3) Mail a $35 application fee check (made out to ‘SketchFest Seattle’) to:
SketchFest Seattle
1122 E. Pike St. - PMB 773
Seattle, WA 98122
(We will not process your application until we receive a check for the application fee.)

MAKE SURE THAT YOU WRITE YOUR GROUP NAME IN THE MEMO/NOTE LINE OF YOUR CHECK.We will contact all applicants with the results of the selection process the week of Sept. 6th.

SketchFest Seattle Video Contest Application info:

Application Deadline: Sept. 6

Unable to attend SketchFest this year? Then send your canned funny to the 2010 SketchFest Video Contest - it's like comedy telecommuting!

Follow the below link for all information on how to apply, but please note the dates on the website have not yet been updated for 2010. The actual application deadline is Sept. 6, 2010.

http://sketchfest.org/contest%5Bopen2009%5D.html

Short Comedy Video Submissions for AMC

2010-01-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

From our good friend Alex, producer of SketchFest NYC:

Hi there,

I've just started working on a fun new project from AMC (Mad Men,
Breaking Bad) featuring SNL's Cheri Oteri. Basically, we're looking
for funny, great performers to submit videos (of 30 seconds or less)
that show them talking to the camera, and asking Oteri's character, a
Life Coach named Liza, for help with their "problem."

If the problem is funny or entertaining enough, we'll upload the video
to the Life Coach website (http://www.lizalifecoach.com), where users
can rate the videos and comment. If enough people like the video,
including "Liza" herself, the video creator may be invited to be the
next guest on a Life Coach episode on AMC!

It's a fun site and show, and a pretty great way for comedians to get
their OWN characters out there. They can certainly be themselves
(that's encouraged, too), but the more entertaining the video the
better.

Any help you can provide in getting the word out about this would be
great, and please let me know if you need any more info or materials
as I can grab those too.

Get started right now, here:

http://www.lizalifecoach.com

Wing-It Productions presents Paul Stein comedy workshops

2009-12-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

Our friends over at Wing-It Productions are hosting the Artistic Director of the Comedy Central Stage in LA, Paul Stein, for a weekend of workshops.

Here's the skinny:

Wing-It Productions is proud to welcome Director and Producer Paul Stein to Seattle for a weekend of workshops January 16th and 17th.

A renowned director and producer, Paul Stein has produced solo shows in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles. He is the Artistic Director of the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles, where he views and evaluates new comic talent. He was the Associate Producer of the HBO Workspace and Talent Consultant for the HBO’s Comedy Festival.

These workshops are a great opportunity to learn from someone who knows the business and what it takes to be a professional stand up comic. No matter what your skill level, these workshops will help you get an edge over the competition and raise your performances to the next level.

Classes offered on these days are:

Intro to Solo Performance Saturday, January 16th 10am-1pm
You have an idea, now how do you write it? This session addresses story and structure, text analysis, and different types of solo performance.

From Page to Stage Saturday, January 16th 2-5pm
How to break down your script and adapt it to the stage. This session will discuss performance and staging techniques.

Producing your Show Sunday, January 17th 10am-1pm
A breakdown of the business of performance and production. Discussions will include insights on industry relations, festival opportunities, and the benefits and drawbacks of self-producing work.

Your Work, Reviewed Sunday, January 17th 2-5pm
Paul Stein reviews your performance! This session will allow you to perform your work and be critiqued by a professional producer and director. Space is limited to 10 performers, with an additional 10 non-performing “watchers” slots available for a lower rate.

Classes are just $50 each or $150 for all four, and are expected to sell out! Get your spot early! To register for a class, please go to: www.jetcityimprov.com/classes

Only 3 more days of SketchFest!

2009-09-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Only three more days of SketchFest 2009!

Info: www.sketchfest.com
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79438
800.838.3006

We have had a rip-roaring first few days of the fest, and the laughs roll on through Saturday with tons and tons of great comedy:

TONIGHT! (Thursday)
    7:30 - Local Sketch - Standup - International Comedy Theater
        Gude/Laurance (Seattle)
        CACTUS - the seduction... (Melbourne, Australia)
        Hosted by The People's Republic of Komedy
    9:30 - Local Sketch - International Stand Up
        Ubiquitous They (Seattle)
        History: Deleted Scenes & Extras (Toronto)
        Hosted by The People's Republic of Komedy

FRIDAY
    7:30 - National/International Sketch - Standup
        Morgan Brayton (Vancouver, BC)
        Uncalled For (Montreal)
        Standup from Duane Goad
    9:30 - National/International Sketch - Standup
    Becky and Noelle (NYC/Seattle)
        Hey You Millionaires (Chicago)
        Standup from Brad Upton

SATURDAY
    7:30 - National/International Sketch - Stand Up
      Slow Children Crossing (L.A.)
        Seeder and Lee (Chicago)
        Standup from Brad Upton
    9:30 - National/International Sketch - Stand Up
        The Riot Act (L.A./Seattle)
        Sidecar (NYC)
        Standup from Brad Upton
    11:00 - SketchFest Mash-Up - Video Contest Winners
        Showing of top 2 SketchFest Video Contest winners
        SketchFest Mash-Up

For full festival information,visit:www.sketchfest.com
For tickets, visit: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79438

Or call:800.838.3006

'SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival' opens Monday night

2009-09-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival
kicks off in high gear Monday night with jam-packed opening gala show
featuring sneak peak teasers from SketchFest acts, The SketchFest Video
Contest, and The Cody Rivers Show.

    There are still some seats left for the opening gala on Monday, Sept. 21 at 7:30. Tickets available at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79438 or 800.838.3006

There are 19 fantastic acts from around the world in festival shows
every night this week. For a full schedule and line-up, go to: www.sketchfest.org

Festival passes and shrinking ticket prices mean you can come to every
show for next to nothing. It's the entertainment deal of the century!

Special Events at SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival

2009-09-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

(All special events are held at Theatre Off Jackson - 409 7th Ave South - Seattle)
SketchFest runs: Mon., Sept. 21 - Sat., Sept. 26
Details: www.sketchfest.org
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com, 800.838.3006

(Note: There is still space available in the All Women Sketch Comedy Intensive workshop - details below!)

The SketchFest Seattle Opening Night Kick-Off Gala
Monday, Sept. 21 @ 7:30
The 11th annual SketchFest lifts off with an action-packed night featuring the 2009 SketchFest Video Contest, teasers from SketchFest groups, and a set from the one-and-only Cody Rivers Show.

The SketchFest Forum on Professional Comedy: How to Make a Living in Comedy
Saturday, Sept. 26, Noon - 2:00pm
A panel discussion by local, national, and international comedy professionals on the ins-and-outs of creating and developing careers in comedy, facilitated by SketchFest's Artistic Director, Andrew Connor.
This is a free event that is open to the public. Panel participants will discuss a range of topics on making it happen in the comedy business, and will participate in a Q&A with the audience at the
end of the program.

The SketchFest Mash-Up
Saturday, Sept. 26, 11:00pm
It's like an All-Star game, a foreign exchange program, a triathalon, a mix-tape, and a quilting bee, all rolled into one. At the beginning of the festival we select a raft of courageous performers from among the participating groups and crush them into one megagroup that spends the whole week in lockdown, writing and rehearsing a brand new show of all original material that will be performed once, and once only. Witness this rare and electric collaboration between comedy luminaries from across the continent. Magic guaranteed.

The Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive
Sept. 21 -26, 4:00 - 6:30
Hello ladies, sick of always playing the bitchy girlfriend, stupid mom, or dead hooker? Perhaps you'd like to write for yourself and others but haven't had the excuse? Well, here ya go...

Write and perform your own material with other funny women at Sketchfest Seattle's Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive, a six-day series of two and a half-hour workshops held during SketchFest Seattle (Sept. 21-26), which will
culminate in an informal showing on the final Saturday of the fest (Sept. 26). All women are welcome, regardless of experience level in theater or comedy.

Throughout the workshop participants will write, direct, and act in their own sketches - short, funny, rehearsed
pieces in which you craft interesting, entertaining and (hopefully) humorous stories. Feel free to bring in previous writing to work with.

Thisis not necessarily about making "women's comedy", it is about women making comedy. Who knows, maybe you'll meet your own sketch group and save the state of sketch from the Whitest Kids U Know?! Or at least have a new sketch in which you do not play Cheerleader with Dildo...unless of course that's what you want.

This workshop is facilitated by sketch comedian and performing artist, Becky Poole, who has toured internationally with critically acclaimed all female sketch comedy groups MEAT (NYC) and Becky & Noelle (Seattle/NYC).

Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive Details:

* Classes will be daily during the festival (Mon. - Sat., Sept. 21-26), 4:00-6:30 on Mon.-Fri., Informal performance of work from 5:00-6:30 on Sat.

* All classes held at the festival site, Theatre Off Jackson 409 7th Ave. South

*Workshop fee is $160 per participant (minimum of five participants, maximum of ten). Payment is due to secure a spot in the workshop. Each participant is also given two free tickets to SketchFest Seattle.

If you are interested in participating in the Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive please send an email to: info [at] sketchfest [dot] org

2009 SketchFest Line-up Announced

2009-09-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival
Sept. 21-26

After months of deliberation it has finally arrived:

The 2009 Schedule & Performers Line-up for SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival

Once again featuring the best groups from Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, across the U.S. and Canada, and around the World, SketchFest is packing 20 great sketch, stand-up and improv shows in to five days, from Monday, Sept. 21 through Sat., Sept. 26.

All the gory details are at: www.sketchfest.org
Details about all groups can be found at: http://sketchfest.org/performers.html

Here is this years schedule and line-up:
===================================================================================

SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival - 2009 Schedule

Monday, September 21st
7:30    SketchFest's Opening Night Gala - Featuring SketchFest performer teasers, the 2009 SketchFest Video Contest, and The Cody Rivers Show

Tuesday, September 22nd
7:30    Local Sketch
    Pork Filled Players (Seattle)
    Generation Friends (Olympia)
    The Entertainment Show (Seattle)
    Hosted by: The Chocolate Prophet from History: Deleted Scenes and Extras

Wednesday, September 23rd
7:30    Local Sketch
    Killer Donut (Seattle)
    The DK and Morgan Show (Bellingham)
    Charles (Seattle)
    Hosted by: Jonno Katz from CACTUS - the seduction ...

Thursday, September 24th
7:30    Local Sketch - Local Stand-Up - International Comedy Theater
    Gude/Laurance (Seattle)
    CACTUS - the seduction ... (Melbourne, Australia)
    Hosted by The People's Republic of Komedy

9:30    Local Sketch - Local Stand-Up - International Stand-Up
    Ubiquitous They (Seattle)
    'History: Deleted Scenes & Extras' (Toronto)
    Hosted by The People's Republic of Komedy

Friday, September 25th
7:30    National/International Sketch - Local Stand-Up
    Morgan Brayton (Vancouver)
    Uncalled For (Montreal)
    Local Stand-up

9:30    National/International Sketch - Local Stand-Up
    Becky and Noelle (NYC/Seattle)
    Hey You Millionaires (Chicago)
    Local Stand-up

Saturday, September 26th
Noon    The SketchFest Forum on Professional Comedy

7:30    National/International Sketch - Local Stand-Up
    Slow Children Crossing (L.A.)
    Seeder and Lee (Chicago)
    Local Stand-up

9:30    National/International Sketch - Local Stand-Up
    The Riot Act (L.A./Seattle)
    Sidecar (NYC)
    Local Stand-up

11:00    SketchFest Mash-Up - Video Contest Winner
    Showing of top 3 SketchFest Video Contest winners
    SketchFest Mash-Up (see 'Special Events' for details)

The SketchFest Video Contest Ends Soon!

2009-08-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

Okay, that was last year's promo but just the same, you've got a little over a WEEK to get us your funny 3-5 minute videos! We'll stop taking submissions by the end of Monday, August 29th, so send those links to contest (at) sketchfest (dot) org!

Selected videos will be shown live at this year's SketchFest and voted on by our audience!

Grand Prize winner will receive $100 and the adoration of THOUSANDS!*

*Due to maximum occupancy restrictions, "thousands" may legally refer to "dozens."

For full rules ofr submissions and further information, visit www.sketchfest.org/contest.html

Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive at SketchFest Seattle

2009-08-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Hello ladies,

Sick of always playing the bitchy girlfriend, stupid mom, or dead hooker? Perhaps you'd like to write for yourself and others but haven't had the excuse? Well, here ya go...

Write and perform your own material with other funny women at Sketchfest Seattle's Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive, a six-day series of two and a half-hour workshops held during SketchFest Seattle (Sept. 21-26), which will culminate in a performance on the final Saturday of the fest (Sept. 26). All women are welcome, regardless of experience level in theater or comedy.

Throughout the workshop participants will write, direct, and act in their own sketches - short, funny, rehearsed pieces in which you craft interesting, entertaining and (hopefully) humorous stories. Feel free to bring in previous writing to work with.

This is not necessarily about making "women's comedy", it is about women making comedy. Who knows, maybe you'll meet your own sketch group and save the state of sketch from the Whitest Kids U Know?! Or at least have a new sketch in which you do not play Cheerleader with Dildo...unless of course that's what you want.

This workshop is facilitated by sketch comedian and performing artist, Becky Poole, who has toured internationally with critically acclaimed all female sketch comedy groups MEAT (NYC) and Becky & Noelle (Seattle/NYC).

Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive Details:

* Classes will be daily during the festival (Mon. - Sat., Sept. 21-26), 4:00-6:30
* All classes held at the festival site, Theatre Off Jackson 409 7th Ave. South
* The six-day session will culminate with an informal performance of participants' work on the final night of class: Saturday
* Workshop fee is $160 per participant (minimum of five participants, maximum of ten). Payment is due to secure a spot in the workshop. Each participant is also given two free tickets to SketchFest Seattle.

* If you are interested in participating in Seattle SketchShop please send an email to: info @ sketchfest.org

SketchFest Annual Fundraiser - save the date!

2009-07-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Save the date for the annual SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival fundraiser! There will be tasty treats, unique prizes, and lots of laughs!

Thursday, August 13

Event starts at 7:30 p.m.

Theatre Off Jackson at 409 7th Ave. S

Admission $30

We hope to see you there. Stay tuned for more information on this super-fun event!

SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival Application Deadline

2009-07-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Comedians: Our deadline is fast approaching. Applications for this year's SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival must be postmarked by Fri., Jul. 24.

Please visit www.sketchfest.org for the application and all the saucy details.

SketchFest NYC is in TWO WEEKS!

2009-05-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

If you (heart) New York, AND you (heart) sketch, you'll (heart) SketchFest NYC!

Tickets are now on sale for the Fifth Anniversary of SketchFest NYC, which is only two weeks away:

Individual Tickets: $10

Nightly Passes: $40

Full Festival Passes: $100

Stand-by tickets for individual shows can be purchased by UCB students (with ID) for $5.

A Full SketchFest Pass allows you to see all the shows in the Festival throughout the weekend.

Nightly Festival Passes allow you to see all the SketchFest shows on a given night.

To purchase all tickets and passes online, head over to: http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/sketchfest/

Questions? Call 212-366-9176

Applications and New Summer Workshop!

2009-05-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

Two exciting announcements:

1) SketchFest Seattle is offering a 5-week sketch writing workshop this summer, taught by the one-and-only Mike Mathieu of The Cody Rivers Show. This is an excellent chance to elevate your comedy-writing skills to the next level, or learn what it takes to get started, with one of the best sketch writers around. All levels are welcome. Do it! You know you want to...

See below for details on how to sign-up.

2) Applications are now available for the 2009 SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival. We are once again searching the

globe to bring the best comedy to Seattle. This year's festival will be Sept. 21-26 at the illustrious Theatre Off Jackson.

Details below.

As always, check out www.sketchfest.org for the latest.

Love you all,

SketchFest Seattle

-------------------------

(1) 5-WEEK SUMMER

SKETCH COMEDY-WRITING WORKSHOP:

Seattle SketchShop

Sketch writer, director, and half of the internationally acclaimed duo The Cody Rivers Show, Mike Mathieu, will lead a five-week course in sketch comedy writing, culminating in an informal performance of new work.

With 4+ years and 150+ sketches of experience, Mathieu has learned a few lessons about comedy writing that elevate material above the formulaic norm.

In this workshop, participants will learn how to brainstorm, write, perform, and tweak a scene while anticipating an audience's needs.

Participants are invited (but not required) to bring any new or in-progress scripts for critique, and will be expected to attend every class, generate new ideas, rewrite, and have a good time.

Seattle SketchShop Details:

Classes will be on Tuesday nights, 6pm-9pm, from June
30th through July 28th, at The Seattle Center
The five-week session will culminate with an informal performance of participants' work on the final night of class
Workshop fee is $160 per participant (minimum of five participants, maximum of twelve). Payment is due to secure a spot in the workshop
If you are interested in participating in Seattle SketchShop please send an email to: info @ sketchfest.org

---------------------------------

(2) SKETCHFEST SEATTLE APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

Applications are now available for the 2009 SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival. The deadline is July 1, 2009. Go to www.sketchfest.org for more information and to download an application.

The SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival is indeed a sketch-oriented comedy festival, but we are also open-minded, and we are seeking innovative comedy of all kinds from around the world. This year we will be accepting applications from any genre of comedy (sketch, improv, stand-up, theater, music) as long as it bears at least some resemblance to sketch (for example: traditional stand-up and improv shows are probably not appropriate, but a stand-up set based on characters and scenes or an experimental hyrbrid improv/sketch show might be). So, if what you got is at all sketch-y, bring it on!

Info: www.sketchfest.org

SpamORama: Pork-Filled Players, Burlesque, and Ubiquitous They!

2009-04-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Asian American sketch comedians The Pork Filled Players add a dash of burlesque to a special prime time edition of Late Nite Spam-O-Rama, the monthly comedy/music cabaret!

A trio of Seattle burlesque legends - Emperor Fabulous, Atlanta Summer, and Whisper - join PFP and sketch comedy favorite, Ubiquitous They.

Spam*O*Rama

April 11, Saturday, at 8 pm

Theatre Off Jackson

409 7th Ave S. in Seattle's International District

Tickets are still $6 and are available at Brown Paper Tickets
( 1-800-838-3006).

For more information, email oink@porkfilled.com

SketchFest NYC - Application Deadline This Week!

2009-03-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Sketch Fans,

Just a reminder, ALL applications for SketchFest NYC's 5th Anniversary must be in-hand by the end of the day on Friday, March 27th! All groups or individuals, American or International, live or filmed sketch comedy shows are encouraged to apply:

Late Deadline: In hands by Friday, March 27th ($40 application fee)

Head over to www.SketchFestNYC.com, and download an application now!

Week of Fun!

2009-01-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

The third annual Week of Fun gets started tonight with:

Cracked Up
Featuring Stranger Gong Show winner Solomon Georgio! (Capitol Club, 414 E Pine St (206) 325-2149 8 pm, all ages, free)

Then continues tomorrow night with something are calling SKETCHBALL!
Featuring the sketch comedy duo “The Cory and Doug Show” followed by the “The Super Mega Art Show”.

(Live Girls Theater, 2220 NW Market, 9pm, all ages, $5)

AWARDS!

2009-01-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

The good folks over at CLOG! The Seattle Comedy Blog, recently hosted their first ever Seattle Comedy Awards. The nominees and winners are listed below. Congrats to all!

Best ongoing Alternative Comedy Show
Nominees:
Dart-Mondo (producer: Dartanion London), The Entertainment Show (producer: Travis Vogt & Kevin Clarke), Laff Hole (producer: People's Republic of Komedy)

Winner:
Laff Hole

Best onetime Alternative Comedy Show
Nominees:
Comedy Trainwreck (producer: Corbett Cummins), Rendezvous Election Show (producer: Paul Merrill), Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Comedy Show (producer: Sub Pop)

Winner:
Comedy Trainwreck

Best Host
Nominees:
Brian Boshes, Danielle Radford, Jackson Lowe

Winner:
Brian Boshes

Best "Old" Comic
Nominees:
Brad Upton, Heneghen, Kermet Apio

Winner:
Kermet Apio

Best "Young" Comic
Nominees:
Danniel Linn, Kitty Poole, Ryan Cuddihy

Winner:
Ryan Cuddihy

Outstanding Achievement: Overall Promotion
Nominees:
Next Monsters of Comedy, Pagliacci Pizza Monthly Comedy show, Ron Reid

Winner:
Pagliacci Pizza Monthly Comedy Show

Best "Long Format" Comic
Nominees:
Derek Sheen, Geoff Brousseau, Joey Vespaziani

Winner:
Derek Sheen

Best "Short Format" Comic
Nominees:
Jesse Case, Ross Parsons, Xung Lam

Winner:
Jesse Case

Best off-stage Announcer
Nominees:
Carl Warmenhoven, Chas Roberts, Kevin Hyder

Winner:
Carl Warmenhoven

Emerging Comic Award
Nominees:
Brett Hamil, Nicole Lucas, Solomon Georgio

Winner:
Solomon Georgio

Best Improv Comedy Group
Nominees:
Blood Squad, Dart-Mondo, Jet City Improv

Winner:
Blood Squad

Best Sketch Comedy Group (All 2008 SketchFest Seattle performers!!!!)
Nominees:
Charles, Travis and Kevin (Clarke the Vogt Productions), Ubiquitous They

Winner:
Travis and Kevin (The Entertainment Show/Clarke the Vogt Productions)

Outstanding Achievement: Flyer/Poster Design
Nominees:
Solomon Georgio, Alex Thomas, Ross Parsons

Winner:
Solomon Georgio

Best Musical Comedy Act (Solo or Group)
Nominees:
Becky Poole, Justin Rupple, Reggie Watts

Winner:
Reggie Watts

Best Comedy Writer
Nominees:
Emmett Montgomery, Jeremy Whitman, Paul Merrill

Winner:
Paul Merrill

Best Website
Nominees:
Billy Wayne Davis (billywaynedavis.com), “The Seattle Comedy Blog aka Clog!" (SeattleComedyBlog.com), Sean Ottey (seanottey.com)

Winner:
“The Seattle Comedy Blog aka Clog!" (SeattleComedyBlog.com)

Favorite Character
Nominees:
Sylvester McStain (Paul Merrill), Dan Moore, Jeannett DelMonte (Amanda Lee Williams)

Winner:
Jeanette DelMonte (Amanda Lee Williams)

Best Short Comedic Film
Nominees:
Everything’s Andy (Clarke the Vogt Productions), Manoj (Hari Kondabolu), T Rex Attorney at Law (Pastey Boy)

Winner:
Everything’s Andy

Favorite PBR
Nominees:
Billy Wayne's Living Room Adventure, PBR Party with Kevin and Travis, The Future with Dan Carroll

Winner:
The Future with Dan Carroll

Best Performance in a PBR or Dewars ad
Nominees:
Andy Peters in Everything's Andy, Billy Wayne Davis in Living Room Adventure
Dan Carroll in The Future, Kevin Clarke and Travis Vogt in PBR Party

Winner:
Andy Peters in Everything’s Andy

Male Standup Comedian of the Year
Nominees:
Andrew Sleighter, Billy Wayne Davis, Emmett Montgomery

Winner:
Billy Wayne Davis

Female Standup Comedian of the Year
Nominees:
Jessica Strauss, Lizzy Pilcher, Nicole Lucas

Winner:
Jessica Strauss

Tim and Eric, Japanese Clowns and More!

2009-01-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

Do you love sketch comedy, but hate knowing what the hell's going on? Well, this Monday, SketchFest Seattle and Showbox SoDo will be bringing you Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Adult Swim's surreal and abrasively funny late night sketch show on Cartoon Network.

Congratulations to all our winners of the Tim and Eric contest who won free tickets to the show just by emailing us! Great Job, indeed!

To recieve announcements about future events and contests, sign up for the SketchFest Seattle email list? I mean, come on, what's one more email list?

Monday January 12th

Showbox SoDo - 1700 1st Avenue South

Adult Swim Presents: TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB! TOUR 2009

$25.00 ADV/DOS at Ticketmaster

Doors at 8pm - All Ages

For more information, visit www.showboxonline.com

And as long as we're celebrating weird, this February Sketchfest will be hosting Tokyo comedy duo Shoshinz!

Check out this absurdist comedy team, along side Seattle favorites Ubiquitous They and The People's Republic of Komedy.

SHOSHINZ

in "We Love You Too"

with Ubiquitous They and The People's Republic of Komedy

Fri. & Sat., Feb. 13 & 14 @ 8:00

Rendezvous’ Jewel Box Theatre ~ $12

2322 2nd Ave, in Seattle’s Belltown

But that's not quite all! February will also bring The Best of SketchFest Seattle, brought to you by SketchFest and Infinity Live Productions.

The past ten years of SketchFest Seattle have offered a plethora of fantastic sketch groups from Seattle and beyond. For one night only, SketchFest is thrilled to present some of the biggest hit shows from the past several years in one night, an evening of top-notch sketch juiciness not to be missed. Hosted by one of New York’s hottest up-and-coming stand-up comedians, David Cope (formerly of Seattle).

Sidecar (NYC): This New York sketch trio has it all: looks, smarts, charm, humility. What remains to be seen is whether they are actually funny. Oh no wait, they are. Like, 'good-looking, smarty-pants, charming and humble sketch show that weaves a bunch of crazy stories and characters together brilliantly' kind of funny. Sigh. They win again...

Becky and Noelle (NYC/Seattle): Becky Poole and Noelle Romano are crazy. They are also brilliant. This pattern has recurred in history many times, but never to such hilarious effect. If you can explain it with words I'll give you a dollar.

All American Push Up Party (Seattle): The demented and unspeakably charismatic Dusty Warren performs a character-based solo show that will leave you alternately slack-jawed and convulsive. Good luck.

The Best of SketchFest Seattle

One night only!

Saturday, Feb. 21 8:00pm ~ $15

Annex Theatre, 1100 E. Pike St. (at 11th Ave.)

For more information: www.infinityliveproductions.com

Advance tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets

Blogging is HARD!

2008-11-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

It's been two and a half months since SketchFest 2008 went dark, and man has it been quiet around here.

Well, we've managed to raise ourselves out of our comedy hangover long enough to let you know about some Decemberesque shows about to hit this sleepy burg.

JOEL McHALE
Sarcastic host of E!'s (Is that math? How the hell do you punctuate that?) The Soup, and alum of Seattle's Almost Live brings his stand up show Thanks for My Pool to the Moore Theater this weekend.

The Moore Theatre
Fri & Sat, November 28 - 29 @ 8pm

THE DINA MARTINA CHRISMAS SPECIAL

I plug this every year, and not without good reason. Dina's bizzar, frenzied one woman (?) cabaret is like a hot buttered rum on a cold winter night. And by that I mean it sounds really good, but by the time it comes, you're like "WTF is this?"

Nov. 28th - Dec. 31st.
At Re-bar, 1114 Howell St. (at Boren Ave.)
Door opens @ 7pm / Show starts @ 8pm

THE PAJAMA MEN

Are they sketch? Are they improv? Are they Theater? Who are you? How did get into my office? Help!

This comedy duo brings thier internationally acclaimed, high-energy and ... weird show Verses vs. Verses to the Annex Theater this December. A comedy must-see!

Thursdays - Saturdays, Dec. 4-20 8:00pm
Annex Theatre, 1100 E. Pike St. (at 11th Ave.)
$12 Thursdays, $18 Fridays & Saturdays
For more information: www.infinityliveproductions.com
Advance tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets.

Opening Gala and Video Contest Winners!

2008-09-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

The opening Gala couldn't have gone better!

The night hosted by People's Republic of Komedy's Kevin Hyder began with Hyder's unconsciously conscientious brand of stand-up, followed by short teasers of the festival's acts, including Slow Children Crossing's team of women scientists investigating the mystery of pickle-jar opening, Assaulted Fish's cultist youth group cookie drive, and a hat made of ham (courtesy of The Birthday Boys).

Next, the SketchFest 2008 Video contest had the audience rolling in the aisles. After a quick audience vote, we found our winners! See below for the top three video, or click here to view all the finalists!

The show closed with a set by SketchFest favorites The Cody Rivers Show.

Thanks to everyone - performers, volunteers, audience and staff who made this great night of comedy happen. But don't bail out yet - there's still a lot of fest to see!

The SketchFest 2008 Video Contest Winners:

HONORABLE MENTION (third place)

BEVOLICHER by TROOP!, Los Angeles, CA

SECOND PLACE WINNER

He Said it First by The Public Service Administration, Los Angeles, CA

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

HERPEX by BriTANick, New York, NY

SketchFest Seattle 2008!!!

2008-09-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

The opening gala on Wednesday, September 24th is almost sold out. Get those tickets now!

The 10th Annual SketchFest Seattle!

September 24-27

SketchFest Seattle is back once again to thrill audiences with the best comedy from Seattle and across North America with dozens of top-notch performances packed into one amazing weekend.
This year's SketchFest offers:

An opening night gala featuring The People's Republic of Komedy, The SketchFest Video Contest, and The Cody Rivers Show
Performances from 17 different groups from across North America
Special midnight shows (3pm Beijing Time, Found Magazine Live, and The Sketch Death Match)
The SketchFest Forum on Professional Comedy (free!)
An Incredible Shrinking Ticket price that allows you to see all the shows you want to on the cheap

For more information, visit: www.sketchfest.org.

Advanced tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets, by phone: 800.838.3006, or online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/41747.
All shows are at the one-and-only Theatre Off Jackson, located at 409 7th Ave. South, in Seattle's International District.

In the Art Zone

2008-09-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Tonight, the Seattle Channel's Art Zone, hosted by Almost Live! alumnus Nancy Guppy, will feature segments from SketchFest acts The Pork Filled Players, The People's Republic of Komedy and a few words from our Managing Director Val Bush.

If you aren't able to catch the show tonight at 8:00 on cable channel 21, the show repeat on Friday and Saturday, then will stream from their website.

And don't forget to pick up this month's issue of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine to read their interview with SketchFest Artistic Director Andrew Connor!

The Julie Goldman Offensive - $5 off!

2008-09-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

Friends of SketchFest invite you to see The Julie Goldman Offensive: A Solo Show in One Rant for a bargain price! See details below.

THE JULIE GOLDMAN OFFENSIVE:

A SOLO SHOW IN ONE RANT
September 11-14
Theatre Off-Jackson, 409 7th Ave S.

in Seattle's International District
8:00 pm Thursday-Saturday, 7:00pm Sunday
Thu $15.00 / Fri-Sun $20.00

4 NIGHTS ONLY! Tongueinchic Productions and Theatre Off-Jackson present New York comic dervish JULIE GOLDMAN. Described as a "kick ass comic" (New York Press) and "charmingly deviant" (Village Voice), Goldman is outrageous, fearless, righteous, uncensored, and openly Lez. She is a cast member of the "Big Gay Sketch Show" and the star of the "Julie Goldman Celesbian Interviews" on LOGO. She has also been featured on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" and she most recently received the 2008 NewNowNext: Brink of Fame Comic Award in NYC.

"Julie Goldman deals with the art of stand-up like she's got nothing to lose....she is very now and an absolute must see." ~ NY Press

SPECIAL SKETCHFEST DISCOUNT! Order your tix online, and get $5 off!

(Enter discount code BARBARELLA).
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/40255 or 1-800-838-3006

For more info, contact www.theatreoffjackson.org or lisa@heylisa.com

Ad Watch: #Something-er-other

2008-09-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

Every so often we'll see a SketchFest alum, seemingly at random on the idiot box. They've hocked V8, Kias, Pepsi, and now, a potential coronary that Burger King is calling the Cheesy Bacon Tendercrisp.

Jay Dugre of L.A. comedy group and long-time SketchFest friends TROOP! follows up his much lauded appearance as "Dead Cop" in the recent horror film Prom Night, with this frequently-aired jem that temps you with that most appetite-whetting of topics: beastitality!

It's saucy in more ways than one!

Super-secret semi-possible comedy show (maybe)

2008-08-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

Word is going around that some of the stand-up acts attending Bumbershoot this weekend will be doing a pre-festival show at Ballard's Live Girls! Theater as a part of The People's Republic of Komedy's Lo-Ball series, but (due to the same non-compete clause in their contract that's almost lost SketchFest acts the last few years), they're not allowed to advertise it.

But they're doing it anyway!

Click here to check out the Bumbershoot line-up and pray that your favorites are among those who show up!

Lo-Ball
Friday, August 29th
Live Girls! Theater
2220 NW Market st. (lower level)
Doors at 10:30 p.m.
$5 cover.

SketchFest Video Contest - Five Days to Enter!!

2008-08-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

Time is running short for submission to the 2008 SketchFest Video Contest! You now have only until this Saturday, August 30th to send us your hilarious video sketches! Selected videos will go on to premiere in front of a live SketchFest audience, and two finalists will win cash prizes as voted by the audience itself!

So fire up your camera, open your copy of Flash, download Machinima - anything goes!

Click here for more information on guidelines and how to enter.

Good luck!

The SketchFest 2008 Line-Up

2008-08-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is our 10th Festival, people, and do we have a schedule for you! Seventeen groups from seven cities, the 2008 SketchFest Video Contest, the Sketch Comedy Death Match, nationally-renowned acts FOUND Magazine and The Sound of Young America, and our biggest local showing in years thanks to our new mentoring program! This promised to be a big year.

The Groups:

All American Push Up Party (Seattle, WA)
Thursday Sept. 25th @ 9:00 & Friday Sept. 26th @ 10:30

Angel Yau (Los Angeles, CA)

Thursday Sept. 25th @ 7:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 9:00

Assaulted Fish (Vancouver, BC)

Thursday Sept. 25th @ Midnight, as part of 3pm Beijing Time

The Birthday Boys (Los Angeles, CA)

Friday Sept. 26th @ 9:00 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 6:00

Charles (Seattle, WA)
Thursday Sept. 25th @ 7:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 9:00

The Cody Rivers Show (Bellingham, WA)

Wednesday Sept. 24th @ 7:30 as part of the Opening Night Gala

The Cory and Doug Show (Seattle, WA)

Friday Sept. 26th @ 7:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 10:30

The Entertainment Show (Seattle, WA)
Thursday Sept. 25th @ 7:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 9:00

Found Magazine (Ann Arbor, MI)

Friday Sept. 26th @ Midnight

Hey You Millionaires (Chicago, IL)

Friday Sept. 26th @ 7:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 10:30

The People's Republic of Komedy (Seattle, WA)
Thursday Sept. 25th @ 10:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 7:30

The Pork Filled Players (Seattle, WA)

Thursday Sept. 25th @ Midnight, as part of 3pm Beijing Time

Sidecar (New York, NY)

Thursday Sept. 25th @ 10:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 7:30

Slow Children Crossing (Los Angeles, CA)

Thursday Sept. 25th @ 9:00 & Friday Sept. 26th @ 10:30

The Sound of Young America (Los Angeles, CA)

Saturday Sept. 27th @ 3:00

Ubiquitous They (Seattle, WA)
Thursday Sept. 25th @ 10:30 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 7:30

Unexpected Productions (Seattle, WA)

Friday Sept. 26th @ 9:00 & Saturday Sept. 27th @ 6:00

For the full schedule of shows, performer bios, special events and ticket information, visit us at www.sketchfest.org!

Danger, Sam Jackson!

2008-08-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

It was shocking enough when news that comedian Bernie Mac had died of complications from pneumonia Saturday morning, but when I'd heard that actor, music legend and Bernie's co-star in the upcoming film Soul Men, Isaac Hayes was found dead at his home this morning, things got kind of "sad-weird".

Mac was a stand-up comedian and member of the Original Kings of Comedy known for his approachable, avuncular personality, and wide-eyed "what's wrong with you people?!" observational humor whether on stage, television or film.

Isaac Hayes was a legend in his own time and really needs no introduction. Already an Oscar-winning soul musician and composer, by the 1990s, he gained a new generation of fans when we was cast as "Chef" in Comedy Central's South Park.

My advice to Mac and Hayes' Soul Men co-star Samuel L. Jackson: try to take it easy this week. Say, when was your last physical?

Oh, you'll be pumping Ovaltine

2008-08-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the lull on this blog, nothing funny has happened since George Carlin died. Not a thing. That's why we've been so quiet.

That and we're busy putting this year's SketchFest together.

But whatever the reason, here's something to tide you over until we announce this year's performers: a phonetically subtitled video of an already ridiculous Indian remake of Thriller.

Park that comfy shin guard armor and enjoy.

George Carlin 1937-ShitPissFuckCuntCocksuckerMotherFuckerTits

2008-06-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

Just as we were learning to live in the post-Korman age, George Carlin dies at the age of 71, breaking our hearts all over again. Way to go, asshole.

But I don’t think I need to explain to you who George was, or even that he’s died, since the news is everywhere right now; that he was born and raised in a tough New York neighborhood, began a successful career doing more traditional stand-up and radio comedy before attending a show by comic Lenny Bruce, which was (according to legend) was broken up by police for obscenity, resulting in both Bruce and Carlin being arrested and thrown into the same vehicle.

After that, Carlin changed his act and developed the now-famous “Seven Words You Can't Say on Television” routine, which led to obscenity charges of his own.

He went on to be the first ever host of Saturday Night Live, played Carnegie Hall, released twenty-three comedy albums, appeared in sixteen movies and performed in fourteen HBO stand-up specials. Only four days before his death yesterday, is was announced that he was to receive the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor – the highest honor an American Comedian can earn.

SOFT ROCK EXPLOSION - TONIGHT!

2008-06-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

SOFT ROCK EXPLOSION
Mark Siano and the Freedom Dancers
Friday June 13rd, Saturday June 14th at 8 PM

Re-Bar, 1114 Howell St, Seattle, WA 98101 21+, $12 at the door, or Brown Paper Tickets:
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/34077
or 1-800-838-3006

SOFT ROCK EXPLOSION is a crowd-pleasing, cabaret-style song and dance spectacular, the event features flashy dance numbers, original music and soft rock sing-a-longs led by a 7-piece band, music videos, stand-up and sketch comedy, and as always, a lot of ridiculously sexy people in ridiculously sexy outfits. Now with more dancing, hilarious new people, and new surprises!

The Freedom Dancers are Joey Chapman, Laura DiMarco, Andrea Ford, Abigail Guay, Joanna Hardie, Lieta Siano, and Mara Siciliano.

"Siano makes a charismatic frontman: handsome and unafraid of short-shorts, with musical taste to rival your mom's, and a perfect whiff of '80s sleaze." --The Stranger

"Relentlessly enthusiastic . . . It's hard not to be impressed by Siano's talents as a lyricist." --The Seattle Weekly

"Very funny and only slightly off-color."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer

www.myspace.com/marksiano
www.myspace.com/thefreedomdancers

City of Brotherly Laugh

2008-06-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

Seriously - who knew about this? I mean, we'd heard rumblings from members of Philly's the Waitstaff about something like this for a while now, but not only by chance did we discover today that this latest addition to the ever-growing sketchfest family existed, but that tonight is the last night!

The lineup for this first Philly fest is:

ANIMOSITY PIERRE
BAD HAIR
The GENTLEMEN'S ROTARY AUXILIARY
MEG AND ROB
ROWAN AND HASTINGS
SECRET PANTS
The SIXTH BOROUGH
The WAITSTAFF
with host CHIP CHANTRY.

A portion of the festival's proceeds will go to Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA)!

It seems unlikely that we'll be able to get one of our sketchfest comedy drones out to the 215 in time to scan their rebel base of comic theater, so in lieu of review, here's an interview with festival producer David Terruso by the Phillyist.

Welcome aboard, you kwazy Quakers!

Harvey Korman 1927 - 2008

2008-05-29T16:46:00.000-07:00

Actor and comedian Harvey Korman has died at the age of 81.

Perhaps best known as the sinister Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, his comedy career spanned more than four decades and included work on Tom and Jerry, "The Great Gazoo" on The Flintstones, The Carol Burnette Show, Mama's Family, and even the notorious Star Wars Holiday Special. Most recently, he was seen touring in a series of limited engagement shows with long-time comedy partner and fellow Burnette Show alum Tim Conway.

Conway and Korman in Branson, MO, 2004

N-Y-C is N-Th-House

2008-05-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

Today, Sketchfest NYC announced their June 2008 line-up, and what a line-up it is. Familiar faces to Seattle audiences would include Seattle's All American Push Up Party, former MEAT gals Dirty Jeans and Thunderchief, nostalgic variety gals The Apple Sisters, and other Seattle 'Fest alum A Week of Kindness, The 3rd Floor, Becky and Noelle, Elephant Larry, Summer of Tears, and TROOP!

TV watchers may also be interested in the attendance of Encore's The Whitest Kids U Know, and The Daily Show commentator and sometimes Kiwi-stalker Kristen Schaal's two person cuddle-rama Kurt and Kristen.

SketchFest NYC 2008
New York's ONLY International Sketch Comedy Festival

Thursday, June 12th through Saturday, June 14th
@ The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
307 West 26th Street
[btwn. 8th and 9th Aves.]
www.UCBT.net

Tickets: TBA

For More Info: www.SketchFestNYC.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 12
7PM: Harvard Sailing Team
8PM: All American Push Up Party + Kurt and Kristen
9PM: Free Love Forum
10PM: Dirty Jeans and Thunderchief
11PM: Dance Party of Newfoundland
12AM: Rue Brutalia + Pangea 3000

FRIDAY, JUNE 13
7PM: The Apple Sisters
8PM: Whitest Kids U Know
9PM: Backpack Picnic
10PM: The Birthday Boys
11PM: The Third Floor
12AM: A Week of Kindness + Trophy Dad

SATURDAY, JUNE 14

TBA: The Onion News Network - Live!
TBA: The Sound of Young America - Live!
6PM: Team Submarine + Hey You Millionaires
7PM: Becky and Noelle + Blitzkrieg
8PM: Summer of Tears
9PM: Elephant Larry
10PM: Troop!
11PM: Fearsome
12AM: The SketchFest Closing Night Craptacular, Hosted by Rob Lathan &
Adira Amram

Plus videos by:

Apply with me, Apply, Apply away

2008-05-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

SketchFest Seattle is now accepting applications for 2008!

SketchFest Seattle, the original sketch comedy festival, is ready.
Really ready. Ready for YOU to apply. We've got a cool new venue, a cool new format, and we need your application to make it all happen.

This year, we'll be running September 24th through 27th at the Theatre Off Jackson in Seattle's historic International District. We're getting back to our roots: one full weekend, jam-packed with jury-selected sketch comedy! So much funny, our copy editor won't let us use the words necessary to describe it.

We think you'll like what we've got to offer:

Two shows in a fully-stocked and tech-staffed theater.
Free lodging with a local volunteer.
A $500 artist's fee.
The opportunity to perform in front of great Seattle audiences at the original sketch comedy festival.
Artistic Direction led by the one and only Andrew Connor of
The Cody Rivers Show.

DOWNLOAD THE 2008 APPLICATION NOW

Sketchingham Week 1

2008-04-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Two of the three weeks of Sketchingham! - Sketchfest's kid sister to the north - are already over. This weekend is the last chance to catch this wunderkind of alternative stand-up, sketch, clowning, and wild experimentation, and it's not too late to get your tickets here!

This year's closing acts include Seattle stand-up Emmett Montgomery, Seattle/NYC avant-garde duet Becky And Noelle, and LA retro-garde duet Ten West.

SketchFest pal, musician and sometimes freelance reviewer Will Dean attended the first week of Sketchingham, and brings us this report from the City of Subdued Excitement:
============================

I drove to Bellingham recently to play in a concert band performance. I was planning to drive right back to Seattle after the concert; I've never spent more than a couple of hours in Bellingham. Usually I just stop long enough to grab some coffee at Tony's in Fairhaven. But when I read the Stanger's preview of Sketchingham, I decided to book an overnight stay. I wanted to know: Could Bellingham could put on a sketch comedy fest worthy of the 75-minute drive north?

The sold-out show began with David Cope, a comedian currently based in Seattle. Cope was very funny. His deadpan delivery alternated between sweet self deprecation and over-the-top braggadocio. At one point, Cope brought out a harp to accompany himself while he asked his audience silly questions. The harp made every line, every question, even funnier. Cope was great.

Bucket was up next. Charles Demers and Paul Bae hail from Vancouver BC and have played Sketchingham before. They had lots of energy. I laughed at their Combat Yoga routine, and Charles' song about "the Happa I'm making with my Chinese wife" was charming, but the performance didn't kill. Some fine moments to be sure, but not worth a drive all the way from Seattle.

Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez - The Pajama Men - *were* worth the drive. The number of stories, characters, moods and subjects covered by these two guys in pajamas was flabbergasting. And Jesus were they were funny. Sometimes gently so, often uproariously so, occasionally profoundly so. Moments which stood out to me for their sheer originality included a chess match between a man and a bat, an awkward courtship between a teenage girl on the lam and a boy working at a haunted house's restaurant, and a thumb wrestling match that contained an uncomfortable amount of opponent thumb licking/sucking. Wow, I kept thinking, these guys are from ALBUQUERQUE??? (They're dually based in Albuquerque and Chicago.) In fact, I just emailed a college friend who lives in Albuquerque, telling her that she had better grab her gay best friend and go see these guys, pronto.

April Fools

2008-04-02T09:45:00.001-07:00

A day late and a dollar short, but here's one of this year's favorites, care of the BBC and Monty Python's Terry Jones:

Penguins
by EIbrandedcontent

The 'Ham

2008-03-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

Sketchingham!
Presented by: The Cody Rivers Show

Opening this Thursday!
6 Sketch Comedy Groups
3 Stand-up Comics
3 Weekends
For detailed information click here!
For advance tickets, call: 800-838-3006 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com

Join The Cody Rivers Show in welcoming the best comedy from around North America to the third annual Sketchingham!: Bellingham's International Comedy Festival

The festival kicks off on Thursday, April 3rd with Bucket, The Pajama Men, David Cope and opening music by Bellingham's own Gallus Brothers.

Music starts at 7:00, show at 8:00 - iDiOM Theater - 1418 Cornwall Ave. - Downtown Bellingham

Deadline: NYC

2008-03-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

The last chance to get your application in for SketchFest NYC 2008 is TOMORROW, March 27th! All applications MUST be received by that point!

You can download the application here.

Coulda Had a 10W

2008-03-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Sketch Comedians - comedians though they may be - are still actors. As a result we see familiar faces pop up on national television every so often, be it The Class Project's Bryan Coffee in a Super Bowl Coke ad, TROOP!'s Britt Erickson or Jason Dugre on Scrubs or The Gilmore Girls (respectively), or Totally False People alum Janet Varney in a saucy Kia ad (or on her own TV show, for that matter).

This week, they are joined by old Sketchfest friend, gentle giant and half of LA sketch-clown duo Ten West, Stephen Simon.

She should be careful not to get too close to his food. I hear he gets stabby.

Sketchingham 2008

2008-03-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Cody Rivers Show presents:

Sketchingham! – Bellingham's International Comedy Festival
Sketch Groups and Stand-Ups from Across North America in 3rd Annual Festival

This Spring (April 3-19), for the third year running, comedy theater duo The Cody Rivers Show will bring the best sketch groups from across North America to lil' ole Bellingham for one of the finest comedy festivals around.

Joining the abundance of amazing sketch talent in attendance this year, are some of the region's hottest stand-up comedians performing in tandem with groups from both coasts of the U.S., Canada and Mexico for three weeks of comedy joy.

The Cody Rivers Show is proud to host Sketchingham! and share the stage with the best visiting comedians and actors Mike and Andrew have encountered in their various forays across the continent.

Sketchingham! will also help raise funds for the newly renovated Bellingham Food Bank.

Sketchingham! 2008 Participants:

David Cope

(Seattle)

Bucket
(Vancouver, B.C.)

The Pajama Men

(Chicago/Albuquerque)

Kevin Lee
(Vancouver)

Huh? Uh-Huh!

(Mexico City)

The Third Floor
(Portland, OR)

Emmett Montgomery

(Seattle)

Becky and Noelle
(NYC/Seattle)

Ten West

(L.A.)

Sketchingham! runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays,

Apr. 3-19, featuring a different line-up each week.
All shows at iDiOM Theater
Live music every night from 7:00-8:00

For detailed schedule information,

please visit:

www.infinitelaughs.com

For advanced ticket sales:

www.brownpapertickets.com/event/27507

The Habit is hard to break

2008-03-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

Just when it appeared the last of Seattle's Sketch Renaissance of the early '00s had petered out, The Habit - the boy-band of Seattle sketch - returns a little older and a little wiser.

The now man-band of Jeff, Mark, Dave, Ryan and John, along with fellow alum Tommy, Luke and Mara, have reunited for four nights of monologues and solo-pieces (due to being located in three different cities, rehearsing a full show was not possible).

The Skinny:
LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS:
The Habit Strikes Back
March 21, 22, 28, 29
Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm
Jewel Box Theatre at the Rendezvous
2322 2nd Avenue (Belltown, Seattle)
(206) 441-5823
21+
$10 at the door

A Cross-Country Date with the Apple Sisters

2008-02-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

The end of January means the end of two SketchFests - Chicago and San Francisco.

And I think there's some sort of sporting event going on today.

Falling so close together, the Chicago/San Fran leg of the sketch circuit is an infamously arduous trip. However, our friends in the New York sketch trio The Apple Sisters ambitiously tackled - not simply this two-city - but three city marathon, adding the Charleston Comedy Festival in South Carolina! Three ladies, three cities and three coasts in three weeks!

We caught up with Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Johnson, and Sarah Lowe who've sent us this report of their adventures along the mid-winter gauntlet!

==============================

Kimmy: Hey, we're the Apple Sisters! I'm Kimmy (on the left), and there's Rebekka in the middle and that's Sarah on the right. We just got back from traveling to, count 'em THREE comedy festivals in less than 30 days. Here we are post traveling, at the ECNY awards. Monday, 28^th @ Comix in NYC, where we were nominated for Best Musical Act and Best Flyer/Postcard. (Winning status at the end of this travel blog). We don't look too shabby looking after a month of travel. Honk!

Rebekka: The suspense is killing me!

Kimmy: Our first stop was the Chicago Sketchfest. This one by far had the most supportive community vibe. I met the most comedians from all over the country and saw a surprising amount of industry. The whole festival was in one building, with a rambunctious party with free booze, and comedy mess fest (Sketchubator – hosted by Brandon Campbell). Sketchubator was GREAT. Some highlights - Our pals Elephant Larry did a sketch with cottage cheese and tuna fish (and new friends Ted and Jordi from the Third Floor showed up in that sketch – Ted in a giant vagina costume, then Jordi gave birth – COMEDY GOSSIP – she's for reals pregnant!). Then Jordi and Ted did a surprisingly hilarious and touching sketch called Manatee – it was Jordi's last time on stage until the baby is born. Aww. Host Brandon told an insane story in the dark about warriors and the costumes were all made of various light stripes. It was beautiful. The finale was a group who did a sketch about kids eating, licking, & snorting candy. A LOT of candy. Off the floor. Where Elephant Larry had previously splattered cottage cheese and tuna fish. I'd heard we missed the sketchubator earlier in the week that had LIVE CHICKENS!

Kimmy: This is our pal that we aptly named "Dragon for a Dick." Brian Posen collected a pool of $110 to cut his hair. It was a sight (that we didn't capture – imagine his dragon dick lighting his hair on fire, that's what it looked like)

Rebekka: if you notice, he is also cutting the dragon's hair. i guess a bunch of wizards collected a pool of quizzarks to get the dragon to shave his head....

Sarah: We sang him a song in three part harmony and nearly slayed the dragon... I guess we are like the sirens...

Kimmy: Here we are at the Salt and Pepper diner, near Wrigley Field. What you can't see is the 25 plus pounds of bacon they were cooking. Coffee and bacon grease. Even as a vegetarian, I have to admit, it smelled wonderful.

Rebekka: Thank god you can't gain weight from smelling! (cause we smelled the shit out of that bacon.)

Sarah: Wait... I Thought thats how I gained 8lbs?!?!? You mean I could've been eating this whole time?!

Kimmy: Second stop was the Charleston Comedy Festival hosted by the Have Nots. They are in their fifth year. Our friends Harvard Sailing Team got us hip to the fest. I loved this festival – it was very artist friendly. We played here (above) at the American Theatre – a renovated movie theatre from 1942. Ohhhhh, it was so dreamy to play in that theatre. Our tech guy Andy Livengood (that's his real name) was the BEST. He completes our Andy trilogy (Andy our piano player, Andy our assistant director, and Andy our Charleston tech man extraordinaire).

Rebekka: The American Theater was the perfect theater for our most patriotic show ever ever. And Charleston was perfect for Ribs, Wings, and Beer!

Sarah: Seriously. His name was LIVENGOOD!

Kimmy: Here we are performing in the theatre. We did a 55 minute set (which was also dreamy)

Kimmy: This is Kenneth our cab driver. In Charleston, you can call the cab drivers directly – we developed a bond with Kenneth immediately, so we asked him if we be our Apple Driver. We met him after we went on a pilgrimage to the Piggly Wiggly…PIGGLY WIGGLY!

TRAVEL TIP: Hampton Inn has free coffee, tea, and cookies in the afternoon. The Holiday Inn where we were staying, didn't. Score!

Kimmy: Here's Andy, Sarah, and me at the Waffle House. Andy had never been to a Waffle House. It was just as undercooked and stale as we remembered.

Rebekka: Apparently this was the only breakfast place in town! We waited 20 minutes for a table.

Sarah: We all ate HUGE meals for $20. take that NY diners!!

Kimmy: Rebekka and her potato gun at Hyman's Restaurant. We went with fellow performers Josh and Tamra (Check out Tamra new baby clothes line). We found out from Kenneth that Hyman's isn't the best seafood restaurant, but that's OK by me because A. It's called Hyman's B. Customer service – they love to give out free stuff – crab dip, fried green tomatoes, and t-shirts.

Top 3 hyman jokes:

"Let's bust down the door to hyman's"
"Oh, we just popped into hyman's"
"Hyman, I barely know him" (that one provoked boos)

Rebekka: C. Hyman's had little cards in the bathroom with pearls of wisdom, like this relationship tip: "When you're wrong, apoligize, when you're right....SHUT UP!" Now that's a doozy.

4. "You could break lose your Hyman laughing at those jokes!"

Sarah: I loved Hymens. I loved going into it and eating its crabs.

Kimmy: Here's Glennis from I Eat Pandas, me, and Andy, DRUNK off of $1 beers at Theatre 99. There was a big ol' variety show (a la Sketchubator) to end the festival. Here we are trying to hail a cab. It's impossible to hail a cab at 2am in Charleston. Luckily, John from the Charleston City Paper gave some of us a ride home.

Rebekka: Yes, some of you......

Sarah: NOTE: CABS IN CHARLESTON WILL NOT STOP. EVEN IF YOU ARE SINGING TO THEM WHILE STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET.

Kimmy: The other half of the crew (Sarah, Rebekka, and funny boys from Hot Sauce) shared a cab…in mustaches.

Rebekka: The cab driver overcharged us but we were lucky to get home!

Kimmy: Last stop, San Francisco Sketchfest! Here's our hotel, Hotel Tomo. It's a former Best Western that has been converted into a Japanimation/Anime style hotel. They had a wii lounge, where Rebekka, Sarah, and Andy played with new pals from freeloveforum. I missed out because my boyfriend and I drove through the snow and floods from LA. No joke!

Rebekka: I wish we had a picture of the hostess bar that we accidentally stumbled into down the street from the hotel.

Kimmy: Here's Rebekka lounging at the Tomo.

Rebekka: I'm gonna send that sexy pic to Playboy.

Sarah: That lounge was magical!!! 5 seconds after Rebekka laid on it her clothes were gone... I wish we could show THAT picture!

Kimmy: We were thrilled to be invited to perform at the San Francisco Sketchfest. This festival was definitely had the highest profile acts -A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T with Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie!), The Kids in the Hall, Gene Wilder, and Freaks and Geeks. We got to perform with the esteemed and hilarious Kasper Hauser, amazing Will Franken, and fantastic Kathleen Phillips. I really enjoyed San Fran Fest – it's a great town, well put together, and a great opportunity to rub elbows with celebs. I got to say hello to the guys in Hard 'n' Phirm. Genuine and hilarious. I would love to tour like they do! We tried like hell to hang out with other groups - we traded text messages with Backpack Picnic, but we couldn't get it together...sigh! Next time!

Rebekka: TRAVEL TIP: Drink lots of wine at the Wattle Creek Winery and Cellar 360 in Ghirardelli Square....then get on a plane.

Sarah: And if you can- be sure its PINK WINE

Kimmy: We ate at the legendary Sears Fine Foods "World Famous Little Pancakes." Here is the lesser known mascot "Pancake Eyes."

Rebekka: I ordered the 1800 pancakes and made the waitress laugh. I am hilarious.

Sarah: The real joke came when the waitress delivered 1800 pancakes!!!

Kimmy: It's a good thing we came to Sears because Sarah found one of her long lost relatives – Grandma "1800 Pancakes" Lowe.

Sarah: Speak up… I cant hear you.

Kimmy: Sunset

Rebekka: What a romantic way to see Alcatraz.

Kimmy: Here we are back to the present. And guess what? We WON! Best Musical Act and Best Flyer or Postcard! It was an honor to win – the award is peer and industry voted and we couldn't have been happier.

Rebekka: The award was a bobbling donkey's butt! An Asses Ass!

February 14^th marks our one year anniversary. In the past year, we have been to six comedy festivals in five cities (San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Charleston, New York), opened for Ingrid Michaelson at the Bowery Ballroom, written 9 brand new shows, and have had a sold out audience every single show. When the Apple Sisters met one year ago, it felt like we formed a comedy Voltron (but in the 1940's).

One year anniversary show is Feb. 14^th. Then on the 15^th we're opening for Ingrid Michaelson at Webster Hall. Further dates can be found on our myspace page. http://www.myspace.com/theapplesisters

Thanks Josh for letting us share our memories.

==================================

Back at'cha, ladies!

If you can make it there ...

2008-01-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

Barbecue in the green room, a full beer fridge, palling around with the best sketch talent in the country and ruckus laughter from and audience that would just as soon knife you? What's not to love about SketchFest NYC?

New York's fourth annual international sketch comedy festival, SketchFest NYC 2008, is finally ready for you - yes you! - to apply for a slot in this prestigious three nights of funny.

SketchFest NYC
June 12-14, 2008
Download your application here!

Check out our coverage of SketchFest NYC 2007 to wet your whistle:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Theater to Fail America By

2008-01-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

Don’t let the horribly misguided poster deceive you, the New York Times calls Mike Daisey’s Monopoly! “a brilliantly spun narrative” and his How Theater Failed America has been playing to sold-out houses in New York’s Public Theater … let that deceive you instead.

Yes, Mr. Daisey, former local sketch personality and long-time friend of the ‘fest is returning to Seattle with two new monologues; Monopoly!, his narrative of the battle over the electrification of America between geniuses Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, and How Theater Failed America, about “dystopian state of theater in America.”

Monopoly!

at the Capitol Hill Arts Center Showroom
From January 18, 2008 7:30 PM
Through February 03, 2008 7:30 PM
Get tickets online here.

How Theater Failed America
at the Capitol Hill Arts Center Showroom

From February 08, 2008 7:30 PM
Through February 10, 2008 7:30 PM
Get tickets online here.

The Twelve Days of Bruce Willis

2007-12-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Things have been a bit quiet here at Sketch Central, but in case the season's comedy offerings aren't enough to give you that Christma-hanuk-kwanzaa pep, here's a little holiday classic from our friends at Elephant Larry.

Pssst! Wanna buy some sketch????

2007-12-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

Sketch and Sketch friendly happenings around town this weekend:

The Dina Martina Christmas Extravaganza
We say: “The Holiday tradition continues. So worth every penny.”
$15–$18 Fri–Sun at 8 pm. Through Dec 31
Re-bar
1114 Howell St
Seattle (Downtown)
233-9873

The Martini Brothers' (Posthumous) Holiday Showcase
They say: “A mash-up of as many holiday stories that we can squeeze together, presented by the Flying Martini Brothers.”
We say: “I like their name…mmm gin…”
$10 Thurs–Fri at 8 pm. Through Dec 21
Historic University Theater
5510 University Way NE
Seattle (University District)
206-352-8291

UNCLE MIKE RUINS CHRISTMAS
They Say: “A show about your cherished holiday memories, from the point of view of their own Uncle Mike.”
We say: “This is a late night…and The Wing-It kids like to drink at their late nights…on stage…a lot. So what other recommendation do you need from me?”
$8 Sat at 12:30 pm. Through Dec 22
Historic University Theater
5510 University Way NE
Seattle (University District)
206-352-8291

Beowulf and Bubba's Comedy Show Of Dreams
They say: “Two veterans of Seattle’s bursting alternative comedy scene come together to put on one amazing show. Dan Moore and Owen Straw will be taping the event for a future DVD release. “
We say: “I think this is the same Dan Moore I went to college with and acted in a production of Mamet’s The Lake Boat.” I think…”
$10 Thurs Dec 6 at 7:30 pm
Rendezvous
2320 Second Ave
Seattle (Belltown)
206-441-5823
Website

He Sees You When You're Sleeping....
They say: “Trim the tree and stuff the stockings with death!!! It's horror for the holidays as Blood Squad presents live, improvised, horror movie mayhem.”
We say: “FUCK YES! BLOOD SQUAD!!!!!!”
$10 Fri–Sat at 8 pm. Through Dec 29
Odd Duck Studio
1214 10th Ave
Seattle (First Hill)
800-838-3006

Mark Siano: High Times and Misdemeanors
He says: “A one man comedy!”
We say: “You will look into his eyes…you will give Mark your money…he will make you laugh…you are getting sleeeeepy…”
$10 Fri at 8 pm. Through Dec 7
Rendezvous
2320 Second Ave
Seattle (Belltown)
206-441-5823
Website

Annex Theatre's Spin the Bottle
60 SECONDS MAX!
They say: “Featuring over 40 acts -- music, dance, spoken word, film, and who
knows what else -- of no more than a minute in length. “
We say: “SketchFest SENSATIONS: The Cory and Doug Show are among the 40. Expect a 60 second depressing sketch contest between the two.”
$9 Dec 7 at 11 pm
Stellner Studio, 1100 E Pike St, Seattle

And just in case you desire something more “classical” I thought you might like to know about these two shows:

Desdemona
A feminist revision of Othello (Desdemona becomes an empowered sex worker)
$15 Thurs–Sun at 8 pm. Through Dec 9
Little Theatre
608 19th Ave E
Seattle (Capitol Hill)
206-675-2055

Medea Knows Best
Euripides parlayed into the 1950s, with a doo-wop chorus.
$12 Fri–Sat at 8 pm. Through Dec 22
Ground Floor Studio Theatre
1529 10th Ave
Seattle (Downtown)
323-7499

Sketch out.

Stand Up and Be Counted

2007-11-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

The 28th Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition is more than half way through its month-long run now and only ten of the original sixteen contestants remain standing.

SketchFest Seattle had agents in the audience for last night's show at Kirkland's Laughs comedy club. The comedy was filled with staples of the stand-up genre: magic acts, the fact that men and women are different, midget jokes, celebrity impressions, and blazers with jeans.

The acts aside, it was even more interesting to watch the reactions of a more suburban audience. Though admittedly a mere smattering, jokes about Fox News and the Bush administration got a few disapproving jeers while anything dealing with race or immigration got wild applause, prompting the one Mexican-American comedian in the running to comment, "Yeah, I haven't gotten tired of hearing that all week."

Overall the acts were well received - Bush, Iraq and abortion jokes included.

When our SketchFest spies return to catch the competition finals at Seattle's Comedy Underground on November 25th, it'll be interesting to see how, if at all, the acts tailor their material to a more urban crowd.

The competition continues tonight at the Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester.

The 2007 Seattle International Comedy Competition

Saturday, November 17, 2007
Lucky Eagle Casino - Rochester (8:00pm)

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Washington Athletic Club - Seattle (8:00pm)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Vashon Theater - Vashon Island (7:30pm)

Friday, November 23, 2007
Kirkland Performance Center - Kirkland (8:00pm)

Saturday, November 24, 2007
Admiral Theatre - Bremerton (8:00pm)

Sunday, November 25, 2007
Comedy Underground - Seattle (8:30pm)

Maxim Girls

2007-11-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

Dear old friends and centerfolds in their own right Biz Ellis and Livia Scott of New York sketch favorite MEAT will be on Maxim Radio (located on Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 108) tomorrow! Tuesday, Nov 13th. at 10PM eastern, 7PM pacific.

LIVE GIRLS!!
MAXIM!
WOO!

2007-10-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

The blog has been a little quiet since the fest closed its doors in September. I guess we've needed a little time to lick our wounds - our delicious, comedy-flavored wounds.

But ne'er dismay! The SketchFest season isn't over just yet! SketchFest Toronto is just around the corner, and our vigilant agents will do everything we can to get the scoop!

PLUS! You now have but a few days to get your application in to the very first ALL SKETCH - the Sacramento Sketch Comedy Festival.

In the mean time, enjoy this bit of down-home Americana:

New Yorkers and Women and Duos, oh my!

2007-09-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

The house has gone dark on another SketchFest Seattle, which closed to packed houses this past weekend.

Coverage of this year’s festival may have suffered while we were busy making the comedic ends meet, but the fest went off with few problems. The first weekend saw the return of old friends and familiar faces. Perennial favorite The 3rd Floor came up from Portland, and the clowning duo of Ten West returned from LA. We also saw a rare appearance by renowned San Francisco group Kasper Hauser (on Rob’s birthday, no less) who – a brief stop-over on their Sky Maul tour this past November aside - haven’t attended a Seattle Fest in over five years.

The addition of the beautifully paired whimsy-heavy groups KARLA (LA) and The Cody Rivers Show (Bellingham) rounded out this weekend of current sketch comedy powerhouses.

The second weekend started off with a panic. Sidecar – a new and upcoming group from New York - cancelled at the last moment due to a family emergency, igniting a scramble for a replacement. “Our plane had literally just touched down when we got the call,” said Nate Kushner of fellow New York group A Week of Kindness. The AWoK boys managed to rush to the theater and perform with local horror-themed group THEM! and yet another NYC group, Drop Six.

The “New York Invasion” continued the following night with three-woman group The Apple Sisters - one of the hits of the fest, who charmed audiences with their spoof of 1940s radio variety shows – and Party Central USA, a quirky quartet with a penchant for audience participation.

Offbeat local duo Scarecrow and Mr. Vogt then opened for LA’s Keilly and Roeters – a pink-clad, relationship-skewing two-woman group, whose unspoken third member just happens to be Ted Raimi; the younger brother of Evil Dead/Spiderman director Sam Raimi, but perhaps better known as comic relief character Joxter from Xena: Warrior Princess.

The final Saturday opened with adorable Chicago two-woman group (all-girl invasion?) Girly as well as local pair The Cory and Doug Show in their first full performance.

The evening finished with The Apple Sisters and Drop Six in standing-room-only shows, before terminating in a late-night closing party which this reporter honestly can’t remember most of.

We here at SketchFest HQ want to send a final shout-out to our fantastic volunteers, enthusiastic audiences, and, of course, all of the great groups who came out this year!

And as always, stay tuned here, where we keep our ears to the ground, to hear all the dirt.

SKETCHFEST 2007

2007-08-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

2 weekends. 7 cities. 15 groups. 49 comedians. The nation's original festival devoted to sketch comedy returns! 15 of the hottest and funniest sketch comedy groups from across the USA will descend upon Capitol Hill this September 6th through 15th at the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway.

THE SKINNY:
What: SketchFest Seattle 2007
Where: Erickson Theatre Off Broadway
1524 Harvard Ave. (between Pike and Pine)
Dates: Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays
Two Weekends:
September 6, 7, & 8
September 13, 14, & 15
Times: Show at 8:00 on Thursdays. Shows at 8:00 and 10:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. (featuring two groups per show!)

Tickets: $15 for each show (featuring two groups)
Advanced tickets available at www.ticketwindowonline.com .
Tickets are also available at the venue, day of show.

More: Visit www. SketchFest.org for a complete festival schedule, photos and bios of performing groups, festival passes, and more!

NORTHWEST
The 3rd Floor (Portland, OR) 9/7 & 9/8
"With its past premises involving giants, unicorns, and naked cowboys, this boundary-busting ensemble has become a festival fave." - Chicago Magazine. This legendary NW group, born in 1996, returns to SketchFest!

The Cody Rivers Show (Bellingham, WA) 9/6 & 9/7
Based in Bellingham, and regularly touring the United States and Canada, they deeply enjoy bringing their blend of dance, music and conceptually inspired comedy theatre to audiences everywhere.

The Cory and Doug Show (Seattle, WA) 9/15
A sketch comedian who dabbles in improv met an improv comedian who dabbles in sketch. Together they perform two-man comedy of both the traditional and the experimental variety.

Scarecrow and Mr. Vogt (Seattle, WA) 9/14
By combining their live sketches with videos, music, fighting, cumin, dreams and just a hint of improv, they present a unique comedic experience that has to be seen to be believed, if not necessarily understood.

THEM! (Seattle, WA) 9/13
A hybrid of comedy and horror, employing puppets, music, video and live performance. The dark and uncomfortable are their bread and butter.

LOS ANGELES
KARLA 9/6 and 9/7
They received a standing ovation at the New York SketchFest and recently appeared at the Best of the Best Sketchfest in Portland. Show includes: brains, fun costumes, general spasticness, and puppets.

Keilly and Roeters 9/14
"Garbed in tutus and pink hoodies, these comedians frame the lifespan of a relationship between two best friends in tender moments and hilarious bickering." (Top 5 Picks at Chicago SketchFest – Time Out Chicago)

Ten West 9/7 & 9/8
"I think it's safe to say I was unequivocally mesmerized the entire length of the show. I don't even think I risked blinking. They were that good" - Time Out Chicago . The duo returns to SketchFest after a run of their show, "Nights Errant," which Backstage West gave a Critic's Pick.

SAN FRANCISCO
Kasper Hauser 9/8
They have headlined many of the best comedy clubs and festivals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Members have appeared on Comedy Central; they wrote and starred in the feature films Fishing with Gandhi and Cow Monkey; and they just published their first book, the catalog parody SkyMaul.

CHICAGO
Girly 9/15
Voted "Best of the Fest" at the 2007 Montreal SketchFest, these gals will make your heart ache and laugh as you see yourself (and maybe a crazy aunt or two) in every fabric of the scenes.

NEW YORK
The Apple Sisters 9/14 & 9/15
They perform original 1940s songs, commercials, and bits (with a modern twist!). They were recently featured at the Comedy Central Stage and Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.

Drop Six 9/13 & 9/15
Voted "Best of the Fest" by Second City at the 2006 Toronto SketchFest, this ensemble – veterans of Second City-New York and Ringling Bros. – share a love of physical comedy, dance, and juggling.

Party Central USA 9/14
They have performed around New York City to sold-out audiences and have been featured in the DC Comedy Festival as well as the Chicago and New York SketchFests. Innovative, high-spirited and wonderfully bleak!

Sidecar 9/13
Their sketch work is characterized by a mix of short and long dissimilar scenes that separate, converge, and meld with one another over the course of the show. Also, fake moustaches.

A Week of Kindness 9/14
As students, they created comedy that thrilled their fellow Penn State students. As men, they have been thrilling audiences in NY's hippest comedy spots (UCB, PIT) since 2005.

And the HI-larious alterna Kings of stand-up, the People's Republic of Komedy (the people who bring you Laffhole), will be hosting the festival!

SKETCHFEST SPECIAL EVENTS
Gala - Come to our Thursday night show and stay for the Gala! Following Thursday night performances, a festive gala will be held in the lobby of the theatre. Join us for spicy treats courtesy of Buddha Belltown Lounge.

PUSH Sketch Cabaret - PUSH has emerged as the venue dedicated to seeking out new talent and new ideas in sketch comedy. Featuring experimental sketch and things you wouldn't normally see in the festival, this is an event not to be missed by sketch comedy fans. Fridays at midnight.

"The Art of Sketch Writing with Joe Flaherty" - Joe Flaherty of the seminal television show SCTV will bring his years of experience and comedy know-how to the stage. This one day workshop will cover the basics of sketch writing from conception to finished product. Saturday 9/15 from 10am-5pm. Cost - $100. Sign up at info@sketchfest.org.

YA RLY

2007-08-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Internet culture has become such a strange culmination of context built upon context and references regurgitated, consumed, and re-regurgitated until it becomes a new vernacular so unrecognizable from the original intent that, yes, even the following makes sense to some people under the right circumstances:

I just felt like pointing that out.

The Funk of 40,000 Inmates

2007-07-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

This may not be sketch comedy-specific, but it is quite a thing to behold: an excess of fifteen hundred inmates at the CPDRC prison in the Philippines reenacted the dance sequence from Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Fear its awesomeness:

I know they're not real zombies, but somehow doesn't lessen my concern for the "woman" at the end.

SketchFest Seattle 2007 line-up!

2007-07-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Let the drums roll. Here is the fabulous line-up for SketchFest Seattle
2007. The following hilarious groups will descend upon innocent Seattle
audiences Thursdays-Saturdays September 6-15 at the Erickson Theatre Off
Broadway on Capitol Hill. Keep an eye out for the schedule and more
information at www.sketchfest.org.

The 3rd Floor - Portland, OR
The Apple Sisters - New York, NY
The Cody Rivers Show - Bellingham, WA
The Cory and Doug Show - Seattle, WA
Drop Six - New York, NY
Girly - Chicago, IL
Karla - Los Angeles, CA
Kasper Hauser - San Francisco, CA
Keilly and Roeters - Los Angeles, CA
Party Central USA - New York, NY
Scarecrow and Mr. Vogt - Seattle, WA
Sidecar - New York, NY
Ten West - Los Angeles, CA
THEM! - Seattle, WA
A Week of Kindness - New York, NY

Sketch town ladies sing this song...doo dah...doo dah

2007-07-19T11:22:00.001-07:00

Another week, another round up of sketch and sketch like things happening here in Seattle!

Winlar! Nothing Controversial!
Ukulele and standup.
Winlar! A veteran of the sketch wars of 1999 presents an evening of ukulele and standup. back in the day his group Kazoo! had one of the biggest followings in the city and routinely sold out appearances at the annual fringe festival. I once made a drunken reply to one of their publicity emails. I have never had the chance to apologize to him for that. Winlar! I'm sorry.
Fri July 20 at 8 pm
Rendezvous
2320 Second Ave
Seattle (Belltown)
206-441-5823
Website

Cupcake
The return of the perennially popular late-night improv duo. I've asked repeatedly of my improv friends who are "in the know" how best to describe cupcake...no one ever can. But they sell out all their shows (no small deal at the HUT) and have a rabid fan base of college co-eds. I wish I was still a young man.
$8
Sat at 12:30 am. Through Aug 25
Historic University Theater
5510 University Way NE
Seattle (University District)
206-352-8291

The Entertainment Show with live comedy & music
Our good friends Scarecrow and Mr. Vogt host this monthly evening of comedy and music. It's at a bar. I like comedy. I like music. I like drinking.
$6
Tues 7/24 9pm
Sunset Tavern
5433 Ballard Avenue, Seattle Washington, 98107
(206) 784-4880

Also this week:
Week 2 of the July 14/48 Festival!
Closing weekend of Wing-it Productions D.R.
More Laff Hole at Chop Suey!
(see below for details)

Viva Portlandia

2007-07-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

The stage is dark on yet another Best of the Best SketchFest, which celebrated its fifth year this past weekend.

The SketchFest Seattle Party Posse was only able to attend the second of the two nights, so our report is a bit stunted. However, the digest of our sister fest to the south is this:

With the exception of LA's KARLA - whose smart, poignant and magical comedy we simply can't get enough of - Saturday night's line-up was a sort of call-to-arms for wayward Portland comedians. The night began with The Dark-Eyed Strangers, marking the return of former The 3rd Floor alumni Tony St. Clair and Brandon Campbell with their new four-person project out of Chicago.

After KARLA came The Weekly Armenian, the one-man sketch show by 3rd Floor alumn turned LA-dwelling "Sneezy Juror on an episode of Monk" Brian Coffee. Brian's been absent from, at least, our particular neck of the sketchfest circuit since his previous group, The Class Project, attended from '00 - '02. It was fun seeing his new show, which uses a minimalist, zero costume change, zero recorded effects, zero lighting change form that emphasizes his ability to paint a scene purely through performance.

The evening concluded with what has become a sort of tradition at the BotBSF: the gratuitously long The 3rd Floor end-of-festival blow-out and reunion show. This year the number of reunited cast members was so large that they barely all fit on stage for the closing musical number.

As the cost of touring increases, along with the number of points a troupe can tour to, it appears that some groups are travelling to fewer festivals this year, as evidenced by the invite-only BotBSF line-up of only seven acts (down from the eleven-group line-ups of the past two years). This didn't hinder the fest though, and the more relaxed, shorter evenings relieved some of the pressure that comes with other fests that cram as many as nine acts in a single evening.

Sketchy sketch sketch (and sketch like stuff) in Seattle this week!

2007-07-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

Legends in Their Own Minds
Several member's of Seattle sketch legends The Habit (including Mark Siano and Dave Swidler) hang out and tell jokes and stories and stuff. Not sure if they will actually do any old Habit material or not, not that it matters because I know funny...and these guys are funny.

$8 Fri-Sat at 8 pm. Through July 14
Rendezvous2320 Second AveSeattle (Belltown) 206-441-5823 Website

Laff Hole! (The People's Republic of Komedy)

Now in their new home at Chop Suey! Rumor has it they have air conditioning! Not sure if any sketch acts are lined up this week. But does it matter? It's Seattle's best outlet for all things comedic!
$5 Wed at 10 pm
Chop Suey1325 E Madison StSeattle (Capitol Hill) 206-324-8000 Website

D.R. (Wing-it Productions)

An improvised spoof of Medical Dramas by the people behind Jet City Improv. Featuring Doug Willott of The Cory and Doug Show!(See what I did there? I feel dirty...)
$10 Thurs-Fri at 8 pm. Through July 20
Historic University Theater5510 University Way NESeattle (University District) 206-352-8291

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School

No, it isn't actually sketch comedy...but rather it is sketching...of half naked burlesque performers. You go, you drink...you get to draw pictures of hot sexy people. You have no excuse nott o go.
$10-$15 Mon July 16 at 6 pm
Rendezvous2320 Second AveSeattle (Belltown) 206-441-5823 Website

One World Theatre, 3-Card Monty & CHAC present
14/48 - The World's Quickest Theater Festival

The producers will never admit it, but what they do in this fest (create an evening of short plays in the span of 24 hours all from a theme chose at random) but really...it looks like sketch, smells like sketch and tastes like sketch.
July 13 - 14Doors: 7:30 pm & 10:00 pm
CHAC Showroom1621 - 12th Ave. SeattleTickets: $15 - All Ages w/ 21+ Bar
ADVANCE TICKETS:www.brownpapertickets.com/event/16381
http://1448fest.com/

2007-07-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

Over in this week's Seattle Weekly John Longenbaugh has an interesting article up on what it is like to be a jury member during the SketchFest jury process. Having been a juror in the past myself and having sat through hours and hours of demo tapes I can state it *can* be a frustrating yet wonderful as well as a side-splitting yet painful outing that will leave you loving sketch comedy all the more.

Read on!

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-07-04/arts/five-hours-of-sporadic-funniness-at-seattle-sketchfest.php

Black Daisy DVD Release Party

2007-07-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

On Mon, July 9th, Chop Suey, Sub Pop, and the People's Republic of Komedy Present: PATTON OSWALT'S "werewolves and lollipops" CD/DVD RELEASE PARTY! with BLACK DAISY'S "The Hardy Har Har Collection" Hosted by The People's Republic of Komedy FREE!

I've been hearing a great deal about these guys (despite not having the chance to actually see them in person). Anyways, they have a new dvd coming out and the release party is this Monday. The Stranger also has a write up about the group AND the dvd in this week's issue:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=257814

For more info about BlackDaisy: http://blackdaisycomedy.com/

Sketchy Shenanigans in this here town!

2007-06-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Say blog, just what is on tap in the world of sketch and sketch-like comedy this week here in Seattle?

The Mark Siano Soft Rock Spectacular:
Soft rock, dance, and comedy with your host Mark Siano.
$10 Sat June 30 at 8 pm
Rebar
1114 Howell StSeattle (Downtown) 233-9873 Website

Quiet Monkey Fight:
A new eight-piece improv and sketch comedy group.
$6 Fri-Sat at 8 pm. Through July 7
Odd Duck Studio
1214 10th AveSeattle (First Hill) 800-838-3006

Killer Prom at Murder High:
Blood Squad (Improvised Teen Horror Flicks...on stage!)
$10 Fri-Sat at 10:30 pm. Through June 30
Odd Duck Studio
1214 10th AveSeattle (First Hill) 800-838-3006

The Dart-Mondo:
A soufflé of improv and standup.
$8 Sat at midnight. Through July 7
Historic University Theater
5510 University Way NESeattle (University District) 206-352-8291

Burlesque Behind the Pink Door:
$12 Sat at 11 pm
The Pink Door
1919 Post AlleySeattle (Downtown) 206-443-3241 Website

Capitol Hill High, Seeing Red: The Final Period:
To Be Continued Productions at
$13-$15 Fri-Sun at 7:30 pm. Through June 30
Capitol Hill Arts Center
1621 12th AveSeattle (Capitol Hill) 800-838-3006

THE SKETCHFEST 2007 VIDEO CONTEST

2007-06-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

This year, don't just watch SketchFest Seattle, participate!
We're looking for short, funny videos by audience members to introduce each act at this year's festival. Winners will receive a free pass to all the shows in the fest!

Deadline for submissions is Friday, August 10th!

Click here for how to enter and more!

Drama Prairie Dog

2007-06-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Elephant Larry @ College Humor

2007-06-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

The EL boys' latest collaboration with CollegeHumor.com is a hilarious send up of commercial radio - one real New York station in particular whose slogan used to be "All the best hits of the 80s and 90s without any of that rap."

Keep an eye out for cameos by MEAT's Becky Poole, Fearsome's Chris O'Connor and stand-up comedian Baron Vaughn.

WE WANT YOU!

2007-06-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENSION!
Saturday, June 16 (post-marked)

To apply to SketchFest Seattle, the nation's original sketch comedy festival. SketchFest Seattle 2007 will take place Thursdays-Saturdays September 6-15 at the swanky Erickson Theatre Off Broadway. Located in the heart of vibrant Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA.

SketchFest Seattle is a two-weekend festival of the freshest and funniest sketch comedy groups selected by jury from across the U.S. and beyond. This is an amazing opportunity to network with sketch comedians from around the nation. And a chance to be showcased with some of the finest sketch folk around!

WHAT'S NEW THIS YEAR?
Artist compensation has increased! More performance slots so that we can accommodate more sketch groups!

We are now accepting applications for SketchFest Seattle 2007. Click here to download an application. If you have any questions, please contact Artistic Director Val Bush at val@sketchfest.org.

Thank you for applying to SketchFest Seattle!

Laff Hole: The SketchFest Invasion!

2007-06-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 20 – one night only!

SketchFest Seattle invades Laff Hole with sketch, sketch, and more sketch! Each and every week, People's Republic of Komedy and Capitol Hill Arts Center bring you a brilliant showcase of Seattle's most cutting edge, innovative comedians. Combine hilarious stand-up comedy with a fantastic smattering of alternative sketch/improv and you have the makings of Laff Hole! Come for the comedy, stay for the after-party.

The SketchFest invasion includes local sketch comedy troupes: The Cory and Doug Show, THEM!, and Oedipus Complex. Along with The 30 Cent Players from Victoria, BC. And video from New York's Elephant Larry! There will also be stand-up from San Francisco's Tim Lee. And more!

Don't miss the event that the Stranger calls "Wednesday night's most reliable diversion." Escape your reality with hilarious comedy and well-poured libations. See you there!

Laff Hole: The SketchFest Invasion

Wednesday June 20 at 10pm (doors at 9pm, come early for cocktails!)

Capitol Hill Arts Center Lower Level at 1621 12 ^th Ave. (down the ramp)

A mere 5 bucks for the show!

21 and over only: ID required

Advanced tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/9027

More info: www.sketchfest.org and www.myspace.com/laffhole

SketchFest NYC 2007 - Day 3

2007-06-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

7:00 - Becky & Noelle
With a small silo of unusual musical instruments and an avant-guard sensibility, this third two-woman group of the fest finds a way to satirize performance art while simultaneously BEING performance art.

7:30 - kevINda
At the top of the show, this two-person African American group from Chicago explained that they perform "Racially and politically charged humor." And that they do. While in a genre of comedy where "white guys do this/black guys do this" has become the standard cliche, kevINda manages to address issues of race in politics in a way that's still accessible to both the satirizing and the satirized. Though their punchline/lights-out style of scenes is often predictable, it's just as often effective.

8:00 - KARLA
"I wanna put that show in my pocket and carry it around forever" - Britt from TROOP!
This show was the talk of the fest. While they didn't altogether abandon the sketcher's impulse for "wacky premises," this two-woman troupe from LA favored much smarter scenes examining relationships and human interaction, using sparkling characters, use of staging as a comic device and shifts in power dynamics to create scenes that were both hilarious and carried a message. The ending scene was the high-point of the festival, using a child-like story to create an air of magic and love that immediately brought the audience to standing ovation.

9:00 - Summer of Tears
This troupe has seen it's popularity grow exponentially over the past year, having even performed at last year's Aspen Comedy Festival. They're an attractive young group, know it, and have no problem with using it to their advantage. Their scenes frequently have a "sexy" edge and they bring a hip energy to the stage (they dance to high-energy pop songs over every transition) that seemed to quickly win the audience to their side.

10:00 - Elephant Larry
This show was so packed they almost didn't let the other performers come in to watch it. They took the stage like rock stars. Unpretentious and straight-forward, EL performs quirky and strange scenes with clever use of sketch cliches. In an art form where premises risk getting stale, they perform even television parodies and game show sketches with an inventiveness which, if any of us knew any better, we should probably consider obscene.

11:00 - TROOP!
Watching TROOP! is like watching an old friend - not just because they ARE old friends, but because their catalog of familiar sketches and tight, nuanced performances make them your instant buddies at any festival they perform.

12:00 - SketchFest NYC Craptacular
Any SketchFest worth its salt has a good PUSH rip-off. That's right, Seattle's shamelessly taking credit for this one. Most cities have one - Portland has the Scramble-Bramble, Chicago has the Sketchubator, and New York has the Craptacular. This late-night cabaret allows performers to premiere experimental bits or works they might otherwise not perform in a regular set. As the title suggests, these are usually pretty bad. We were sorely disappointed, however, when many of the scenes turned out to be pretty good. Some of the noteworthy scenes were a bizarrely touching piece from The Third Floor about an awkward boy's love affair with a manatee, and a song by Seattle-turned-New York musician Reggie Watts that received an enthusiastic standing ovation. A standing-O at a Craptacular? Unprecedented!

SketchFest NYC 2007 - Day 2

2007-06-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

7:00 - Slow Children At Play
This young group takes straight-up, no-gimmick sketch with familiar premises and makes them fresh again with strong performances, good ideas and a good command of the form. A worthy successor to similar groups like Elephant Larry and TROOP!

8:00 - Dance Party Newfoundland
If I've been recycling adjectives like sharp, witty, charismatic or well-executed, these guys deserve a turn at each. Not just a nonsequitur title, this group really is from Newfoundland, and it shows in their humor about Newfie coastal towns, the Canadian unemployment system, and Canadian country music acts - all topics Americans may not specifically know, but still carry enough familiarity that we can lose ourselves in the distinct characters.

9:00 - Fearsome
Fearsome has developed a reputation as one of New York's racier troupes. Here you'll find commercial and television parodies about prostitutes, gynecologists, songs about "Fat Upper Pussy Areas" and a laundry treatment spray called "Fuckstain." Pepper liberally with off-the-wall absurdities and some pointed dialog. And vomit.

10:00 - MEAT
Meat is the kind of NY sketch mainstay that solicits laughter and applause merely by setting a familiar prop or introducing a favorite character - and not without cause. This four-woman group is a well oiled character-making machine, whether it's an uncomfortably friendly Paul Bunyon, parents returned from the dead by an indifferent, martini swilling God, or the ever classic "Evil British Children." This latest show was, in brief, blood-drenched.

11:00 - The 3rd Floor
If there were one word to describe The 3rd Floor, it would be "perennial." But despite performing for going on eleven years now, and having seen them more times that I can recall, I rarely see them repeat material. But having a vast catalog doesn't keep the Portland group from resting on their laurels - this latest NYSF performance is culled from two of their newest shows produced over this past year.

12:00 - Trophy Dad
You know that one guy at a party who can make a room laugh? Well, take that one guy from four different parties and you'd have Trophy Dad (I guess there are six members, but two were apparently absent). The show framed itself as an eighties-style teen flick about a high-stakes high school "key-tar" competition. They were certainly an audience favorite (which really showed when they covered for a horribly misplaced sound cue), but to me the video segments - Captain Hornbeam, The History of Count Grimbergen and "Teen Talk" - were the highlights of the show.

SketchFest NYC 2007 - Day 1

2007-06-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

SketchFest NYC kicked off its third year last night in the city-by-the-everything, and SF Seattle was fortunate enough to have their very own Josh Knisely there in the trenches. He sends us this report.

=====================

New York in June is hot, sticky, and the air has the opacity of net curtains. As uncomfortable as this may be, there's something rewarding about seeing ten comedy acts braving the sweaty, crowded backstage with nothing more than a warm bottle of water to keep them hydrated. This is not the air-cooled atmosphere of a Broadway show, no sir.

7:00 - A Week of Kindness
We started off with this local group manned by three awkward comedy nerds. As strange as these guys appeared, what really sold their performance was the force of their personalities. If the content of a sketch wasn't perhaps its strongest, the energy and weirdness the actors brought to the stage more than made up for it.

7:30 - Drop Six
These guys knew how to find their light, stage eye-catching tableaus and delivered lines confidently and audibly - a real actor's group. Save for a few choice moments, though, laughter rarely rose above a chuckle. But that's okay! This group delivered a high-minded performance with wit and subtlety.

8:00 - The Farce Side
The Farce Side is a legacy group from Arizona State University founded in 1985. The writers and performers of this nine-person ensemble are all college aged, and unfortunately their inexperience showed in their performance. We saw several amusing takes on sketch standards such as college parties, a wacky doctor delivering a baby, a dying king and two guys in a tub pretending not to be gay - almost all of which concluded with that earmark of young writers: the straight-man exploding in frustration at the wacky situation. As if put off by the lack of reaction they were perhaps used to from their hometown college crowd, the group left the stage suddenly and quietly without a bow.

9:00 - All American Push-Up Party
After Seattle's own Dusty Warren took the stage for his curtain call, one of the guys sitting in the row in front of me turned to his friend and said "Oh my fucking gawd!" What more really needs to be said? Dusty rarely disappoints, and it was fun to see a pair of new pieces make it into his ever-evolving one-man show.

9:30 - Party Central USA
The Party-Pack, they called it. Which, I guess, means two groups in an hour with "party" in their name. Party Central USA is a thirty-something group which performed competent, well-executed sketch of a more traditional flavor - deconstructionist date sketches involving characters speaking only in their subtext, a Spanish-class assignment gone grotesquely awry, and one particularly interesting scene where the audience becomes part of the scene by reading off cue cards in unison.

10:00 - Kurt & Kristen
This funny and charming duo was perhaps the darling group of the evening. Their show was almost entirely framed as a vaudevillian conversation with the audience, transitioning only occasionally to scenes or video pieces (one of which featured a theme song by former Seattle fixture Reggie Watts). Quirky and weird without ever losing their instant likability, these NYC comedy regulars had the audience on their feet. I loved the video featuring Kristen's appearance on Law and Order: SVU with Kurt edited into it. I think I saw that episode.

11:00 - Two Girls for Five Bucks
This two-woman show built around barbed scenes of bitter female sexuality - drunken bachelorette parties with air-headed "HR gals," lonely WWII war brides suppressing their lesbian urges, the phone messages of an obsessed woman after break-up, and, of course, a strip-tease finale.

11:30 - TYBRUS
Thursday night's line-up seemed to have a running theme: comedians trying to convince the audience that they're not gay. The least convincing argument came from two-man group TYBRUS, who spent almost the entire set in lifeguard speedos groping one another, and at least the last two minutes completely naked. The best evidence that they're ACTUALLY straight came from their boyish obsession with scatological and other gross-out humor. If that's your scene, baby, TYBRUS might be the group for you.

12:00 - The Harvard Sailing Team
Perhaps the most ruckus audience response on Thursday was for the NYU Tisch Shool Alumnus troupe The Harvard Sailing Team. This group understood that old maxim that brevity is the soul of wit. Longer sketches were peppered liberally with shorter, one-note pieces, sometimes only lasting a few seconds. It kept the momentum for scenes that took their time setting up their premises (a pair of scenes which were entirely unremarkable, save that the standard greeting was neither hug nor handshake, but a flamboyant dance move was perhaps the best use of a running gag of the evening).

On to night #2 ...

In Memoriam

2007-05-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

Comedienne Laura Myers, perhaps better known by her stage name Laura Hotspur, died last week after a three-year fight with cancer. She was thirty seven.

She came to us from her bay area hometown of Eureka, CA. When she moved to Seattle, she began performing sketch and improv with the troupe Some Kind of Cult during what some have dubbed the Seattle Sketch Renaissance (1999-2003).

She was known for her grit. She was a tough Gal, not just physically, but in character. In the boys' club that is sketch comedy, she could tell a joke that would make even her namesake blush.

When reached for comment, her former cast mates had this to say:

"When Laura was on-stage it wasn't like she was playing a character. Sure, she could dress up in a silly costume, but it was still Laura under there. You just can't disguise a personality like hers, and that's what made her so damn funny." - Mike Standish

"One night when I was out at a bar with her and Bill. I made the mistake of bemoaning being single, and she proceeded asking every attractive woman in the bar what I could do to be more dateable. I wanted to curl into a ball and die, but it really describes Laura to a tee - brass balls and no shame. At the end of the night she concluded that I needed to shave my 'prison pussy' - what she called goatees." - Josh Knisely

"Laura was an incredibly talented, sharp and FUNNY woman. In life, she called things like she saw them. For that, she has my respect as an artist and as a person. It was my honor to work with her. And, as Josh noted, I will forever be in debt to Laura for illuminating exactly what is so wrong about goatees." - Chris Hallberg

"Besides a constant fit of laughter she and I would get into, she taught me how to knit (I think I drove her crazy, I was not an easy learner), and she was there for me when my marriage ended. We lost contact, but I'm still going to miss her." - Cher Mesloh

"I remember when Laura came in to audition for the Cult. She blew us away! There was no fear in her! She had such a fiery presence. Not to mention a kick ass sense of humor! It was a hands down decision. We all wanted to work & play with her. She brought a great energy to the group. And I am honored I got to the chance to share the stage with her." - Erica Evans

"In the face of Laura's brashness, it was easy to miss how nervous she would get before a show. Those nerves were a measure of just how completely she gave herself to her effort to entertain. Yet she managed to never forget that it was all about having fun." - Deron Sedy

"Laura was an irreverent badass in a way that only the best are, and I loved her for it. We shared a kindred fascination of Kung Fu and risqué humor. A music lover, I remember fondly her favorite band, D. Sanchez and the Steamers. I hear the grasshopper." - Troy Fischnaller

Our condolences go out to her family and her long-time partner Bill. She will be missed.

SFNYC3

2007-05-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

The line-up for this year's SketchFest NYC is now online, including Seattle's All American Push Up Party, as well as familiar faces from SF Seattle past: The Third Floor, KARLA, Elephant Larry, MEAT, Becky & Noelle, kevINda, Summer of Tears, and TROOP!

Ticket info is on its way.

Speaking of "on it's way" we'll be sure to have boots on the ground for as many of this year's show, so you'll know the latest about sketch comedy in New York City - or, as it's sometimes known, "The Seattle of the East."

THURSDAY, JUNE 7
7PM: A Week of Kindness + Drop Six
8PM: The Farce Side
9PM: All American Push-Up Party + Party Central USA
10PM: Kurt & Kristen
11PM: Two Girls for Five Bucks + Tybrus
MIDNIGHT: Harvard Sailing Team

FRIDAY, JUNE 8
7PM: Slow Children @ Play
8PM: Dance Party of Newfoundland
9PM: Fearsome
10PM: MEAT
11PM: The 3rd Floor
MIDNIGHT: Trophy Dad

SATURDAY, JUNE 9
7PM: Becky & Noelle + kevINda
8PM: Karla
9PM: Summer of Tears
10PM: Elephant Larry
11PM: TROOP!
MIDNIGHT: SketchFest NYC'S Closing Night Craptacular!

In Lighter Fare ...

2007-04-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's good to see Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri working together again.

Watered Daisey - Update #2

2007-04-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

We here at the SketchFest Seattle Blog are used to bringing you the latest news about sketch comedy, even goofy internet jokes, but a full fledged story-story? Who'd a thunk?

So pardon us while we momentarily put on our cub-reporter hats and yet again follow up on the developing story of the walk-out and attack at Mike Daisey's performance of Invincible Summer in Cambridge, MA on Thursday, April 19th. (We'll get back to dick jokes soon, we swear.)

As we updated last night, despite early reports that the more than eighty people who walked out on Mike's show and poured water on the show's original outline were members of a "Christian group," they were, in fact, a choir group from the southern Californian Norco High School.

Today, however, Mr. Daisey posted a follow-up insisting that the school group identified themselves as a Christian group, not only when asking about the show over the phone and while making reservations, but as they were leaving in protest and while calling the box office asking for their money back as well (one such instance is said to be vaguely audible on the video).

After perusing the High School's web site, we found that the school does have an extra-curricular bible study group, the Alpha Omega Club, though there's no indication of any formal connection to it and the school's choir.

We also reported yesterday that posts on youTube were making unconfirmed claims that the water-pouring audience member had contacted Daisey and had apologized, saying "that what he did was unacceptable and that he in no way tries to justify his actions." Daisey confirms that the call occurred, but states that he was to one to initially contact the school. He goes into detail of his conversation with the vandal, "David," whom he said peppered the conversation with scripture, derisive language and even a racial epithet.

Read the post here.

Meanwhile, Playbill.com has posted a story containing an email they said they received from one of the Norco students present at the walk out, which read:

"I was a student that walked out. I did it because I had to. We aren't a religious group. We are a high school choir. We called several times and asked about the content [of the show] and whether or not it contained profanity. They lied and said no and that it was no worse than what you hear on TV."

Speaking to Playbill.com, Daisey was quick to point out that there was a second high school group there that had stayed, that this second group said that they had been adequately informed of the show's content, and that Daisey is careful to inform all who ask of the kind of material the show contains.

Read the Playbill.com article here.

The Daisey Incident: Update

2007-04-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

Back Stage Magazine is reporting that the group that walked out on Mike Daisey's performance of Invincible Summer was a choir group from Norco High School in Norco, California - a public school (not a "Christian group", as previously reported).

Read the full story here.

Though Back Stage states the identity of the water-pouring man is still unknown, unverified comments on the video's youTube page claiming to be from Norco students present at the show say that the assailent was one of their chaperones, who:

"... later called and appologized to mike for what he had done. He told us that what he did was unacceptable and that he in no way tries to justify his actions."
[youTube member NickPuentes]

We've tried to contact Mike and his wife/director Jean-Michelle for comment, but have yet to verify if the apology ever happened.

The Dos and Don'ts of Audience Membership

2007-04-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

This'd be a "don't."

Last weekend, SketchFest co-founder and acclaimed monologist Mike Daisey was performing his lastest one-man show Invincible Summer at The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University when eighty-seven members of a high school "Christian group" attending the show walked out en masse - one of whom dumped water on Mike's signature notebook-paper show outline.

Click to watch the youTube video below.

Mike, as usual, conducted himself accordingly in a well thought out and engaging manner. Well done, Mr. Daisey.

But to anyone who might react like this audience - it is well within your rights to be offended and walk out of any performance, but to commit an even worse offense in return is neither appropriate nor Chrisitian. And, as Mike said, "In the future, find out what you're going to see before you see it."

The "The Cody Rivers Show" Show

2007-04-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

If it seems like we've been mentioning The Cody Rivers Show a lot lately,

it's
because
we
have!

The Bellingham duo seems to have a new show ready just about every time we turn around. In fact, during a recent SketchFest staff excursion to Sketchingham, the Cody Rivers boys confessed to producing twelve original performances in just over two years. That's a new show nearly every two months!

And indeed, they've been hard at work with their latest volume A Poke In the Wound, which they'll be bringing to Theater off Jackson during its west coast tour.

Having seen a special preview of Poke two weeks ago, I can tell you that it's a worthy addition to the Cody Rivers canon ... a canon filled with wit and humorr that'll blow your face off with whimsy.

Or something.

The Cody Rivers Show presents
A Poke in the Wound
Friday and Saturday, April 13th and 14th
Theater off Jackson
8:00 pm ~ $10
Click here for tickets

The Dark Comedy Returns

2007-03-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

An unearthly howl in the distant night; a blood curdling scream and the slosh of monstrous limbs through freshly-drawn blood. These are the sounds of … comedy?

Yes, THEM!, Seattle’s horror-themed sketch comedy group returns this weekend with their second show (read our interview with THEM! founder John McKenna here).

This incarnation of Open Circle Theater’s late-night sketch company involves that old comedy goldmine, “the end of the world,” promising such characters as a dimension-jumping scientist, possums, Hercules, animated corpses, Wilford Brimley, Irish gods, a silent film star, a terrorist clown, a robot with a penchant for practical jokes, and more apocalypses than you can shake a stick at. If you’ve gotta go, why not go laughing! 100% Polonium-free comedy..

Hell, if Wilford Brimley doesn’t scare the crap out of you, you’re a braver soul than I.

THEM!
The Open Circle Theater
429 Boren Avenue North (at Republican St.)
Fridays and Saturdays, March 30 - April 21
11pm ~ $7
Click here for tickets, or call (206) 382-4250

Zombie problems?

2007-03-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

Blhabitst from the Phabitst

2007-03-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, what wily things these Internets be!
While casually poking about the web, I discovered this reminder of days gone by: a video of the first sketch from the second act of the very first SketchFest way back in 1999. The Habit's "Ninja Johnson."

And yes, that's Mark Siano as the boss. Catch the last night of The Mark Siano Cabaret tonight at 8 at reBar!

Thanks to Jeff Schell for being such a consummate archivist!

Gettin' Damned and Dirty

2007-03-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight is Brown Derby's last performance of their staged reading of Planet of the Apes! Check out the latest in this year's drunken interpretations of science- fiction classics!

FEATURING:

Nick Garrison, Imogen Love, Dusty Warren, Ade, Joe Randazzo, Spencer Thorson, and MANY MORE!

reBar, Thursday 03/22. Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm, no reservations so get here early!

Next installment of the Brown Derby Series: "ALIENS"! Coming in May...

ALSO AT reBar:
After a long haitus from the stage, former member of sketch pop stars and tenuous Beatles anaglogy The Habit, Mark Siano returns with The Mark Siano Cabaret. Starring: Rachel Hynes, Jaime Roberts, Abigail Guay, Elizabeth Racely, Noah Ransdell, Paul Levy, Joanna Hardie and more. Monologues will tell harrowing tales of sneaking into Seahawks games, being thrown in an L.A. county jail, and attempting to sleep with an evangelical Christian.

March 23rd and 24th, Friday and Saturday night at 8pm (doors at 7pm), $10

Sketchingham ... BellingFest ... BelchFistHast

2007-03-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

Sketchingham - Bellingham's answer to the sketchfest circuit, hosted by Washington sketch institution Cody Rivers - is more than half way over now. This second year of the festival opened last weekend with return performances by 2006 attendees Bucket and Ten West. This weekend featured SketchFest mainstays Troop! (read last month's interview here) and renowned fringe circuit act The Pajama Men.

A massive throng of SketchFest Seattle staff and crew (i.e, three of us) hopped in a car and made the trek up to the fest's little sister to the north for the final performance of the second weekend so that we may impart to you, dear reader, what we saw.

As we entered the iDiOM theater, Cookie, a Bellingham bluegrass trio, was in full swing. Now, I enjoy bluegrass, but this choice of opening act really informed the cultural differences of the city. We'd shed the hipsters and regulars of the Seattle fringe scene for something more granola. A cursory glance of the audience revealed a cross-section of thrift store lurking students, a graying-around-the-edge crowd that probably donated said clothes to begin with, and the children of both. The population of a small liberal arts college town. An honest-to-goodness theater audience.

The evening's comedy portion began with our old pals Troop! This was an unusual outing for the group, not merely because of the smaller city, but because it was the first time in several years the entire six-member roster was able to travel together. I don't think I'd seen oft-truant member Brent Simons in the flesh since Chicago '03.

Troop! trotted out a handful of mostly familiar classics like Twinkie the Kid, Soothsayer and Corpsicus, and while is was a treat to see old favorites received by an all-new audience, the evening clearly belonged to The Pajama Men.

Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez are a pair of Albuquerque transplants living in Chicago. That is, when they're not on the road touring like they apparently have been for the past six months.

Sketchingham has built a reputation of featuring unusual or vanguard comedy, and The Pajama Men were certainly no exception. Their performance was spare. No props, no costumes (except their PJ's, of course), no sound effects and no lighting transitions save a lone blackout.

In a genre dominated by the prop heavy lights-up/lights-down tradition (peppered liberally with sound cues and video clips), you might think this spartan approach could be limiting, but it allowed them total command of their scenes. Without having to rely on a blackout or other cues, their sketches blended seamlessly, relying instead on the contrast of their characters to define who, what, where and when they were, be the changes slight (passengers aboard a jet transitioning to a flight attendant in the aisle transitioning to passengers in the next row) or total (a cowboy dying in his friend's arms to a little girl cradling a baby).

"It's all improv-generated," said Shenoah. "We don't write anything down. We just work it out and keep it in our heads."

If Troop! and The Pajama Men were the meal, then SketchingJam was the sweet, buttery pastry at the end. Unique to Skegtchingham, Sketchingjam is an opportunity for that weekend's acts to collaborate on an all-new show, writing, rehearsing and performing it in a period of twenty-four hours. Though it's clearly an exercise more to the benefit of the performers, it's still fun to watch groups (hosts Cody Rivers always participate) with vastly differing styles find ways to make each's abilities complement the other's.

The Troop!/Pajama Men/Cody Rivers incarnation of the jam included such oddities as an unconfident roller-derby, a creepy voyeur with preternatural powers of persuasion, a groan-filled trapse through Puntown ("a baaaad part of town!"), and a scene whwere the entire cast physically join to form a huge, flesh-eating monster.

Sketchingham and its jam are a fun, artsy-town addition to the circuit, but when hanging out with the performers afterward it's clear that it's more than merely another chance to tour and practice the craft. The intimate nature of this newest fest brings the acts closer together as individuals. Rather than the compatriots and sometimes rivals that groups regard one another as at other fests, they come away as good friends with people they may have only met a few short days before. And that's what sets Sketchingham apart.

The closing weekend of Sketchingham features LA duo KARLA and Bellingham's own Pesant Revolt.

Sketchingham
$10, 8:00 (live music at 7:00)
iDiOM Theater ~ 1418 Cornwall, Bellingham, WA
For tickets call Brown Paper Tickets at 800.838.3006 or click here

Dude, Dusty Warren is playing in Portland this weekend

2007-03-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

Dusty Warren is a rad all around cool guy. He's also performing his solo show in Portland (Oregon) this weekend. Listen, I don't want to force you...but if you know what is best for you then you will go see him...ok? (assuming you live in the PDX area)

All-American Push-Up Party
Dusty Warren couldn't seem to keep his sketch troupes from disbanding. So he started one where he's the only member. The only thing he can disband now is his watch. Miracle Theater, 525 SE Stark St., 627-9847. 10 pm Friday-Saturday, March 9-10. $10.

Meet Kelly and Jason

2007-03-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

A couple of swell kids from Portland are performing their show in Seattle tonight at what's becoming the hub of out-of-town sketch acts - the Jewelbox Theater. Appropriate for what as once a stop on the vaudevillian circuit!

Check them out!

Portland’s hit video comedy night, The Kelley and Jason Show, makes it’s Seattle debut with musical guest Leeni.

Kelley and Jason are a married couple that collaborates on theatre, film, music and comedy in Portland, OR. Their show is a mixture of offbeat video sketches, live music and stand up that will keep you laughing and talking for days after. Just make sure the boss doesn’t catch you watching “My Pussy Don’t Understand” on YouTube!

Their comic variety show will make you laugh, cry, and possibly think!” - The Portland Mercury

"A sweet homage to a gentler entertainment time and an ingenious means of delivering some razor-sharp satire.” - The Oregonian

“Like a kid making a suicide drink at the soda fountain. Each individual flavor is delicious…take a sip and see!" - The Willamette Week

With musical guest Leeni
Saturday March 3^rd, 2007 @ 7pm - $6
Jewel Box Theatre at the Rendezvous
2322 2^nd Ave
www.jewelboxtheater.com
www.kelleyandjasonshow.com

Sounds like Young America

2007-02-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

When KUOW took over programming of KXOT last year, they promised a station that would help bring new voices to the staid world of public radio. Yesterday, they took a bold step in that direction, announcing a trial run for "The Sound of Young America," an edgy, irreverent arts & entertainment interview program hosted and produced by Jesse Thorn, a 25-year-old unemployed receptionist, from his Los Angeles living room. The program will air Sundays at noon on KXOT for four weeks, beginning February 25th.

The show, a self-described "public radio show about things that are awesome," will be featuring guests Bill Hader (SNL), Roz Chast (The New Yorker), Amy Sedaris, John Hodgman (The Daily Show) and more during their four week run.

The Sound of Young America - the official SketchFest Seattle media sponsor - will air on KXOT for the next three Sundays. Give it a listen. If you like that you hear, let the KUOW/KXOT management know by emailing letters@kuow.org or calling (206) 543-2710.

"If you've never heard The Sound of Young America, then The Sound of Young America is the greatest radio show you've never heard." - Salon.com

The Lance Armstrong of Comedy Benefits

2007-02-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

Seattle lacks balls.
If you're a chocolate lover, there's no chocolate-lover's ball.
Dog-lover? No dog-lover's ball.
Fortunately, if the target of your affection if laughing, then a ball be thine.

The twelveth annual Laugh Lover's Ball is this valentine's night, and features stand-ups David Crowe and Bengt Washburn, local musician/comedian Reggie Watts, traveling numismatist, Lloyd Althauser, plus Northwest sketch comedy sensations Cody Rivers Show.

The 12th Annual Laugh Lover's Ball
Valentine's Day
Wednesday February 14th, 2007
Moore Theatre
Two shows: 6:00pm & 8:30pm
Hosted by Fastlane Phillips, 97.3 KBSG

Tickets available via Ticketmaster Or at the Paramount Theatre box office.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking for that elusive chocolate dog ball.

Apply to SketchFest NYC...ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!!

2007-02-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

SketchFest NYC is pleased to announce that applications for New York City's third annual national sketch comedy festival are now availableonline at SketchFestNYC.com.After two years of sold out shows, standing ovations, and criticalacclaim, we are looking for a few great groups from NYC and around the country* to help us continue this ground-breaking event!Go to: www.SketchFestNYC.com RIGHT NOW to download a copy of the application.Right now the festival is set for June 7th-9th, 2007. All applications and tapes will be viewed by the SketchFest NYC Panel.Please note that the late application deadline has been extended toFebruary 15th, 2007.Please also note that your application must be completed in full (application, viewing materials, etc). If you applied or performedlast year, we still need a FULL application and all materials fromyou, including a new performance tape.Good luck, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2007! XOXO,SketchFest NYCinfo@sketchfestnyc.com*International groups are more than welcome to apply.

A Brief Look at San Fran '07

2007-02-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

A week ago today the San Francisco SkechFest wrapped up another year's schedule. Luckily for us, SketchFest Seattle friends and local stand-ups Doug and Rosalie Gale (who, incidentally, happened to be featured in a PI article this past Monday) were in the city by the bay for the festival. Though they only caught one act, the currently-ill Rosalie sent us this cough-syrup-fueled review:

===================
When Doug told me that he wanted to go to San Francisco for his birthday to see the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys take part in the San Fran SketchFest, I was skeptical at best. You see, my first experience with MST3K was the 20 boxes of video tapes that Doug moved into our 2 square foot large apartment. Hmmmm, I wondered, “Is it possible that I married a nerd?” Yes it is, and I did.

Last Christmas (yes, I called it Christmas) we started a tradition of watching a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie on Christmas day. The first one was horribly non-pc and had children from different parts of the world dressed up and acting very stereotypically. Then I think Santa Claus had to fight the devil? In any case, I didn’t know what to expect.

We got a hotel room right down the street from Cobbs Comedy Club and decided we would go as soon as the doors opened - an hour and a half before the show started - so we could get good seats. There was already a line when we got there, which is always a pretty good indicator that whatever you’re going to see is gonna be fucking spectacular.

Cobbs made me want to quit doing stand up. It was huge, clean, well run and obviously made lots of money. I love Seattle, and I know I’ve always been told that we have kind of an underdog comedy scene, but it really didn’t hit home until we walked into Cobbs. Amazing. Quite honestly though, I think I prefer the quaint, kinda stinky charm of a basement club, as opposed to the monstrosity of Cobbs. But that’s just my personal opinion.

The SketchFest programs were all glossy and everything seemed to be spelled correctly. That is disappointing to me because I like to point out other people’s errors. Oh well. We had a round of drinks before the show started and checked out the lineup for the rest of San Fran SketchFest. Granted, I know nothing about Sketch Comedy or who’s who in that realm, but they were going to have Kasper Hauser and I recognize them because I bought Doug their very hilarious Sky Maul book for Christmas (yes, I said it again). It seems like the San Fran folks mix in a bunch of stand up comedy with their Fest and I was sad that we didn’t get to see more of that. Will Franken was going to be there and I would have loved to have seen him. He seems crazy.

So the show starts and the guys (from L to R: Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Michael J. Nelson) start doing kind of a clumsy bit about what movie they’re going to be commenting on. One of them says, “Anything, as long as it’s not Daredevil.” Well, it was Daredevil. Huzzah! One of the guys at our table was pissed because he had sworn never to watch that movie. And now he had just flown to San Francisco to see it.

The actual movie/performance etc, was absolutely hilarious. We all loved it. I wish I could think of more specifics, but it’s just kind of a blurry wash of Redhook, funny one-liners and a movie so awful it made me think I should write a screen play. I think my favorite line of the evening was when the Daredevil dude, played by Ben Affleck, was sorting out his money (he’s supposedly blind in the movie) and one of the MST3K guys says, “Look, Ben Folds Fives.” The place exploded. When it was over, we walked back to the hotel, yelling out our favorite lines which, again, I wish I could remember.

Now I want to download and watch all of their new “RiffTrax.” It’s their “legalish” approach to the MST3K experience and involves renting the movie on your own and just playing their soundtrack in synch. They said they did the trailer to Titanic, and had the captain of the ship standing on the deck before they launch saying, “I’m gonna sink this bitch.”

HA! Can’t wait.

Step Up to the Mainstage

2007-02-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

In a town where fringe venues seem to be diappearing faster than scripted television , it's good to see a new place for comedians to convene and hock their wares.

The Mainstage Comedy and Music Club opens this weekend across from Key Arena on lower Queen Anne.

We don't see any sketch or improv on the horizon, but if you're a fan of Seattle's ever-growing stand-up scene, you've got a new crash-hole.

Mike Daisey Returns

2007-02-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, SketchFest Seattle Co-Founder-turned-author-turned-
monologuist-turned-instructor and a man the New York Times says "look[s] like an overgrown baby" Mike Daisey returns to his former stomping grounds to perform his latest show Stories From the Atlantic Night Cafe at the Capitol Hill Arts Center on Sunday, February 4 and will lead a workshop on storytelling and solo performance Sunday, February 18.

Mike has been called "the master storyteller" by New York Times, who published a feature article on his creative process in last Sunday's Theater section. He has been compared to Garrison Keillor, Spalding Gray, and David Sedaris.

Read The New York Times article here. (If you don't want to sign up, get a password here!)

Stories From the Atlantic Night Cafe
Sunday February 4
Doors: 7:00pm, All Ages
CHAC Showroom
$20 advance, $25 at the door
Space is limited and we expect it to sell out early,
so get your tickets here now
or call 1.800.838.3006

Mike Daisey Workshop: Performing Your Life
Sunday February 18
12pm - 6pm, ALL AGES
CHAC Lower Level
Get your tickets here
or call 1.800.838.3006

Comedy = Tragedy + Time

2007-01-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, Public Radio International's Studio 360 aired a segment which they described as being about one of the more unexpected results of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans: a thriving comedy scene.

Stand-up, open mics and sketch comedy acts such as the Red Light District Variety Show have have been cropping up all over a city which has yet to see even half its population return.

Listen to an MP3 of this story here:
http://audio.wnyc.org/studio/studio012607c.mp3

An Interview with TROOP!

2007-01-26T17:16:00.000-08:00

This upcoming weekend marks the end of the 2007 San Francisco SketchFest and two weeks ago closed the Chicago fest. Together these twin bottles of bubbly smashed across the bow of the good ship SketchFest, christening the eighth year of the circuit.

As you can tell by the sidebar, the sketch world has grown a lot since the original one-night, eight-minutes-per-act SketchFest one wet Seattle night in 1999.

Well, we here at SketchFest Seattle HQ crunched a few numbers and, by our calculations, the group that's attended the most fests is L.A.'s TROOP!

We caught up with (from left to right) Britt Erickson, Kevin Chesley, Steve Sabellico, Bryan Shukoff, Brent Simons, and Jay Dugre to ask them about touring, the ever-expanding sketch community and about the future of this sketch comedy warhorse.

SketchFest: Let's begin with the predictable: When/how/where did you form?

STEVE: We all attended Emerson College in Boston. I had been one of the re-founders of the Emerson Comedy Workshop which was the comedy group Denis Leary had formed with Eddie Brill. There was still money in the budget for the group, but the group had dissolved. So myself and 4 other students applied for the money, got it and we were off holding auditions. We held auditions for the newly formed ECW in 1994 and we took on Britt and Bryan. Then the 2nd semester we took a young man named Kevin Chesley.

KEVIN: Emerson College is the best sketch comedy college. And I'm pretty sure they have no idea. If the higher-ups over there started realizing that...it might ruin it. Someday that will be something Emerson is lauded for. But not yet...

STEVE: The other competing comedy group on campus was the Swolen Monkey Showcase which had both Brent and Jay. We had a friendly rivalry on campus, would go to each others shows and appear in each others videos.

JAY: We would raid their rehearsals and have pillow fights that traveled up all five stories of the Emerson Student Union.

STEVE: One by one we graduated and moved out to Los Angeles--because that's what you do when you want to be in the entertainment industry.

JAY: When I moved to Los Angeles, I had no idea that any of these five characters would be coming out west as well. The five of them started a group. Kevin said "You want to come to a meeting?" So I did. And at that meeting, we found out we had a show.

BRITT: I moved to LA in time to perform in Troop!'s 2nd show. It was magical, it was illuminating and it was under a Thai food restaurant. One reviewer described the performance as "more promising than a Jim Jones' White Night!"

SF: So how many Sketchfests have you been to?

BRYAN: I think I can answer that. Seattle was our first, and we hit that one five times, Chicago three times, NYC twice, Portland three times, DC once, when we got up to San Fran that was be our third time there. We got to do Vancouver once and we'll be going up to Bellingham for our very first time in March. That's.... nineteen. Whoa, nineteen!?!? The amount of SketchFests we've been to is already in COLLEGE!! The amount of SketchFests we've been to could almost play a softball game!

KEVIN: No way! Our SketchFests are at least in their twenties! If you count the LA Fest Of Sketch...we've done that...twice now? Maybe three...it's our hometown but it still counts. Oh! And CIF - the Chicago Improv Festival. CIF was fun but Sketch is kind of the red-headed step nephew there.

BRITT: In the twenties??

BRYAN: I believe if we had not gone to those sketchfests we would all have swimming pools and mansions by now. But we wouldn't trade it for the world, because we have had an unbelievably great time at every one.

JAY: I have spent upwards of $75,000 going on the 20+ trips and I couldn't think of a better way to spend that money.

SF: What differences/similarities do you see in each region's SketchFest? Have you noticed differences in sense of humor?

JAY: I think that there is a definite difference in the senses of humor in the general population of the different cities in general but it seems that the sketch troupes themselves all share a common mind. I have never had a problem getting Dusty Warren's (Seattle) humor or Geoff Haggarty's (New York). Everyone seems to be on the same page.

SF: How has the SketchFest circuit/community changed since you started attending?

STEVE: When we started attending festivals there was only one SketchFest: Seattle. Within five years there are now sketch festivals in Bellingham, LA, San Fran, Portland, NYC, Vancouver, etc., etc. The community that has sprung up around these fests is incredible. We've met fantastic writers and performers who we keep running into at fest after fest and now they're old friends.

JAY: I remember thinking that we were part of a nice little underground sketch community and before I knew it I turned around and there were hundreds of other groups and tens of other festivals and we were in the middle of a sketch revolution.

SF: How do you think you've managed to hang in there so long when so many past SketchFest troupes have either broken up or refuse to continue touring due to the expense?

STEVE: We're great friends. We've known each other since college and I cant' say this without giving away our ages - that's over ten years. Eight years as TROOP! These guys are my brothers and sister. Do we get in fights? Sure. As any brother or sister would. But in the end we trust each other. "I'm telling you if you wait a beat right there you'll get a huge laugh." "Kevin, you can NOT have a skateboard dropped on your face from eight feet in the air."

JAY: For me, there is no expense great enough to make me stop. I am the poorest one in the group and somehow I've managed to make it to every out of town show we've done. If there's a will (an idiot who wants to perform comedy in another city for his own financial loss) there's a way (that idiot doesn't get to have brakes on his car). What I love is that even if we can't all go, we still show up to these fests. We've been 3 strong at a few and that's as low as I'd like to go but I remember one trip we talked about making a 2-man show.

SF: As a lot of groups mature, they seem to shift focus and develop some sort of theme or philosophy. Yet after eight years, TROOP! seems committed to the traditional sketch form. Has there ever been the temptation to experiment with themes or, for lack of a better term, a shtick?

BRENT: Our goal has always been to make TROOP! shows more of an experience than an experiment. The sketch comedy we liked growing up didn't have a shtick. It just surprised people - Kids in the Hall, Monty Python. Each show was different but similar in a way you couldn't quite put your finger on. You didn't know what to expect, and that's why you kept coming back to it.

KEVIN: I respect when other groups do theme shows a lot - usually - but I really love the old-school sketch format. I like a totally different bit and completely separate set of characters every five minutes. I love the ability to sculpt and rearrange our show as we like. At the San Fran SketchFest, we were asked to do two sets - one 45 min. and the other 20. That's not a problem because our show is...we've always batted around the world "modular." I like that.

SF: What is one of your favorite on or off stage moments from touring?

STEVE: Kevin, was the first Seattle the "Muppet Movie" moment or was that another?

KEVIN: What is "The Muppet Movie" story? I'm delighted and forgetful and intrigued.

STEVE: We were returning to the Seattle SketchFest for the 2nd year. We built our show and it was a mix of some wackier/off-beat stuff, and most was new material. So we did the show and it went "eh." Jokes fell flat. Audience members came up to us after the show and said, "Hey I saw you guys last year and brought friends because your show was so great. You guys didn't do anything from last year. Do you ever reminisce about that other material and want to bring it back?"

JAY: He actually said, "Man, I saw you guys last year! You were great! What happened? Do you ever think about the good old days?" That quote will forever be burned into my brain.

STEVE: So anyway the next morning we all sort of went our separate ways in the city and meandered around and got introspective. Much like the Muppets in the Muppet Movie. And then we came back to our hotel room and talked about what didn't work and why. We rehearsed again that day. And then we did our 2nd show that night and killed. So since then we've always referred to that as "The Muppet Movie" moment.

KEVIN: I don't mean to be a dick...but when does that happen in "The Muppet Movie?" Man, am I a dick.

SF: TROOP! is on this year's small-but-tight-knit roster for Bellingham’s “Sketchingham.” What do you anticipate from this latest addition to the sketch world?

STEVE: I have no idea what to expect. We've heard good things about the fest. We like the Cody Rivers Show guys. We're going to head up there and see what happens.

JAY: I think these guys are funny, smart and incredibly creative. I can't wait to go and see what their fest is like. It should be an absolute blast.

SF: Any other touring plans for 2007?

JAY: Sure! Where should we go?

STEVE: Well the first month of the year isn't even over and already our calendar is starting to book up. We've submitted to the NYC SketchFest again because we love getting out to NY... we're doing a showcase for the Montreal Comedy Fest in a couple weeks... we've got a show here in LA in the Comedy Cocktail show at The Highlands in a week. And that's it for now... but like I said: it's only the 4th week of January.

SF: Doesn’t that kind of schedule wear you down?

STEVE: As I sit here now, I'm running on four hours sleep because we did a show last night in the San Francisco SketchFest, then drove the six hours back that night-into-morning so we could go to our day jobs. I'm sitting in a cubicle right now thinking "Wow... I was making 250 strangers laugh just last night... and here I am sitting in a cubicle physically exhausted." Then that little smile spreads across your face as you think about that moment and that, THAT smile, is why we keep doing it.

KEVIN: I refer to the smile Steve is talking about at work the next morning as "Fight Club Day." That's when I'm covered with the blood of sleepless nights, new groups I've met... but I'm at work twelve hours later. I both love and hate the following scene which never fails to occur at work the next day:

The Boss: Hey, so how was New York City?
TROOP! Agent X: Awesome.
The Boss: Hey, did you get a chance to see the Statue of Liberty while you were out there?
TROOP! Agent X: Nope. I had to build a Twinkie suit on the fly. I saw Central Park though! We needed a Soothsayer stick!
The Boss: A what?
TROOP! Agent X: A...um...no, but I've been out to Ellis Island before.
The Boss: Neat, huh!?! She's smaller than you'd think!
TROOP! Agent X: She suuuuuure is.

We're like the Edward Nortons of comedy.

Immigrant Psalm

2007-01-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

For a site that promises "News and other tidbits about sketch comedy" there are very few tidbits. So, here a bit of tid for ya! Portland's Loren Hoskins of Hoskins and Breen fame has posted his classic "Zeppreacher" sketch to YouTube.

It's a whole lotta love!

GET YOUR AHHHS TO MAHHHS!

2007-01-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

Seattle’s Rebar continues its long running series of staged readings of Hollywood classics* with Total Recall. Using some of Seattle’s best comedic talent (including many local sketch comedy mainstays), a campy approach and a lot of fly by the seat of your pants staging these shows have become a hot ticket in town. Past productions have included staged versions of Valley of the Dolls, Pretty in Pink, Footloose and Dirty Dancing. The entire 2006-2007 season is dedicated to the films in the science fiction genre.

Expect both the audience and the cast to have an alcohol fueled fun time sending up the Arnold Schwarrzzeneggerrerr “masterpiece.” Also expect to arrive early as no reservations are taken and the theater tends to fill up fast and furious…almost too fast and too furious.

Rebar
1114 Howell St, Seattle
3 nights only! TUE 01/23, WED 01/24, THU 01/25
Doors at 7:00, Show at 8:00

$12 cash at the door

Ages 21 and up with ID only

ARRIVE EARLY, NO RESERVATIONS TAKEN!

*your results may vary

In June ... How About You?

2007-01-21T20:52:00.000-08:00

Just a quick reminder that the late application deadline for SketchFest NYC '07 is fast approaching:

Late Deadline: January 31st ($30 application fee)

The last two years of the Festival have been a huge success, featuring over thirty different sketch comedy groups from across the country, sold-out shows, standing ovations, and industry attendance from ABC, NBC, CBS, MTV, VH1, HBO, COMEDY CENTRAL, NICKELODEON, TV LAND, FUSE, and many more.

Visit www.sketchfestnyc.com for more info, or click here to download the application.

Good luck!

Two helpings of pork

2007-01-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

At a restaurant the other night I had a dish called pork-filled squid. It was delectable.

Similarly, a local specialty known as Pork Filled Players is "Delectably loopy!"

You can't just find this dish anywhere mind you, but a hand full of local venues will serve it up piping hot:

Northwest Asian American Film Festival
Theatre Off Jackson, January 26, 9 pm - $10
PFP and the Festival present the Northwest premiere of "The Mighty Warriors of Comedy", a one hour documentary on the first Asian American sketch comedy group, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors.

Big Hunk O' Burning' Love
Northwest Actor's Studio, March 2-24
$14 General, $10 Student/Seniors. Available soon at www.ticketwindowonline.com
PFP's first full-length show is a romantic comedy about family curses, Thai arranged weddings and spontaneous human combustion by Prince Gomolvilas, winner of the PEN Center USA West Literary Award.

If that ain't enough pork to fill ya, then ... seriously, get your cholesterol checked.

Comedy with no rules! (see rules below)

2007-01-10T13:01:00.000-08:00

COMEDYNET.COM is back with yet another contest. The Comedynet Outside the Box Sketch Writing Contest seeks to find the most unconventional, innovative and weird comedy out there.

If you're an aspiring writer who thinks the television sketch tradition has grown a bit stale, this could be a great way to stretch your dadaist wings, break through your absurdist shell, and get "all up in tha stupid."

The details:
====================================================
THE COMEDYNET OUTSIDE THE BOX SKETCH WRITING CONTEST!

The best and most innovative sketch will be chosen to be produced, filmed, edited and featured ComedyNet!

THE GUIDELINES:
- MAKE IT ORIGINAL! Copies of SNL or MadTV sketches - no matter how well done - are boring! Unconventional is good. Weird is great. Innovative and smart is the best. Think high concept, well executed, never been seen before.

- MAKE IT HILARIOUS! Anyone can come up with an idea for a sketch. Getting it onto the page and making it work is the hard part. Re-write. Edit. Heighten and tighten. Then prove you've got the comic chops to make us choke on our lunch while we read your script!

- MAKE IT BUDGET-FRIENDLY! If your sketch takes place on a space station, consider that it will be shot in front of a green screen. If it takes place in France, we can buy you a beret and a fake mustache, but we won't be sending a crew to shoot at the Eiffel Tower.

- THINK LIKE A FILMMAKER! Writing a script for a sketch that will be filmed is different than writing a sketch for the stage. Really what you're writing is a short comedy film. Consider visual style, genre and the magic of editing when writing your sketch.

THE RULES:
- 5 pages or less, double spaced.
- No more than 3 locations in any sketch
- No more than 4 characters can speak in one scene
- Each person may submit no more than 2 sketches

Please provide the following information with each entry:
- Your Name
- Your Mailing Address
- Your Email
- Your Phone Number
- The Name of Your Sketch Group (if you have one)
- Your Web Site (if you have one)
- A Brief Bio (400 characters or less)
- Confirmation that the sketch(es) you have written is your own original creation
owned 100% by you

DEADLINE FOR ENTRY IS JANUARY 31ST, 2007

Email your entries to:
SKETCHCONTEST@COMEDYNET.COM

Theatrical Mayfly

2007-01-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Do you like sketch? Are you fond of fringe theater? Do you enjoy artistic gray-areas and subjects of contention? Then do we have the festival for you!

14/48 is billed as the world's quickest theater festival: fourteen plays written, rehearsed and performed in 48 hours! Like a theatrical mayfly, 14/48 is short-lived, sporadic and the only thing on it's mind is to pleeeeeease.

So are they short plays or sketches? Who cares!

The fast-paced, surreal, frenetic and hilarious nature of this festival has made it a Seattle institution. A must-see!

14/48
January 5th, 6th, 12th & 13th; at 8pm & 10:30pm.
Each night is a brand new show!
CHAC (Capitol Hill Arts Center)
1621 - 12th Ave., just north of Pine.
$15, at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets .

Get there EARLY -- it always sells fast.

SketchFest Seattle

SketchFest Seattle opens tomorrow! (Thurs., Oct. 7)

SketchFest 2010 is right around the corner! (October 7th to 9th 2010) Wednesday, September 22, 2010 12:30 PM

SketchFest Seattle application information

Short Comedy Video Submissions for AMC

Wing-It Productions presents Paul Stein comedy workshops

Only 3 more days of SketchFest!

'SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival' opens Monday night

Special Events at SketchFest: The Seattle Comedy Festival

2009 SketchFest Line-up Announced

The SketchFest Video Contest Ends Soon!

Women Only Sketch Comedy Intensive at SketchFest Seattle

SketchFest Annual Fundraiser - save the date!

SketchFest Seattle Comedy Festival Application Deadline

SketchFest NYC is in TWO WEEKS!

Applications and New Summer Workshop!

Spam*O*Rama: Pork-Filled Players, Burlesque, and Ubiquitous They!

SketchFest NYC - Application Deadline This Week!

Week of Fun!

AWARDS!

Tim and Eric, Japanese Clowns and More!

Blogging is HARD!

Opening Gala and Video Contest Winners!

SketchFest Seattle 2008!!!

In the Art Zone

The Julie Goldman Offensive - $5 off!

Ad Watch: #Something-er-other

Super-secret semi-possible comedy show (maybe)

SketchFest Video Contest - Five Days to Enter!!

The SketchFest 2008 Line-Up

Danger, Sam Jackson!

Oh, you'll be pumping Ovaltine

George Carlin 1937-ShitPissFuckCuntCocksuckerMotherFuckerTits

SOFT ROCK EXPLOSION - TONIGHT!

City of Brotherly Laugh

Harvey Korman 1927 - 2008

N-Y-C is N-Th-House

Apply with me, Apply, Apply away

Sketchingham Week 1

April Fools

The 'Ham

Deadline: NYC

Coulda Had a 10W

Sketchingham 2008

The Habit is hard to break

A Cross-Country Date with the Apple Sisters

If you can make it there ...

Theater to Fail America By

The Twelve Days of Bruce Willis

Pssst! Wanna buy some sketch????

Stand Up and Be Counted

Maxim Girls

New Yorkers and Women and Duos, oh my!

SKETCHFEST 2007

YA RLY

The Funk of 40,000 Inmates

SketchFest Seattle 2007 line-up!

Sketch town ladies sing this song...doo dah...doo dah

Viva Portlandia

Sketchy sketch sketch (and sketch like stuff) in Seattle this week!

Black Daisy DVD Release Party

Sketchy Shenanigans in this here town!

THE SKETCHFEST 2007 VIDEO CONTEST

Drama Prairie Dog

Elephant Larry @ College Humor

WE WANT YOU!

Laff Hole: The SketchFest Invasion!

SketchFest NYC 2007 - Day 3

SketchFest NYC 2007 - Day 2

SketchFest NYC 2007 - Day 1

In Memoriam

SFNYC3

In Lighter Fare ...

Watered Daisey - Update #2

The Daisey Incident: Update

The Dos and Don'ts of Audience Membership

The "The Cody Rivers Show" Show

The Dark Comedy Returns

Zombie problems?

Blhabitst from the Phabitst

SpamORama: Pork-Filled Players, Burlesque, and Ubiquitous They!