Few things make us happier than seeing (or hearing) all the love Philadelphia’s sketch comedy community has been getting from national comedy festivals and this past weekend at Montreal Sketchfest 2016 The Flat Earth added a few more accolades performing in the closing night “Best of Fest” show and winning “Best Newcomer” (a.k.a. The Bag of Beer). Philly Sketchfest congratulates Jacquie Baker, Vincent DiCostanzo, Rich Lee, Adam Siry, Matthew Schmid, Molly Silverman and director, Paul Triggiani of The Flat Earth on all their accomplishments this year (including runners-up for Producer’s Pick at Toronto Sketchfest) and thanks you for putting Philadelphia in the conversation when it comes to sketch comedy.
Now please enjoy this week’s listings, with special attention for the May 20th Philly Sketchfest Presents Showcase at The Adrienne Theater Playground!
First at 8:30pm, it’s Adventure Friends with Baby Steps hosted by Tim Butterly of Comedy Central’s Delco Proper.
Then at 10:15pm, it’s the triumphant, one-night only, encore presentation of House of Solitude’s, “A Galaxy Uncherished” with special guests One Idiot from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, performing in their critically acclaimed, lost play from Tennessee Williams, “What The Horse Saw”.
More details plus everything else sketch in Philadelphia below…
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The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie & Jon & Ian Have Something To Tell You
Philamoca – 531 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Tuesday, May 17th at 8:00pm / Tix – $5 at door
The first show out of the gate this week AND the best value for your comedy dollar is this quadruple-bill featuring two sketch groups, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie and Jon & Ian Have Something To Tell You, and musicians Josh Jones and Glob Jolly. Music and sketch comedy go hand-in-hand and some may already know Josh Jones from his work with Matt & Jacquie or the web-series Welcome to Anhedonia as well as Glob Jolly’s Kristy Goldy of sketch groups Goat Rodeo and Youth Large. Also, let’s point out that if you haven’t seen Welcome to Anhedonia, Goat Rodeo, or Youth Large you’re missing out on so much great comedy. You can make up for it by supporting this incredible line-up featuring two of the best sketch duos from Philadelphia.
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Phone It In Film Festival : May Edition presented by Good Good Comedy
Philamoca – 531 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
Wednesday, May 18th at 10:00pm / Tix – $5 (reservations available)
Created by Chris O’Connor, Dan Angelucci, Alex Grubard & Clay Hereth, Phone It In is a monthly film festival, made up entirely of videos that people shot on their cell phones. Is that sketch? It certainly could be and it’s definitely an awesome opportunity. So go to this show, enjoy it, and then make it your business to get your phone charged and start shooting that sketch you always said you’d shoot but never did. Seriously, get your shit together and check out the guidelines here at their website here at the link. Videos can be submitted whenever for this monthly show and to be considered for inclusion in this week’s show, you must get your video in by May 17th at Midnight.
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Dog Mountain presents, “Trucker BBQ” with special guest, Myself Included (DEBUT)
Philly Improv Theater – 2030 Sansom Street (2nd Floor), Philadelphia, PA 19103
Thursday, May 19th – 9pm / Tix – $8 Advance & $10 Door
Friday, May 20th – 9pm / Tix – $8 Advance & $10 Door
Dog Mountain is wrapping up their two week set of new material entitled, “Trucker BBQ” at the Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) stage after an incredible journey on the 2016 sketch comedy festival circuit with appearances at the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival and Philly Sketchfest. Directed by Carl Boccuti, Dog Mountain” target=”_blank”>Dog Mountain’s “Trucker BBQ” is written & performed by Chip Chantry, Jim Grammond, Emily Hill, Julia Hudson (Sweetish / Barbara Bush), Trevor Miles (Daring Daulton), Joe Moore, Courtney Painter (Barbara Bush), RJ Payne, Steve Swan (Hoagiefist), and Ashlee Rose Toll.
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Opening the final week of Dog Mountain’s “Trucker BBQ” is the debut of Myself Included, a one-person show written & performed by Molly Scullion (Gaper Delay / Stipend for Life). If you’ve been fortunate enough to catch Molly’s contributions to PHIT’s Monologue show (or frankly anything she puts her creative energy towards), you likely have been eagerly counting down the days to May 19th once this news was announced earlier this month. We count ourselves as part of that segment and can’t wait for everyone else to fall in line when they meet Molly and her characters.
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PHILLY SKETCHFEST PRESENTS – Adventure Friends & Baby Steps with stand-up from Tim Butterly
The Playground at Adrienne Theater – 2030 Sansom Street (1st Floor on left), Philadelphia, PA 19103
Friday, May 20th – Doors at 8pm and Show at 8:30pm / Tickets – $10
Philly Sketchfest is honored to host Philly-based sketch groups, Adventure Friends and Baby Steps. While the actual start of the show is at 8:30pm, we have it on good authority that Adventure Friends will be premiering a brand new set of audio comedy in radio format during the pre-show. Baby Steps also has a brand new set of material as the twin duo of Sherry & Terry get musically political. This entire block of comedy will be hosted with stand-up from comedian and co-star of Comedy Central’s Delco Proper, Tim Butterly! Make sure to follow Tim on twitter @TimButterly or @Delco_Proper.
Mike Butler, Shannon DeVido, and Quinton Alexander are Adventure Friends. They take improv forms and turn them into sketch formats and were the runners up of the 2015 Dirtiest Sketch in Philadelphia with their sketch, “A Love Letter to James McAvoy.”. Joining Mike, Shannon and Quinton on Friday night, comedian Nina Starner.
Baby Steps emerged from the dark underbelly of the nursery-core scene earlier this year and were hailed as a “pastel tour de force.” Baby Steps will gently wrap you in warm songbird feathers as they fly into polluted cotton-candy skies on a quest for musical enlightenment. A cosmic journey for all and none, Baby Steps is written & performed by Megan Thibodeaux & Andalyn Young.
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People Places Stuff : Reality TV hosted by Joe Bell
Plays & Players Theater – 1714 Delancy Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Friday, May 20th at 8:30pm / Tix – $5 (reservations available)
Each month at PeoplePlacesStuff, host Joe Bell presents a brand new setting to showcase a wide array of character pieces, presentational bits and weird one off segments you’ll probably never see again. This month – Talent? Betrayal? Celebrity Chefs? Chairs? REALITY SHOW! Only one contestant will walk away with one hundred thousand dollars, a talent contract with NBC-Universal, a position as executive chef at one of the finest restaurants in Las Vegas and true love. It’s the season finale of the competition that all of America is watching and it all ends tonight. With performances from Philadelphia-based sketch writers/performers Christian Alsis (Goat Rodeo), Matt Aukamp (Hey, We’re Cool), Kate Banford (Stretch Marks The Spot), Julia Celley (Locked In Julia’s Basement), Jake Mattera (Hoagiefist), and Patrick Reber (Hey, We’re Cool) as well as Aaron Nevins and Dan Vetrano.
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PHILLY SKETCHFEST PRESENTS – House of Solitude’s “A Galaxy Uncherished” with special guests, One Idiot’s “What The Horse Saw” (UCB)
The Playground at Adrienne Theater – 2030 Sansom Street (1st Floor on left), Philadelphia, PA 19103
Friday, May 20th – Doors at 10pm and Show at 10:15pm / Tickets – $10
Philly Sketchfest is equally proud to host an evening of Tennessee Williams inspired sketch comedy featuring House of Solitude and One Idiot (Upright Citizens Brigade NYC). Yes, you read that correctly – an evening of sketch comedy inspired in full by American playwright, Tennessee Williams. House of Solitude’s “A Galaxy Uncherished” is a southern drama disguised as sketch comedy and set in space. This is an encore performance of their two-night, three performance run in March and if you’ve already seen it, you know it’s worth seeing again. If you haven’t, get your ticket now and thank yourself for doing so at 11:15pm on Friday night. Just to make this extra special, we’re bringing acclaimed New York City sketch group, One Idiot (UCB) and their Tennessee Williams inspired sketch show, “What The Horse Saw” to Philly for one-night only! Trust us, we know what we’re doing. Expect and enjoy massive set pieces, secrets, yelling, drama, false gravity, sweating, holograms, love and loss, and pretty horsies. You will not want to miss this amazing performance.
Written by Caitlin Weigel & Dan Corkery and featuring performances from Corin Wells, Samantha Russell, Paul Triggiani, Robert O’Neill, Frank Farrell, and Harry Watermeier. “A Galaxy Uncherished” is directed by Maggy Keegan with set design & technical direction by Brian Kelly.
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One Idiot is sketch comedy group from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City where they perform new material monthly. One Idiot is Jon Bershad, Aaron Burdette, Caroline Cotter, Claire Downs, David Ebert, Noah Forman, Allie Kokesh, Kristy Lopez-Bernal, Carrie McCrossen, Murf Meyer, Nathan Min, and Maggie Ross.
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Sketch Up or Shut Up
Philly Improv Theater – 2030 Sansom Street (2nd Floor)
Friday, May 20th – Sign ups at 11:30pm / Show at 11:55pm FREE
Philadelphia’s ONLY Sketch Comedy Open-Mic, Sketch Up or Shut Up, returns to the Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) stage Friday night. Sketch Up or Shut Up was created by Meg Favreau, is hosted by Brian Kelly and is THE place for sketch comedians to work out their new & in-progress material in front of a live audience. Sketch Up or Shut Up is a FREE SHOW and enables sketch comedians of all experience levels try out new material, meet each other and build relationships. Sign-ups begin in the Lobby of the Adrienne Theater at 11:30pm and the show begins on the 2nd Stage at 11:55pm. Not a sketch comedian? That’s fine too! Actors are encouraged to attend & volunteer to be in the sketches of writers who either do not wish to perform their own material or do not have a group of people to work with yet. Not a writer or an actor? Wonderful. Audiences are welcomed and encouraged to join us and simply enjoy the show.
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Know about an upcoming sketch show? Want us to tell people about it? Send your listing to [email protected].
