If you’re looking for some sketch comedy this week and you live in Philadelphia you have two options – Wednesday & Thursday night. You want more? What if we told you that the shows on Wednesday & Thursday are actually ‘revues,’ where multiple comedians are on the same bill so it’s almost like you’re getting to see eight mini-sketch shows? You’d say we’re playing with semantics? We’re just trying to be positive… What’s that? You’re also asking if we get paid by the word to write these intros? Not money, but we do enjoy spreading the word about Philly’s sketch comedy community… right, right, more of those semantics you don’t want. You’d like us to just get right to it then? FINE. Even though it’s a light week for sketch these two shows boast some of the most impressive line-ups in recent history including the PREMIERE of a brand-new comedy showcase and the RETURN of Philadelphia’s most beloved sketch comedy revue…
Now that we’re are all caught up from Philly Sketchfest 2016 we’re ready to return to this website back to some regularly scheduled content highlighting all the sketch comedy taking place in Philadelphia on a weekly basis. We’re also excited to announce here that we’ll be posting more articles and interviews with Philadelphia-based sketch groups as well as becoming the official home of the “My First Sketch” podcast hosted/created by Josh Higham. That’s good news. Some might say great, but we like to think of it as leaving ourselves room to grow. So what’s happening this week already, right? Well word on the street is that you have a hot date with sketch comedy on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Check out the events below to see exactly who’ll be taking you out on the town each night…
A very exciting week for us here at Philly Sketchfest. We have our February showcase taking place this Friday, February 19th with sketch from Spirit Animal & The Flat Earth and stand-up from Alyssa Al-Dookhi at 8:30pm and then at 10:00pm it’s a brand new set of sketch from The Prince entitled, ‘Whole Human, Whole Horse’ directed by Maggy Keegan with stand-up from Joe Bell!
We’re also hard at work behind the scenes sending emails and updating our site in effort to release the names of the groups from Philadelphia & North America who have submitted and been accepted into this year’s 2016 Philly Sketchfest! Once they’re all sent out, we’ll update here. We’ll also be updating to let you know about our festival revue shows that feature both festival performers and up-and-coming local sketch groups! There is simply so much to do and so little time, so let’s get started by telling you about our February showcase at the Adrienne Theater Playground as well as sketch shows taking place all over Philadelphia this week…
Philly Sketchfest Presents – Spirit Animal & The Flat Earth with stand-up from Alyssa Al-Dookhi The Playground at Adrienne Theater – 2030 Sansom Street (1st Floor on left), Philadelphia, PA 19103 Friday, February 19th – Doors at 8pm and Show at 8:30pm / Tickets – $10 Philly Sketchfest is proud to host the two sketch groups who represented Philadelphia at this year’s Chicago Sketchfest, Spirit Animal & The Flat Earth. They’ll be performing their sets, in full from Chicago for this one-night only event! The entire block of comedy will be hosted by stand-up comedian, Alyssa Al-Dookhi who will also perfrom! Follow Alyssa on twitter @TheDookness and her website – thedookness.tumblr.com.
Spirit Animal is the quirky, reference-filled sketch comedy duo of Shannon DeVido & Kristin Finger!
The Flat Earth is a Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) Sketch House Team formed in 2012. They have been accepted into and performed at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival (2015 & 2016), San Francisco Sketchfest (2015), and Toronto Sketchfest (2015 & 2016). The Flat Earth is Jacquie Baker, Vincent P. DiCostanzo, Rich Lee, Matthew Schmid, Molly Silverman, and Adam Siry. They are directed by Paul Triggiani (Secret Pants).
 # Philly Sketchfest Presents – The Prince’s ‘Whole Human, Whole Horse’ with stand-up from Joe Bell The Playground at Adrienne Theater – 2030 Sansom Street (1st Floor on left), Philadelphia, PA 19103 Friday, February 19th – Doors at 9:45pm and Show at 10:00pm / Tickets – $10 Philly Sketchfest is equally proud to host, The Prince for a full-length show entitled, ‘Whole Man Whole Horse’ directed by Maggy Keegan! Comedian, Joe Bell will be hosting the show and performing stand-up!
Joe Bell is a Philadelphia based comedian. He regularly performs stand-up and is the co-host of ‘Senior Pancakes Drunken Voyage,’ an audience-interactive, stand-up drinking game. He can also be seen performing live comedy as a part of various Good Good Comedy productions such as ‘Eat Your Beats’ and ‘Five Dollar Comedy Week.’ Joe is also an animator, producing shorts that can be seen monthly at ‘The Phone It In Film Festival‘ and his YouTube channel. Fore more, follow Joe on Twitter – @JoeBell.
The Fighting Burrito Comedy Show at Kennett FlashThe Fighting Burrito Comedy Show goes on the road to Kennett Flash in Kennet Square, PA, a suburb outside of Philadelphia. Primarily a stand-up showcase, this month’s Flying Burrito Comedy Show features a performance from sketch group, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie. The show is hosted by Nicole Yates and also features comedians Eddie Finn, Rick Juliani, Chris Dolan, and headliner Jared Bilski!
Goat Rodeo wraps up their latest run of “Goats On Parade” with shows this Thursday & Friday. Opening the show, Hoagie Fist – a new sketch trio comprised of Ryan Birchmeier (Best Friends TV Show), Jake Mattera and Steve Swan (Dog Mountain).
Goat Rodeo is Christian Alsis (The Feeko Bros.), Dan Boldin, Dan Corkery (House of Solitude), Bill Flynn, Kristy Goldy (Youth Large), Jimi Haak, Chris McGrail (Hey, We’re Cool), Justin Miller, Kevin Pettit, Samantha Russell, Sue Taney, Zachary Uzupis and Aubrie Williams (Mani Pedi). Goat Rodeo is directed by Samantha Russell.
Night Trolley is Friday, September 18th at Johnny Brenda’sIt’s the final week of Philly Fringe Festival and the Night Trolley has arrived for a one-night only event at Johnny Brenda’s. Night Trolley is an experimental new variety comedy show, featuring performances from sketch group, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie as well as sketch writer/performers Matt Aukamp, Kate Banford, Joe Moore, Rose Luardo, Pat Reber and host/conductor Matthew Tsang.
Also performing comedians, Drew Castellano, Alyssa Al-Dookhi, Michael S. Watkins, Eddie Finn, Molly Hanulec, Robert Ecks, Sidney Gantt, Setoiyo Setoiyo, Alex Grubard, Charles Blyzniuk, Joe Bell, Rachel Fogletto, Hannah Trav, Jenna Kuerzi, Aaron Nevins and Phyllis Voren
Every 3rd Friday at Midnight at PHITPhiladelphia’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 11:00pm 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.
Friday, September 18th Philly Improv Theater (PHIT), 2030 Sansom Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103 Sign Ups – 11:00pm / Show – 11:55pm
