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News Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – February 15th through February 21st

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
Template_11x17_vertPhilly 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).

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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
The Prince Whole Human Whole HorsePhilly 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!

The Prince is a sketch comedy duo featuring Frank Farrell and Jamie Glasheen. They were accepted into and performed at the 2014 Philly Sketchfest and have also performed at ‘Hey, We’re Cool‘ at L’etage, Philly Improv Theater (PHIT), and Good Good Comedy.

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.

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News Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – February 8th through February 14th

In one week, we’ll be announcing the line-up of performers, workshops and panels taking place at Philly Sketchfest 2016! Also next week, it’s Philly Sketchfest Presents’ February showcase with two shows taking place at the Adrienne Theater Playground on Friday, February 19th. First at 8:30pm, we’re celebrating the Philadelphia groups that made it into this year’s Chicago Sketchfest with Spirit Animal & The Flat Earth performing sketch and stand-up from Alyssa Al-Dookhi! 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! Check back on Monday for our festival line-up and check out below all the great sketch happening in Philly this week…

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News Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – February 1st through February 7th

Happy February 2016 everyone! We’re absolutely thrilled February is here because that means that in a few short weeks, we’ll be announcing the line-up of performers, workshops and panels taking place at Philly Sketchfest 2016, March 31st through April 3rd. If you haven’t heard, we’ve extended our submission deadline by 48 hours making today the final day to get your sketch group in on the festivities. But that’s not all we’re up to in February as Philly Sketchfest is also presenting two new sketch showcases! Both shows take place on Friday, February 19th with our 8:30pm showcase featuring sketch from Spirit Animal & The Flat Earth who will performing their sets from the 2016 Chicago Sketchfest with stand-up from Alyssa Al-Dookhi. 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.

Philly Sketchfest is also a proud sponsor of the 2016 Bechdel Test Fest celebrating Philadelphia’s women and trans comedians at the Christ Church Neighborhood House. You can find out about all the sketch groups performing in it after the break…

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News Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – January 4th through January 10th

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016! Yes, we are still celebrating because there is so much to be happy about. On New Year’s Day we opened up submissions and announced the dates of our upcoming 2016 Philly Sketchfest taking place from March 31st through April 3rd. You can submit here until we close out the submission process on January 31st. We’re also thankful to everyone who came out and enjoyed our January showcase featuring the American Breakfast Reunion Show with Your Mom and our 17 group sketch event, Sketch Hangover – The First Sketches of 2016. Our never-ending thanks to the performers who spent their New Year’s Day with us including, American Breakfast, Your Mom, Adventure Friends, Barbara Bush, Dog Mountain, High Dramma, HoagieFist, House of Solitude, ManiPedi, Mean Wendy Band, Patric Writes Sketches, The Burgundy Boys, The Flannel Chucks, The Flat Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie, The Prince, Until Pluto, and WGRA Radio Theatre. Let’s do it again next year! If you missed your first opportunity to see sketch comedy in 2016, you are in luck. There are no less than six sketch comedy shows occurring this week and we can’t wait to tell you about them…

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News Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – November 30th through December 6th

We hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving this past weekend. For those of you that also enjoyed The Black Friday Comedy Marathon, we hope you were able to catch up on your sleep. Most especially the hosts of the entire 38 hour marathon Hey, We’re Cool, our first featured sketch show of the week. Also this week, Monologues and Brought To You By at PHIT, and The Mean Wendy Band at The Comedy Show Gates.

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News Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – September 28th through October 4th

Last week the Pope visited the city of Philadelphia. We we warned what would happen to the city. We were told we could leave while there was still time. Then reality set in… there would be no sketch shows while the Papal was in town. With a lack of sketch comedy entertainment, it wasn’t long before the city was torn asunder. Pandemonium reigned with chaos replacing all law and order. The children, covered in the blood of their fallen elders, wept when instead, they should have been validating the existence of sketch writers and performers with their laughter. To the survivors, to those returning, to those who have lost, please enjoy the following sketch shows as we move forward, forever changed by a week with no sketch shows.
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Hey, We’re Cool – We Got Drunk and Wrote a Show
Thursday, October 1st – 8pm / L’etage – 624 S. 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147 / $5 at the door

Hey, We're Cool
Hey, We’re Cool
If nothing else, Hey, We’re Cool prides themselves on their professionalism. So when they said “Let’s get, like, sloppy drunk and then write a show, and then we have to stick to whatever we wrote for that show, no matter how weird or uninterpretable the ideas are,” they did exactly that.

Promising a bizarre collection of ideas, drunkenly written weeks ago that are now simply bad decisions performed weeks after they drunkenly made them, Hey, We’re Cool has both thrown the gauntlet down and subsequently picked it back up. Drunkly written and soberly performed by Quinton Alexander, Matt Aukamp, Jacquie Baker, Kev Ketner, Chris McGrail, Pat Reber and Matthew Schmid.
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People of Interest – Two Year Anniversary Show
Thursday, October 1st – 10:30pm / PHIT – 2030 Sansom St. (2nd Floor), Phila, PA 19103 / Tix $8-$10
People of Interest LogoAfter you’re finished laughing at Hey, We’re Cool, why not give The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie a ride across town to Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) so you can watch them perform together in People of Interest! Host Ryan T. Barlow conducts NPR-style interviews with characters created and performed by local comedians. However, the performers have no idea who they will be portraying until they arrive on stage. This month, People of Interest celebrates its two-year anniversary and Ryan T. Barlow will interviewing comedy duos from Philadelphia including sketch duo, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie and Improv duos, Proper Dodgy (Rachel Semigran & Lizzie Spellman), Mishegas (Mike Marbach & Kristen Schier) and Something Simple with Alex (Gross) & Frank (Farrell).
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Monologues at PHIT + Brought To You By…
Friday, October 2nd at 9pm / PHIT – 2030 Sansom St. (2nd Floor), Phila, PA 19103 / Tix $10-$12

Two Shows, One Hour
One hour, two shows.
Filmed sketch offers groups an ability to reach audiences outside their locale while also opening up creative opportunities not available in a live format. However, the ability to receive immediate feedback from an audience is otherwise absent. That’s where Brought To You By… fills the gap, premiering new filmed sketches from Philadelphia-area groups in front of a live audience. Hosted & curated by Casey Hogan, Peter Szekeres, and Alex Coffey, the trio also integrate live material in-between videos. This month, videos from Patric Ciervo (Patric Writes Sketches), Andrew Sigwart, and Paul Triggiani (Secret Pants/The Flat Earth).
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If you’re a comedian with an inclination to film and edit your material, email [email protected] to inquire about having your video featured as part of an upcoming show.

After that, it’s Monologues hosted & curated by Dru Kramcsak. This month’s performers include Kathryn Amrhein (Barbara Bush), Jacquie Baker (The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie), Josh Higham, Billy Kontostergios, Shelia Masters, Jon Plester (Jon & Ian Have Something To Tell You), Charlie Shulman (People Say I’m Sketchy) and host, Dru Kramcsak.
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Know about an upcoming sketch show? Want us to tell people about it? Send your listing to [email protected].