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 2016The 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!
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…
Tonight at 10:00pm, Philadelphia-based sketch comedy duo The Prince will debut their brand new show, “Whole Man, Whole Horse” directed by Maggy Keegan. Hosted by comedian Joe Bell and featuring guest performances from Julia Hudson (Barbara Bush/Sweetish), Sue Nelson (Barbara Bush) and Hunter Steffes (Big Baby Improv), this full length show serves as the duo’s largest and most ambitious production to date. Philly Sketchfest sat down with Frank Farrell & Jamie Glasheen of The Prince to discuss their origins, how they approach writing & performing sketch comedy, their influences and a little taste of what’s to come in tonight’s show
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.
This week Philly Sketchfest will be taking a look back at the year 2015 through the eyes of the writers, performers, directors and producers that make sketch comedy in Philadelphia a reality. Daniel Corkery has improved the quality of sketch in Philadelphia on multiple levels. His work as a writer and performer on Alley of Nightmares brought immediate attention to Philadelphia’s sketch scene with the show being accepted into the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre’sSPANK series and the 2014 Toronto Sketchfest. Fresh off the success of ‘Alley,’ Dan was brought on as a performer for PHIT Sketch House Team Goat Rodeo and quickly found himself contributing to the writer’s room. When asked, his peers unanimously agree that Dan is the smartest mind in the room. Recently, Daniel has taken his talents and applied them to animation creating sketches that serve as both web content and interstitial transitions for House of Solitude’s live shows. You can see Dan and Caitlin’s sketch group, House of Solitude, tomorrow night, on New Year’s Day, as they perform their first sketch of 2016 at our Sketch Hangover! In the meantime, please enjoy Dan’s look back at Philly sketch in 2015…
This week Philly Sketchfest will be taking a look back at the year 2015 through the eyes of the writers, performers, directors and producers that make sketch comedy in Philadelphia a reality. Frank Farrell is one-half of the sketch duo, The Prince with fellow La Salle University graduate, Jamie Glasheen. In 2015, The Prince put up one of our favorite sketch sets of the year, a seemingly minimalist show set entirely in one location (the stage of a grade-school talent show) with barely any costume changes/props and no blackouts. The end result was quite complex. Frank & Jamie seamlessly alternated between characters (and on different nights, they would even trade roles) using single objects as totems/short-hand to communicate information to the audience that would be further revealed through their performance. They play students, teachers, parents, and at one point, Frank plays himself, translating the excitement and vulnerability that comes in attempting to define yourself while at the same time, being defined by others. You can and should enjoy The Prince this Friday night, on New Year’s Day, when they perform their first sketch of 2016 at our Sketch Hangover! Until then, please enjoy what Frank enjoyed in his 2015 sketch year in review…
It’s the week of Thanksgiving and we have a lot of people to thank for all they did to make our Philly Sketchfest Presents November showcase such a success including performers Sweetish, Trout House (NYC), Eddie Finn, all the groups that took part in The Dirtiest Sketch in Philadelphia (editors note – check out the link for all the info including who won by clicking here), and last but certainly not least, Cynthia-Marie, Nicole Yates, Jaime Kelly and Dave Terruso. Now let’s get all types of informed for Thanksgiving Week including a camera-phone film festival and a 38-hour long marathon of comedy…
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
Now please enjoy this week’s listings, with special attention for the May 20th Philly Sketchfest Presents Showcase at The Adrienne Theater Playground!
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”.
