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Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – May 16th through May 22nd

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.

 

Adventure Friends Baby Steps and Tim Butterly LargeNow 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.

A Galaxy Uncherished Logo WideThen 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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Sketch Comedy In Philadelphia – May 9th through May 15th

No time for love today; only news about sketch comedy shows happening in Philadelphia. Big news of the week? There’s a new sketch group in town and their name is Nakatomi. Even bigger news of the week? That same brand new sketch group is making their debut this week opening for PHIT Sketch House Team, Dog Mountain. But the most big news this week? All of Nakatomi’s writers & performers are improvisors. According to Nakatomi’s Tom Hannigan, everyone in the group has “dabbled” in sketch comedy over the past year and collectively decided forming a group together would give them an opportunity to work out their sketch comedy-chops. We’re thrilled to hear it and excited to see it. What day? What time? Attire? It’s all below! You should really know that by now…

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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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Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – January 25th through January 31st

This is a reminder that you have until January 31st to apply to Philly Sketchfest 2016! If you’d like to sign up please click on this link and get to submitting your incredible sketch group! Then check out all the sketch in Philadelphia for this week…

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Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – January 18th through January 24th

We were delighted to see the news from Toronto this morning that three sketch groups from Philadelphia made it into the 2016 Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. Please join us in congratulating The Flat Earth, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie, and Jon & Ian Have Something To Tell You on their acceptance and then check out the full list of sketch groups participating here. Those of us in Philly won’t have to wait until March to see Jon & Ian though. In fact, you won’t have to wait more than 72 hours and you can find out where to see them along with all of the other sketch in Philadelphia below…

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2015 Year In Review – Joe Moore of Dog Mountain & Guilty Pleasures

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. Joe Moore is the head writer of PHIT Sketch House Team, Dog Mountain, the host of the ‘Best of Philadelphia‘ award winning Guilty Pleasures, best friends with Regional Child Star, Chucky McMelonmeyer, and one our favorite human beings on Earth. Joe is looked forward to. On-stage, he pairs quick wit with earnest portrayals of a characters motivations or decisions, adding so much more to the words on the page and translating all of it through performance in a matter of seconds. In the writer’s room, he has an innate ability to both ask and answer the questions needed to break mediocre sketches and build them to something memorably unique and special. In total, Joe appreciates both high brow and low brow comedy, is devoid of hubris, brings people together and we are forever thankful for that. Whether he’s working on his own ideas or helping out everyone else, amazing things result from his involvement. You can see Joe and Dog Mountain this Friday night, on New Year’s Day, when they perform their first sketch of 2016 at our Sketch Hangover! Until then, please enjoy Joe Moore’s 2015 sketch year in review…

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2015 Year In Review – Caitlin Weigel of House of Solitude, ManiPedi and Sketchier

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. Without a doubt, Caitlin Weigel is currently the hardest working sketch writer/performer in Philadelphia. Her contributions to the Philadelphia comedy community in 2015 were numerous, inspiring, and continuously raised the bar throughout the year. At the beginning of 2015 her work on ManiPedi’s, ‘Karen’s Dream’ with director, Maggy Keegan put audiences and her peers in a state of delightful awe, pushing the boundaries of what sketch can be and how it’s executed on stage. In May, she paired with her Triple Double partner, Dan Corkery (Goat Rodeo / Alley of Nightmares) creating the sketch duo House of Solitude with their debut show, ‘Together Forever’. Before year’s end, House of Solitude would perform two more shows of brand-new material – ‘Everything’s Fine* in Sicklerburg‘ and ‘Home For The Holidays.‘ Caitlin also wrote, filmed and edited at least one new sketch every month in 2015 as part of her YouTube channel,’Sketchier‘ which featured one of our favorite videos of the year, ‘The Milk & Cookies Show.’ Caitlin’s given us so much in 2015 and now, before House of Solitude and ManiPedi put up their first sketches of 2016 at Philly Sketchfest Presents, Sketch Hangover, she’s giving us her thoughts on all the beautiful and silly stuff she liked in Philadelphia sketch comedy during 2015…

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2015 Year in Review – Matthew Schmid of The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie and The Flat Earth

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. Matthew Schmid is one-half of sketch duo, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie and is a writer/performer for PHIT Sketch House Team, The Flat Earth. In 2015, Matthew toured across North America with The Flat Earth where they performed at the Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto Sketchfests. In November, The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie successfully defended their Dirtiest Sketch in Philadelphia title, becoming the event’s first, three-time winner. This Friday night, on New Year’s Day, both of Matt’s groups will perform their first sketches of 2016 at our January showcase, Sketch Hangover! But enough about Matthew… It’s time for you to enjoy what Matthew enjoyed about 2015 in his sketch year in review…

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Q & A – Daniel Corkery & Caitlin Weigel of House of Solitude

House of Solitude is the sketch comedy duo of Daniel Corkery & Caitlin Weigel. Some might ask, where do they both find the time though? Dan writes and performs on PHIT Sketch House Team, Goat Rodeo as well as improvising with Triple Double. Caitlin improvises with two acclaimed groups, The Future and the aforementioned Triple Double, directs the PHIT Improv House Team, Outside Voices, teaches improv at PHIT and writes & performs with sketch groups, ManiPedi and Sketchier. Oh, and they have day jobs and a show this Friday night at 8:30pm with The Wire Mothers (NYC) and stand-up comedian, Jake Mattera as part of Philly Sketchfest Presents December showcase. We found a little room in their schedule this week to sit down with us to talk about their origins, if improv informs their sketch writing and some details on their upcoming show, ‘Home for the Holidays’….

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Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – October 26th through November 1st

A light week for sketch shows in Philadelphia means all your energy and resources should be focused on getting yourself to the one and only sketch show this week, Welcome to Sicklerburg presented by House of Solitude. You’ll have two chances to catch the show this week at Philly Improv Theater (PHIT), with a different opening act each night. Thursday’s show features stand-up from Jake Mattera (HoagieFist) and Friday’s show features the return of Chucky McMelonmeyer – Regional Child Star. Listings below and for more information, check out this wonderful article about the show from Geekadelphia writer, Neil Bardhan. Also don’t forget to get your tickets to House of Solitude’s upcoming show, Friday, December 18th as part of Philly Sketchfest Presents!