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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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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 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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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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Q & A – Cynthia Marie of “And Stay Out – The Art of Overstaying Your Welcome” a National Sketch Writing Month Anthology

In three short weeks, Philadelphia-based writer and performer Cynthia Marie will be updating her artist bio to Wisconsin-based writer and performer. That’s right, as far as she’s concerned it’s ‘good-bye forever, Philadelphia!’ But before she departs, Cynthia is putting up one final show entitled, ‘And Stay Out – The Art Of Overstaying Your Welcome’, an anthology of sketch comedy inspired and written for National Sketch Writing Month (which challenges comedy writers to write a new sketch every day for thirty consecutive days). Featuring performances from Quinton Alexander, Katie Cwirko, Andrea Duffy, Kristopher Hodge and Cynthia Marie, this one-night only event takes place this Friday night at 10:30pm as part of Philly Sketchfest Presents December showcase with sketch group, Until Pluto and stand-up comedian, Alex Pearlman. Earlier this week, we spoke with Cynthia Marie to talk about her influences, writing a new sketch every day for 30 days and leaving Philadelphia for Wisconsin…

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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 Sweetish

Sketch Comedy in Philadelphia – October 12th through October 18th

NYC Sketchfest at The PIT is this weekend and as we mentioned last week, Philadelphia will be represented by a plethora of groups. This week, musical sketch group Mean Wendy Band gets ready for their two shows at NYC Sketchfest with a local performance at Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) with musical improv duo, Cat & Vegas and the Temple of Boom. Not to be outdone, musical sketch/90’s alt-rock cover band The Flannel Chucks are also back on stage. PLUS, a brand new show from PHIT Sketch House Team Dog Mountain with guests Adventure Friends, Sweetish at The Sideshow, and an opportunity for anyone to get their material on stage at Sketch Up or Shut Up.

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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].