This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: no idea if this event still exists, article was last updated many years ago. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Last update: 14 November 2014(June 2022)
The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival (or SketchFest) is an annual nonprofitsketch comedyfestival held in Chicago s Lakeview neighborhood at Stage 773 (1225 W Belmont Ave). This is the worlds largest sketch festival, featuring 160 sketch groups (totaling over 1,000 performers) in roughly 180 shows throughout the festivals two-weekend run. This year, SketchFest organizers are projecting an audience of over 11,000 patrons. Past SketchFest sponsors include Burt's Bees, Uber, Red Bull, Chipotle and Whole Foods, though many local businesses team up with Stage 773 in order to make SketchFest happen.
The idea for SketchFest was born in October 2001, when Chicago teacher/director Brian Posen wanted to create a venue to showcase the city's best sketch comedy troupes and provide a venue for up-and-coming troupes, all free from financial burden. A theater was leased and sketch groups from around Chicago were invited to perform at no cost. The festival opened in January 2002, and ran for 7 weeks. Over 30 sketch comedy groups performed, nearly 2000 patrons attended.
Building on the success of the first festival, the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival became an annual event.
In order to be considered for the festival, interested sketch groups are required to submit an application including videos of their material as well as critical reviews of their performances. Groups must also submit a resume detailing which festivals they've participated in and where they've performed. These applications are collected in mid-October, and within one month, a panel of judges reviews these applications and announces a final lineup
Sketchfest 2003 hosted 53 groups, this time from all over the nation. The festival was shortened to 3½ weeks. A panel of sketch comedy experts was added to share their knowledge with performers and the public, and weekly forums were put together so that groups from all over the country could come together and share information.
The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival in 2004 expanded to three theaters and 120 performances. It ran two weeks, and attracted close to 5500 patrons. 71 groups performed that year. Besides the panels and forums, 2 new events were added: Sketchubator & Octasketch-The 8 Hour Project. Sketchubator ran Saturday nights at midnight, and provided a free-for-all for sketch groups to perform experimental work. Octasketch was an experiment modeled after "The 24 hours project". Four seasoned directors were randomly assigned Five writer-performers, all from different sketch groups, and given 8 hours to create a 30-minute sketch show performed that night. The festival also gained the sponsorship of Budweiser, WBEZ, Days Inn, Kinkos, & National Photo.
The Chicago Sketchfest 2005 had 83 groups over the 2 weeks. In addition to the events, writing workshops were added, including Joe Garden- head writer from the Onion, and John Vorhaus-author of "The Comic Toolbox". Budweiser was back. Red Bull joined the sponsors. New sponsors included WXRT, The Onion, and Whole Foods, American Airlines and Avis. In 2005, the Chicago Sketchfest officially changed its name to "The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival". Some patrons had actually called the box office to see if it was a festival about drawing. We needed the word 'Comedy'.
January 2006 marked the 5-year anniversary with 92 sketch comedy groups performing. Over 700 artists came together to perform, collaborate, share information. An event called Master Sketch was added, in which participating groups performed a scene in front of some of the masters in the industry and received feedback from these masters. This is the first year that Chipotle signed on as a sponsor.
2007- The festival was one shy of 100 groups (approximately 800 performers) and hit 10,000 patrons. OctaSketch entered its 4th year, and honored four the major comedy institutions The Second City, iO, Annoyance and ComedySportz by having each of them supply a director who created under their specific style. Sam Adams came on board as a sponsor.
In 2008, the 7th year, 100 groups signed on. Lou Malnatis' Pizza was the new sponsor.
In 2009, the festival added Children's programming. Sketch by kids, Sketch for kids and sketches educating kids.
In 2010, the children's programming was expanded.
The 2011 festival marks the 10 year anniversary of The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival.
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in Canada. It also appeared on CBS, HBO and Comedy Central, in the United States.
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.Sketch comedy is a genre within American television that includes a multitude of schemes and identities.
Olde English was an American sketch comedy troupe based in New York City. The group published over 100 comedy shorts on the Internet, and performed live at several venues and festivals in the US.
Viva Variety is an American sketch comedy series that aired on Comedy Central from April 1997 to December 1999. The series satirizes European variety shows.
The Rivoli is a bar, restaurant and performance space, established in 1982, on Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Pappy's, originally known as Pappy's Fun Club , s a British three-man comedy act, composed of comedians Ben Clark, Matthew Crosby and Tom Parry. The sketch troupe previously performed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but now mostly talk on podcasts about balconies and spaghetti. They regularly produce podcasts under the Pappy's Flatshare heading, and created and starred in the BBC Three sitcom Badults.
A comedy festival is a celebration of comedy with many shows, venues, comedy performers and is held over a specific block of time. Normally, each festival has a diverse range of comedy themes and genres.
Harvard Sailing Team is a New York City sketch comedy group featuring 5 women and 4 men. The team performs weekly in Manhattan and their popular YouTube videos have over 16 million views. They have been featured on CBS, VH1's Best Week Ever, ComedyCentral.com, College Humor, New York Magazine's Vulture blog, Funny or Die, Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Comic's Comic, Cosmo Magazine, Jezebel, Gawker, Sesame Street and TimeOut NY.
Theatre Strike Force is the University of Florida's premier improv and sketch comedy troupe. The group also goes by TSF. The style of improv performed by Theatre Strike Force is a combination long form and short form. They both teach and perform improvisational comedy. They have six house teams which include both forms of improv as well as a sketch team. There are four long form house teams which are cast every semester and usually have six to eight members. The TSF Short Form Team is cast every semester as well and usually has fifteen to nineteen members. TSF Sketch is the final house team and usually has twelve to sixteen members, cast each semester.
The Fracas! Improv Festival is a three-day annual improvisational theatre festival held at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. The festival is hosted by Second Nature Improv, one of USC's improv troupes. In addition to performances, the festival hosts discussion panels with professional improvisers currently working in television, film, and/or theatre, as well as improv workshops. While the performances and panels are open to the public, workshops are available only to registered festival participants.
Hey You Millionaires was a Chicago based sketch comedy trio composed of James Asmus, John Bohan, and Jim Fath. Though all three members are originally from Cleveland, Ohio, the group formed in Chicago in 2004. They've appeared on the cover of Fortune Magazine, CNN.com, were twice voted "Best Sketch Group" in the "Best of Chicago" Chicago Reader Poll. As of 2011 the group is on indefinite hiatus.
Oui Be Negroes is an African-American improvisational sketch comedy ensemble, founded by Artistic Director Shaun Landry and Director Hans Summers. They worked together for years in Chicago with the Underground Theatre Conspiracy, and had thrown around the idea of an African-American-driven sketch and improvisational comedy troupe, which would be geared specifically toward social and political humor.
BriTANicK is an internet sketch comedy duo from Atlanta, Georgia, that consists of Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher. McElhaney graduated from the Atlanta International School and Kocher graduated from The Paideia School. They attended New York University together. The duo's videos have been featured on internet video sites including YouTube, CollegeHumor, Cracked, Break, and FunnyOrDie. BriTANicK was nominated by the ECNY Awards as Best Sketch Comedy Group in New York in 2008 and by Comedy Central's inaugural Comedy Awards for best web video. In 2012, BriTANicK appeared in Joss Whedon's adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.
Andrew "Andy" Wood is an American comedian and a founder/producer of Portland's Bridgetown Comedy Festival. He is a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan currently residing in Los Angeles, California.
Mark Moshe Kasher is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in the Los Angeles area. He is the author of the 2012 memoir Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16. In 2009, iTunes named Kasher "Best New Comic" and his comedy album Everyone You Know Is Going to Die, and Then You Are! was ranked one of the top 20 comedy albums on iTunes that same year. He was also named "Comic to Watch in 2010" by Punchline Magazine.
Taz VanRassel is a Canadian Comedian and Actor primarily known for his work in Improv theatre. He was nominated as Best Male Improviser in Canada at The Canadian Comedy Awards from 2007 to 2015, is a founding member of The Sunday Service improv troupe, of Instant Theatre Company, 9-year member of the Vancouver TheatreSports League and is a member and co-creator of the sketch comedy group Titmouse! with Eisner Award-winning comic book writer/comedian Ian Boothby.
Geoff Plitt is an American comedian, satirist, and filmmaker from Los Angeles.
Jessica McKenna is an American actress, comedian and singer. McKenna trained with The Groundlings and at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where she regularly performs. McKenna was one of the stars of Fox's Party Over Here, alongside Nicole Byer and Alison Rich, and hosted the podcast Off Book: The Improvised Musical until 2023.
Stephanie Tolev, is a Canadian comedian and actress.
The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, also known as the TOSketchfest, is an annual comedy festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, devoted to sketch comedy. Held over 12 days in March, the festival presents performances by both established and emerging sketch comedy troupes from Canada and the United States.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
