SF Sketchfest rolls into first week of programming with the Kids in the Hall, more
The 21st edition SF Sketchfest brings together another stellar line-up of talent to 17 venues for 18 days of hilarious improvisation, live podcasts, tributes, stand-up and ensemble comedy over the course of more than 200 shows.
Plenty of national names will be making appearances this year as SF Sketchfest presents such television and film legends as the festival-opening event featuring Monty Python founding member Eric Idle, "Saturday Night Live" veteran and "TV Funhouse" creator Robert Smigel in his Triumph the Insult Comic Dog guise, iconic pop music parodist "Weird" Al Yankovic, the entire cast of groundbreaking sketch comedy shows "The Kids in the Hall" and "The State" -- who appear collectively and in a variety of combinations -- late night talk show host and sketch talent Amber Ruffin, recent Golden Globe winner for his role in The Holdovers Paul Giamatti, and "Mr. Show" principles and talented comics/actors David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. There will also be a 25th anniversary salute to the popular television show "Futurama," multiple staged podcasts and talk shows, appearances by stand-up talents Marc Maron, Todd Barry, Matt Braunger, Ron Funches, Jon Glaser and Brett Gellman, celebrated improv troupes The Upright Citizens Brigade, The Groundlings and SF favorites Killing My Lobster as well as encore appearances by noted locally grown talents like Doug Benson, Brian Posehn, Margaret Cho and Moshe Kasher.
Taking a cue from its all-star streaming fundraiser that it held in 2021 after concerns over the surge in winter COVID cases first led the SF Sketchfest to be cancelled that year, for the first time the festival will be making a handful of events available to a global streaming audience via Veeps. The shows that can be streamed include the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog show "Let's Make a Poop," the popular podcast "Hello from the Magic Tavern," the Kids in the Hall presenting "Scenes They Wouldn't Let Us Do," comedian/actor Paul F. Tompkins and his popular stage show "Varietopia," and podcaster/comic Travis McElroy and his fantasy role-playing meets comedy podcast "The Trav-enture Zone." Tickets for the streaming shows are $14.99. The number of venues utilized by the festival continues to grow with spots in Alameda (Alameda Comedy Club), the Mission District (Brava Theater Center and Brava Cabaret, the Chapel, the Marsh), North Beach (Club Fugazi, Lost Church, Gateway Theatre, Great Star Theater, Cobb's Comedy Club), the Castro (the Castro Theatre), downtown SF (Punchline Comedy Club) and Hayes Valley (The Sydney Goldstein Theater, formerly the Nourse) hosting events.
The festival goes dark for a night following a whopper of an opening weekend, but continues on Tuesday with the first of two events featuring one of the biggest names in sketch comedy with legendary Canadian troupe the Kids in the Hall. Formed in 1984 when the established Toronto comedy duo of Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald -- who were already working under the Kids in the Hall moniker -- decided to team with relocated Calgary sketch pair Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch. The following year, fifth member Scott Thompson was invited to join as the group became an established force in the Toronto sketch comedy community.
While the group would split up for a short time when McKinney and McCulloch were invited by "Saturday Night Live" creator and producer Lorne Michaels to write for the show in New York City, when they reunited in Toronto, it was Michaels who would be instrumental in moving the troupe from the live stage to the television screen. After the airing of a one-hour pilot special in 1988, the quintet delivered their surreal, anarchic sketches to a growing audience for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation as well as HBO and CBS in the States from 1989 to 1995. The Kids in the Hall would become the Monty Python of Generation X, introducing such indelible characters as Thompson's Buddy Cole -- an outspoken bon vivant who was openly gay like Thompson himself -- and McKinney's Mr. Tyzik ("I'm CRUSHING your head!!") and the Chicken Lady.
The troupe made the movie Brain Candy in 1996, a fraught creative process as tensions between the members grew before an extended hiatus, but the film would eventually become a cult favorite. The group came to even greater fame when Comedy Central started airing the show in syndication years after it ended, expanding their fan base. The Kids in the Hall reunited in 2000 for a North American tour to capitalize on their renewed popularity. The group has since staged multiple touring productions, become a regular marquee attraction at comedy festival and created shows including the 2008 miniseries "Death Comes to Town" and the eight-episode revival season of "The Kids in the Hall" last year for Amazon Prime.
For the first of two full troupe appearances at this year's SF Sketchfest Tuesday night, "The Kids in the Hall: Unplugged" will feature in a night of singing, stories and sketches accompanied by Dirty Ghosts and Red Room Orchestra guitarist Allyson Baker (1/23, 7:30 p.m., Palace of Fine Arts). On Wednesday, "The Kids in the Hall: The Scenes They Wouldn't Let Us Do" offers up an array of pieces that met with opposition from producers, networks, censors and sometimes each other with behind-the-scenes history (1/24, 7:30 p.m., Great Star Theater). On Thursday, Thompson will appear as Buddy Cole in a new solo show "King," delivering a number of incendiary new monologues that have never been featured on the show (1/25, 7:30 p.m., Club Fugazi).
Other shows of interest happening during the week include the return of Talking Simpsons, the in-depth podcast that has been taking deep dives into individual episodes of television's most popular animated family since 2015. Hosts Bob Mackey and Henry Gilbert will be joined by podcast producer Chris Wade ("Chapo Trap House," "Hell of Presidents" and "Hell on Earth") to dig into the minutiae of an episode of "The Simpsons" (1/24, 7:30 p.m., Gateway Theater), sold-out stand-up showcases for Australian comic and "Fisk" co-star Aaron Chen (1/25, 7 p.m., Marsh Mainstage) and current "The Daily Show" writer Josh Johnson (1/25, 7:30 p.m., Cobb's Comedy Club), a live album recording by comedian Clare O'Kane with an opening set by stand-up great and "Bob's Burgers" voice actor Eugene Mirman (1/25, 7:30 p.m., Punch Line Comedy Club) and a performance by Pylon Reenactment Society, a group featuring the beloved Athens, GA-based post-punk band's original vocalist Vanessa Briscoe Hay playing classic songs alongside fresh material from their forthcoming new album Magnet Factory with local indie singer-songwriter and Red Room Orchestra regular Kelley Stoltz (1/25, 8 p.m., Great American Music Hall). The comedy onslaught that continues through February 5. For a more detailed listing of events, upcoming highlights and information on how to get tickets, please visit the SF Sketchfest website.