Recap: Philly Sketchfest Night 5
Camp Woods / Photo by KL Thomas
Tonight, the Philly Sketchfest wraps up its fifth year with three blocks of shows and a stellar line-up of performers including, the local duo (and Philly Sketchfest producers) David Terruso and Matt Lally of Animosity Pierre at 9 p.m. and the Boston-based duo Sawyer & Hurley capping off the 10 p.m. block.
That said, consider this not only a recap of last night’s comedic offerings, but my final plea to get you to go out and actually see the festival.
Out-of-towners opened both blocks of shows last night—Onassis, the house sketch team at The Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in NYC and Brick Penguin from Washington, DC—both of whom I’d welcome again with open arms. Oddly enough, they also both happened to have concluded their sets with really original musical bits.
Still, it was the homegrown headliners that really brought the house down:
Camp Woods: While I can’t say how many times I’ve seen CW over the years, I can say that I’ve never seen them perform at such an uncanny, gut-busting pace as they did last night. From Billy Bob Thompson pretending to play the piano as Rob Thomas to Rob Baniewicz competing on a fake game show as Adolf Hitler, the crew really kicked their wonderful absurdity up a notch. Their first peak came with the sketch “Pop-Eye The Failure Man.” Billy is already like a living cartoon character so there was a certain satisfaction that came with watching him as an actual cartoon character. Oh, and of course, Rob Baniewicz was simply born to play Olive Oil. By the end of their set, already at the top of the mountain with nowhere else to go but down, the gang just decided blow the entire goddamn mountain up. And they did it with a good old-fashion amniotic sac race. Amniotic sacs? Yes, amniotic sacs.
The Feeko Brothers / Photo by KL Thomas
The Feeko Brothers: Philly’s Reigning Kings of Sketch Comedy did exactly what they always do—entertain and amuse. This time however, they did it all in between ridiculous video clips of Yasmine Bleeth. Not sure how this idea came about, but I really wish I could have been a fly on the wall as they scoured the Web for Baywatch clips. The duo concluded the evening with the introduction of a hilarious new character, whose name I believe was “Little Charlie Dinosaur.” In hopes that they bring this little guy out again in the future, I don’t want to say anything else about him or the sketch, except that it was a wonderful example of comedic crafting.
FESTIVAL INFO: Each of the nightly performances will be held in the Prince Music Theater’s Independence Foundation Blackbox (1412 Chestnut St.). Tickets for an individual show block are $10 while a nightly pass costs $15-$20. As an additional bonus, a portion of tickets sales from this year’s festival as well as all proceeds from the annual Comedy Month raffle will benefit Career Wardrobe.
Recap: Philly Sketchfest Night 3
While still pissed I wasn’t able to attend the Dirtiest Sketch Competition on Tuesday, I’m glad that the 5th Annual Philly Sketchfest still has three more nights of kick-ass sketch comedy left.
Last night’s show was dominated by three stellar local acts. First up, stand-ups Chip Chantry and Carl Boccuti officially debuted their new monthly sketch show, The Specific Jawns, featuring an array of their funny friends (Mary Radzinski, John McKeever, Shannon Brown and Sam Narisi, to name a few).
Chip and Carl deserve mad props for the five following reasons: 1) Coming up with what is perhaps the best title for a comedy show I’ve ever heard. 2) Enlisting such a dynamic crew of talented comics. 3) Including Philly-centric jokes that weren’t completely trite. 4) Going the extra step to incorporate visual elements. 5) Conceiving such well-written, off-the-wall and totally original sketches. Already I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the future.
Keeping the laughs going, the gals of ManiPedi dusted off their handmade Fruit of the Loom-style food costumes and proved that watching three girls fight in cardboard contraptions really never gets old. Even the second time around, I laughed till my eyes watered. If you’ve never seen it, just think Justin Timberlake’s “Bring it on down to…” sketches, but ten times funnier. Following this food-theme, the group then played their newest video sketch “The Taco Bell Jar.” I highly recommend checking it out. I also highly recommend picking up a copy of next’s week issue of PW. (wink. wink.)
For the grand finale, the massive ensemble of Penn’s all-male sketch troupe, The Mask & Wig Club took their stage and wowed the crowd with their Ivy League wits. Although some sketches were stronger than others, when these guys killed it, they freakin’ killed it. They delivered more sketches in 20-30 minutes than one can possibly recall, but the two that stand out entailed a bizarre wizard/hamburglar and a chorus line capped off with a surprise appearance from Hitler.
FESTIVAL INFO: Each of the nightly performances will be held in the Prince Music Theater’s Independence Foundation Blackbox (1412 Chestnut St.). Tickets for an individual show block are $10 while a nightly pass costs $15-$20. As an additional bonus, a portion of tickets sales from this year’s festival as well as all proceeds from the annual Comedy Month raffle will benefit Career Wardrobe.
The Must-See Philly Sketchfest Shows, According to Local Comics
Tonight marks the beginning of the 5th Annual Philly Sketchfest, which will be hosting shows each night through Saturday. Offering up a smorgasbord of sketch talents, audiences will have a chance to see the best that this city has to offer as well as several noteworthy troupes from around the country.
Once again, to help you decide which shows to see, I turned to some local comedians for their own recommendations.
Pat Foy (Camp Woods; co-host of The Theme Show): ManiPedi’s performances are spot-on and their writing is smart, clever, and fearless. They’re always a blast to watch. Charles Rosen’s unique point of view and inimitable delivery make me howl every time I see him perform, so I’m really excited to check out Tales From a Body Cast.
Madonna Marie Refugia (Camp Woods, ManiPedi): “I’m really excited to see the Feeko Brothers because I love laughing until it hurts.”
Photo: Kevin Thom
LaTice Klapa (stand-up comedian): “In my opinion a must see show during the week of Philly Sketchfest is the dynamic sketch duo Animosity Pierre. They are a hilarious, smart duo who are on the move in Philadelphia.”
Rob Baniewicz (Camp Woods): “Go see Camp Woods. I am continually impressive.”
Steve Kleinedler (Director of PHIT house team Hot Dish): “Friends of Gertrude: I’ve had the pleasure of directing or coaching most of the members of this extremely talented cast when I was at ImprovBoston, and I can vouch for a zany evening of high quality fun. Sawyer & Hurley are impossible to explain, but can be described by adjectives such as stupendous, hysterical, and must-see. Boston is bringing you two superb teams. Go see them!”
Shannon Brown (ManiPedi): “The Feeko Brothers. I leave every one of their shows smiling.”
Paul Triggani (Secret Pants; host of PHIT’s TV Party): “I should say the Monday show since I’m in it, but my pick would be: ManiPedi has become an estrogen-infused city favorite, and The Specific Jawns show a great deal of promise based on only a handful of performances, but the real treat will be seeing The Mask & Wig Club outside of their normal UPenn venue and schedule, which almost never happens. MacCloskey & Myers sound nice, too.”
Photo: Tom Lovelund, Musher-Lovelund Photography/Philly Improv Theater
Erin Pitts (ZaoGao): “You have got to see the Feeko Bros. They’re in the Dirtiest Sketch Competition on Tuesday and headlining Thursday night. See BOTH shows, you will not be disappointed.”
Jason Grimley (Grimmacchio): “I am looking forward to seeing The Monthly Hour. James Hesky, Darryl Charles, Jim Grammond and Mary Radzinski are great comedians individually. Sit them down together and they are amazing!”
FESTIVAL INFO: Each of the nightly performances will be held in the Prince Music Theater’s Independence Foundation Blackbox (1412 Chestnut St.). Tickets for an individual show block are $10 while a nightly pass costs $15-$20.
Comedy Month in Philly Now Underway!
For those of you who don’t know, November happens to be Comedy Month here in Philly. What the hell does Comedy Month entail exactly? Well, in short, 30 straight nights of awesome shows featuring the funniest folks in town as well as a carefully selected group of out-of-town acts.
The month long comedy extravaganza is organized by the Philadelphia Comedy Collective (a group of a few local comedy performers and producers) and is technically comprised of the Philadelphia Improv Festival (Nov. 7-11), followed by Philly Sketchfest (Nov. 12-17) and capped off with a miscellaneous sprinkling of indie stand-up, storytelling and variety shows better known as the City Spotlight (Nov. 6-30).
Being the hardcore local comedy enthusiast that I am, I’ll be covering as many of the nightly shows as humanly possible for PWStyle, hopefully convincing you to go out and actually see one, or two, or twenty.
With that said, check back tomorrow for a roundup of the must-see Philly Improv Festival shows and be sure to follow the Philly Comedy Collective on Twitter @phlcomedy to keep abreast of all the comedy happenings.