Every January, SF Sketchfest gathers a star-studded assemblage of comedians doing sketch, improv, standup, games, tributes, cast reunions, live podcasts, screenplay readings, old-time radio shows and just about any other type of comedic hijinks you can imagine in venues all over San Francisco. It’s come a long way from its beginning as a showcase for a few local sketch comedy groups.
It started in 2002 when then-San Francisco State University students David Owen, Cole Stratton and Janet Varney brought six Bay Area troupes — including their own, Totally False People — for a sketch comedy festival at San Francisco’s Shelton Theatre.
“We sold out every show,” Varney recalls. “And it’s really grown grassroots from there. We added more performers from other places and all different kinds of comedy and reunions and music, essentially things that we are all fans of, that we can sort of nestle into the comedy subheading.”
This year Sketchfest celebrates its belated 20th anniversary and its return to live shows, after a modest virtual event in 2021 and a canceled 2022 fest largely carried over to this year. For the first time, a handful of events will be livestreamed as well.
Events for the festival running Jan. 20-Feb. 5 include a screening of the 1973 satirical film “The Long Goodbye” with star Elliott Gould; a “A Mighty Wind” cast reunion; a roast of “Evil Dead” star Bruce Campbell; and tributes honoring Cheech & Chong, David Alan Grier and original “Saturday Night Live” cast member Laraine Newman.
“The first year, we didn’t even know there would be a second year,” Owen says. “And then the second year we somehow managed to talk Fred Willard and the Upright Citizens Brigade into coming. That felt like such a big deal to us, that we actually got some known comedians from outside of San Francisco to come and play at the festival. I think the third or fourth year we managed to get one of the Kids in the Hall. The next year it was another Kid in the Hall, and a couple years later it was all of the Kids in the Hall. Every year there’s a pinch-ourselves moment of, oh my God, we never thought we’d get this person or this act.”
“We’re so sore from pinching ourselves and each other,” Varney quips.
Many comedy stars quickly get hooked and return to Sketchfest over and over again.
“We look at it as like a playground for them to do whatever they want to do,” says Stratton. “If they want to try some new stuff out or do different kinds of shows that they wouldn’t want to take on the road for a tour.’
“A lot of these performers know each other, but they’re not often in the same city together, and to have them populate each other’s shows and hang out in an amazing city together, I think that’s been a big reason why this thing has kept going,” Stratton adds. “And they tell their friends, and we just keep growing out what we consider to be a giant comedy family at this point.”
Among the frequent returnees is comedian Janeane Garofalo, star of many a ’90s film (“Reality Bites,” “Mystery Men,” “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”). Garofalo has kept coming back since her first Sketchfest in 2009.
“I’m not sure how many Sketchfests I’ve been to, but I always hope to be invited,” she says. “I think I annoy Janet Varney by getting in touch with her and prodding her to please invite me.”
Garofalo will be headlining a standup show and participating in events including “The 6 Year Anniversary of the 10 Year Anniversary of the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival” (alongside Bobcat Goldthwait, Sarah Vowell, Reggie Watts and others); “Stop Joking for 100 Years and Other Requests from My Kid (Stories of Parenting and Childhood)”; “Tinder Live with Lane Moore”; and “Hound Tall with Moshe Kasher Farewell Show.”
During an interview, she admits the “Stop Joking” parenting-themed show is news to her. “Oh, am I doing that?” she says. “I don’t have children! I haven’t parented.”
It’s unsurprising, because Garofalo loves the serendipity of doing whatever oddball Sketchfest event she’s invited to participate in.
“I always say, throw me in any show you want!” she says. “I want to do as many shows as possible. If I had my druthers, I’d be there from start to finish, doing multiple shows every single day.”
At home in New York, Garofalo often does standup seven nights a week in various venues. But being part of the concentrated hotbed of comedic energy at Sketchfest is a particular delight.
“You get to reconnect with your friends,” Garofalo says. “You get to see new comics you might not have seen before. And San Francisco is one of one of the greatest cities to do this in. The audiences are phenomenal. They’re very literate, they’re very supportive, they’re very interested in comedy. I’m always thrilled to go to San Francisco anyway, but to have the luxury of being in San Francisco, being in a hotel with your friends and getting to see great shows and perform in great shows with your friends, it really could not be a better situation as far as I’m concerned.”
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
SF SKETCHFEST
When: Jan. 20-Feb. 5
Where: Various San Francisco venues
Tickets: Prices vary by show; www.sfsketchfest.com
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