I orignally wrote this for prettywitty.com, who asked for an article about the national sketch scene. It's not funny...but it's a good primer on some of the great groups that are out there and the differences between the major west coast festivals.
This was written at the end of 2003 though...so my apologies to awesome troupes I've met since then. Maybe this wiki will be able to keep refreshing it with the new blood.
Dumb Costumes, Intrigue, and the Rise of the New Sketch Comedy Scene
By Kevin Chesley
Somewhere, trapped between the comedy listings and the theatre section, lies sketch. Even while Saturday Night Live is known the world over and college dorm rooms ring with the quotes of Monty Python, Mr. Show and The Kids In The Hall, to most sketch is a bit of an odd duck. Even after witnessing a great comedy sketch many are not sure what it was…what it was for…why it was funny? To those that choose to work at it, though, it is somehow the past and the future of both comedy and live theatre. Those who seek it out find the list of great sketch comedy groups very, very long: The Upright Citizens Brigade, Nichols & May, Smack The Pony, The State, The Ben Stiller Show. These are the Grandchildren of Vaudeville, but however hard they may fight, there's just never been an explosion for sketch. We've never really let them own the schoolyard like Stand-Up in the 80s or Grunge in 1992. Will we ever?
Across the country, city by city, a growing community of the faithful is hoping so.
In 1999, the Seattle sketch comedy scene was at a fever pitch (it still is). That year, nine of the top sketch comedy troupes in the city joined forces and performed in what would be the first Seattle Sketchfest ever. The annual event, now spearheaded by Val Bush and Heidi Tripple, has become a nexus point for what is becoming a national phenomenon: The Sketch Comedy Renaissance.
A new circuit is growing and, in city after city, sketch comedy troupes are finding that audiences are starting to pay attention.
"Comedy is righteous." Kelli Elandis of Dallas' PUNCHDRUnK preaches, "Like the church, comedy needs a good tent revival or a potluck dinner every now and again." But apart from just being showcases to make audiences laugh, these festivals - from the Chicago Sketchfest to Portland's Best Of The Best Festival - are meeting grounds for the sketch groups themselves. They've become the racetracks at which groups from across the country see how other groups rev their engines. For many, if not all, sketch is still a very experimental vehicle.
To try and define sketch comedy makes one sound rather silly. Most people end up saying something like, "It's short…with characters…and they do stuff. You know, like Saturday Night Live." There's an indefinable variety inherent in the form that may be its greatest strength. When a normal Sketchfest may feature everything from Chicago's Harvey Finklestein (a puppet) to New York's Pink Steel (a gay heavy metal band), the question might not be "What is sketch?" It might be, "What isn't?"
"Sketch is frequently considered the runty sibling of fringe-theater," admits Josh Knisely, founding member of Seattle's Some Kind Of Cult, "it's come a long way to establish itself as a unique and viable art, but there's still a long way to go." Josh is one who, like many, watches each sketch comedy show as many watch Dramatic Theatre (note the capitalization). How will the next group make their transitions between sketches unique? How do they quickly set the stage for each sketch? Do they bother? Will they use costumes? Mime? Minimalism? Bad parodies? Every time a new group emerges, a new way to perform a sketch show is born. That's exciting to those watching.
One of the ones watching is Mical Trejo, of Austin's Latino Comedy Project. He sees the Art in the comedy as well, "With sketch, you are constantly dealing with world premiere material -- five to ten-minute world premieres. It's all new, exciting, and fun. It keeps my spirits up as an actor to know that this much good work is being generated. It's amazing." LCP was formed by Adrian Villegas and Teatro Humanidad in 1998 to showcase and celebrate Latino talent and voices. This year will be the fifth anniversary of their Latino Comedy Fiesta, though their massive body of material and powerful energy has made them a staple at Festivals across the country. "Groups need to stick to it and make themselves local institutions so that overtime you could go to LA and see a TROOP! show, or Austin and see an LCP show…build a regional fan base and hopefully sketch as a medium will grow in popularity."
But every city has its own strengths, its own pitfalls, and its own assortment of politics. The Seattle sketch scene, for example, isn't all Festivals and roses. Newspaper press there is notoriously harsh on comedy and it's difficult to fill a theatre. However, the Seattle scene - which features such groups as Bald Faced Lie and Train Of Thought -- is easier to stand out in then in larger cities…but also easier to miss. The regional attitude may have a lot to do with it. Dusty Warren, currently at work on a new show with Flaming Box Of Stuff, has the city figured: "Seattle, which I'm convinced was invented in 1989, REALLY wants to be a hip city. Unfortunately, it also wants to be PC. As a result, the audiences respond best to "safety humor". Also, since Seattle has so much bad fringe theater, people have stopped going because they are assuming it's going to suck. Also, there are no jobs in Seattle, so everybody is poor. Move here, it rules!!"
In contrast, the Chicago scene -- home to such groups as Good Time Hour, The Cupid Players, Brick, and Superpunk -- has perhaps the most energized comedy audience in the world…and one of the most overcrowded scenes. Couple that with the myriad pros and cons of performing in the same town as ubersketch giant, The Second City, and you've got yourself one distinctive scene. Ben Johnson's group, American Dream, is Coached/Directed by Annoyance Theater founder Joe Bill. He keeps Chicago in perspective: "Comedy is important to Chicagoans. There are bars you can walk into without knowing anybody and then end up talking about comedy until last call. There are SO MANY people in Chicago doing comedy and groups change and break up and form and switch coaches/directors so often it's impossible to keep track of them. You literally can't do it. Chicago is an establishment and it's a very progressive and open one. There's a lot of freedom but there's also a lot of structure and precedent for what types of things you can do. Oh, and the weather? Brutal."
While the rain, sleet, and snow are no problem in Los Angeles, the sketch scene there suffers many of the same burdens. It's easy to get lost in the flood of both good and bad material. And it's tough to afford a theatre around the corner from where the most established comedians in the world eat their business lunches. While The Groundlings own their own theatre on Melrose, self-made groups in LA like TROOP!, And Donkey Makes Five, Jimmy's Traveling All-Stars, and Brychael struggle to find their homes. One outlet that has been growing recently is The McCadden Theatre in Hollywood, which has taken to hosting sketch 52 weekends of the year and has become the headquarters for such groups as Ten West, The Class Project, and The Habit. There may be a lot said for constructing one's home base, as For The Kids have done with their new 68 Cent Theatre on Sunset. Judging by their success at the recent Aspen Comedy Festival and their new pilot for the WB, real estate may not be a bad way to start. LA groups have a lot of options…but no set path. While it's true that they often have a better shot at picking up the odd professional gig from time to time, they also bear the burden of being quite modest fish in the largest pond in entertainment history.
And what of New York City? Sketch groups there enjoy the haven of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and hover in close proximity to the halls of Saturday Night Live, but even the New York sketch artists like Mary C. Matthews, half of Captain Conspiracy & Friend, love to head out of town, "I make new friends, I pick up new (bad) habits, I get to sleep in a hotel (sometimes) legitimately. And I get to see performers I have never seen and maybe would never see if not for the festivals." Brian Steele, of Moustache McFadden, finds the community tough but passionate. The fact that we're still waiting on sketch's big boom baffles him, "Sketch has been around for a long time. It's engrained in the American psyche. But whenever I tell people what I do they look at me like I'm crazy."
But there are other, more financial, reasons why grassroots sketch hasn't quite caught on. It certainly costs quite a bit more for a comedy club to order a group then a stand-up. And those clubs are usually furnished with a microphone on a stage the size of a board game. And the locals have grown accustomed to seeing stand-up performed on that stage the size of a board game. And these big, showy sketch groups want to perform what…?
Perhaps as more names get involved, the scene will gain momentum. The most star-studded roster of any sketch festival belongs to the San Francisco Sketchfest, one of the few Festivals that currently compensate its performers. The San Francisco scene is, like the city, quite exclusive. It's Festival line-up has featured such names as Fred Willard, The Upright Citizens Brigade, Amy Sedaris, Totally Looped (featuring Dan Castellaneta), and the cast of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. There aren't as many young upstart groups in San Francisco as in other cities, but with such respected groups like Totally False People, Killing My Lobster, and Kasper Hauser, they're nowhere near short on well-respected class acts.
And certain groups are becoming well-respected in the sketch community. Portland's Festival, unapologetically entitled The Best Of The Best, culls it's line-up from the groups it considers to be innovating the face of sketch comedy. And where do those groups try earning that distinction? At the Festivals. With groups like The 3rd Floor and Hoskins and Breen, Portland itself is a city whose sketch community is fiercely inventive. The press and the area audience are learning this year by year.
But why sketch? Why is this bizarre, vague form popping up all over the country, from Pittsburgh's The Animal Club to The Captive Performers of Madison, Wisconsin?
Blake Hollon was new to the scene entirely. Casting sleep aside, Hollon volunteered his time and videocamera to this year's Chicago Sketchfest and its Executive Producer, Brian Posen. An aspiring sketch comic in his own right (and owing that new interest greatly to his involvement in Sketchfest), Hollon was amazed at the diversity he saw under one roof, "I watched thirty-plus shows at the festival. The degrees of variance between them borders on indescribable…audiences were frantic with laughter and engaged in the show to a level nearing interactive participation. There was a spirit of struggle and perseverance that prevailed over sketches good and bad, amateur and thoroughly professional, that made the proceedings overwhelmingly inspiring."
Sure, stand-ups need to write their own material too. And, yes, a good Improv group must rehearse just as much. But these comedians choose sketch because it demands that they also be set constructors, web site designers, costumers, choreographers, directors. The list of chores grows exponentially in proportion to it's proximity to Theatre (capital "T"). These comedians are our finest character actors and playwrights of the day, and from city to city to city, Sketch Comedy (capital "S" and "C") is growing. A national community is forming of comedians who choose to write, produce, perform, and experiment with what many find to be a baffling genre. For all of them, though, one of the main goals will always be to make themselves, and their audiences, laugh. Hally Cohen, LA sketch comedienne, quotes U2's Bono when he says, "We're just trying to blow each other's minds 'cause we don't want to be in a crap band!" Now it would seem that the "non-crap bands" are starting to notice each other, unite, and share audiences. It's the audiences that are reaping the biggest benefit.
Kevin Chesley is a founding member of Los Angeles-based sketch comedy troupe, TROOP! For more information links to the Festivals and Sketch Groups listed above, go to http://www.troopdotcom.com
Kevin apologizes for the disarming lack of humor in the above article. Actually, no he doesn't.