What do you do when no one can show up for the annual massive, star-packed comedy bash that you have been staging for years?
That’s what the founders of SF Sketchfest: The San Francisco Comedy Festival began to grasp last summer as they planned the 20th iteration of the event that engulfs San Francisco for more than two weeks in January, filling clubs and theaters with a wide variety of shows.
With the pandemic in full effect, programming something on the order of, say, last year’s Sketchfest — with more than 250 acts performing in 20 venues over 18 days — was no longer an option.
Instead, Janet Varney, Cole Stratton and David Owen, who founded the event in 2002, took the template adopted by many in the performing arts. The result? “Festpocalypse!,” a virtual one-night variety show that will raise funds to ensure that the live version of Sketchfest comes back, bigger than ever. The event will live-stream 5 p.m. Jan. 30, and double as a retrospective celebrating the festival’s two-decade track record. The packed lineup includes:
- Assorted reunions (Kids in the Hall, The State, Upright Citizens Brigade, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk of the ’90s sketch comedy series “Mr. Show”)
- “Saturday Night Live” alumni from across of the show’s 45-year run (Laraine Newman, Tim Meadows, Rachel Dratch, Dana Carvey, Alan Zweibel, Fred Armisen)
- Christopher Guest and collaborators from his beloved ensemble films such as “Best in Show” (including Jane Lynch, Michael Hitchcock and John Michael Higgins)
- Sketchfest regulars including Kevin Pollak, Paul F. Tompkins, Maria Bamford and Eugene Mirman.
- Performers ranging from an Oscar-winner (Alan Arkin) to a buffed-up member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Kumail Nanjiani).
Longtime Sketchfest fans also get to relive the earlier gatherings with such legacy acts as the San Francisco-based comedy troupe Kasper Hauser, which was in the introductory 2002 Sketchfest lineup, and the Latino Comedy Project, which was featured in the second festival.
Every act in the three-hour presentation will have a few minutes of screen time to perform comedy sketches, improvised scenes, musical performances, gabfests, game shows and all manner of entertainment. The online extravaganza is actually Sketchfest’s most expansive, impressive lineup — sort of.
“We don’t even consider this event a Sketchfest,” says Owen, who views the 2022 edition, should it unfold as imagined, as the real 20th Sketchfest. “Sketchfest is a community of people. It’s about coming together, being in the same room, and there is no way to truly replicate that online.”
Instead, Owen and company aim to offer “a fun escape for a few hours” that will spotlight many of the faces who have become stalwarts of previous Sketchfests.
The online event is a vivid testament to the devotion and affinity so many performers have for the annual festival. The mix of musicians, actors, standup veterans and assorted performance hyphenates who wanted to take part highlights how much a humble, regional presentation evolved into a cherished, widely-celebrated institution.
Owen, Varney and Stratton, who are collectively synonymous with Sketchfest, planned to pull out all stops for the 20th, which had been scheduled for this month. When they parted ways after the 2020 fete’s closing night gala, they figured they’d do what they always do: work through their crazy wish list of pie-in-the-sky reunions and daring programming asks; score some dream bookings along the lines of a “Schitt’s Creek” or “This Is Spinal Tap!” presentation; and ultimately lock in another cool lineup.
But soon after last year’s curtain closed, COVID-19 hit. That was the last time the three were in a room together.
When they later realized that a Sketchfest in the classic sense was not going to happen, they faced the prospect of trying to keep the operation afloat financially. Although they made past programs available to stream and organized a “Plan 9 from Outer Space” live virtual event in October with the likes of Bamford, Odenkirk, Dana Gould and Bobcat Goldthwait, Sketchfest had no choice but to opt for the remote fundraiser.
In planning the program, the crew turned only to those who had appeared at past festivals. To their delight, “about 95 percent of them said, ‘yes,’ ” said Owen, which began “a gradual process of figuring out how we were going to even do it.”
They’re keeping a lot of the show’s content under wraps, but Owen revealed a few things, such as:
- Because of the expansive lineup, each performer will have just a few minutes of screen time.
- Unexpected, intriguing pairings will occur, such as an interaction between Triumph the Insult Dog and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
- They’ve included pocket-size versions of such faves as the whacked-out debate show “Uptown Showdown,” the celebrity version of “Swift Justice from Judge John Hodgman,” and Doug Benson’s peanut gallery-style jokefest “Doug Loves Movies.”
“We won’t be able to do the full Sketchfest any time soon,” Owen says. “And we’ll have to see what physical venues around San Francisco are still standing because many are really struggling. But we are planning to come back next year. If we have to set up chairs in a high school gymnasium, we will do that.”
Contact Mark de la Vina at mdelavina@yahoo.com.
‘FESTPOCALYPSE!’
A virtual one-night variety show benefitting SF Sketchfest
When: 5 p.m. PT Jan. 30
Tickets: $20-$5,000; www.sfsketchfest.com
