SketchFestNYC - The Final Reckoning

By Jeff Kreisler on 06/22/2009

Alright, the final installment of SketchFestNYC review-ish-es. This & this are what I did before. Check 'em and enjoy.

Saturday. Missed a bunch of the daytime stuff. Waddayagonnado?

The Striking Viking Story Pirates Present Found Magazine (NYC)
I dug this group a lot. What I like most is that their sketches were quick and short. If a sketch is just a great concept or a great joke - but not a series of them - then do what these guys do: Hit it and quit it. Get the laugh, move on. SNL, take a note.

More themes: Was Junior High School really this mean to so many people? Do we all need to seek revenge through sketch?

Kevin Gairdner. Another good video.
Does Michael McDonald (sp?) realize his place in culture now? I first saw it about 8 years ago in a Totally False People sketch, now every other group has a Michael McDonald piece. I'm not complaining - can't get too much of a weird thing - I'm just saying.

New Excitement (NYC)
Mmm, finally a group really visually playing with the space. All white costumes, white background. Well done. New Excitement is in the running for most outstanding group of Sketchfest. There is no such award, but they're in contention.
The performances were tone-perfect, the writing good, and, most impressively, they really played well in the silence, embracing the potential for non-verbal communication better than any other group. The sketch of one character trying different foods was simple in conception, but executed with a delicate, hilarious, and true hand that put in on par with any classic piece from Charlie Chaplin. In other words, I liked it. Their first sketch - a very physical scene with coffee - left them with little place to go energy-wise (really, how do you top spitting out chiggurs?), but they managed to put on an excellent show. All good sketches with some truly award-worthy and memorable pleasures. Go see them.

Steve & Jordan (Chicago)
This duo provided a different type of excellent. I can think of no other word to describe the essence of what they did than "real." The characters were real, the interactions were real, the emotions were real. Even in absurd settings, this never felt "jokey." Everything was very grounded, very genuine, very honest... and very funny. It's a very different style - the laughs weren't as hard or as frequent as the cornier groups - but a very compelling one. I'm not sure a whole festival in this genre would work - and I'm not sure you could find a festival's worth of performers/writers to do it - but it was a welcome journey with two excellent artists. Even their very "inside baseball" sketch about struggling actors seemed to translate - through their genuine delivery and presence - into a piece that would be accessible to even those who knew nothing of the industry.
Unlike the some of other two-person acts of the fest, they provided extremely distinct characters who we cared about, they spoke to the humor of real life, and they were very comfortable with each other and on stage. While their act might not land them on the hectic goofball circuit or SNL, I hope they'll continue to produce memorable performances for years to come.

Summer of Tears (Los Angeles)
Okay, this performance had me conflicted. On the one hand, they had some very funny moments, some good concepts (the Boston perverts in the basement comes to mind), and there's clearly a lot of talent and creativity on stage. On the other hand - deep breath - this hour sorta represented all that's wrong with the entertainment industry. Maybe it was coming after Steve & Jordan, but something really rubbed me wrong about the whole experience. A big handful of NYC's comedy "industry" came to see just this performance, and what they saw was kinda cookie cutter "how to be sketch group from LA in 2009." The performers were funny, but it was just so predictable. It was like a prefab Boy Band, with directions from some shadowy management on how to sell a show. There was the crazy woman actor, the dancing between sketches, and the predictable "edgy" material which, after a weekend of this, just looks more like "we know this will get a reaction, we could do better, but we've decided to avoid being inventive." Every sketch had AIDS or sex or violence as the major crutch or focal point. It was almost infantile. They're good at what they do, there's a lot of talent in the group, and I can see how they get whatever success they get... I just sense in them the ability to do really special, unique work, and that just makes it more disappointing that they didn't.

Elephant Larry (NYC)
This entire show was a recreation of the 1997 film "Con Air." And it was fantastic. I could not look away. It was that good. Great conception, tight writing, and performances that - though manic - were held together with a true fervor for the moment. They broke down the absurdity of the movie without totally mocking it. It was a joy. It was particularly fun to sit through an hour of one idea, pushed to its limit.
Highlights: rewriting on Dave Chappelle's shirt and the line to live by, "It's never too late to tell a movie you love it."
"Being There," I love you.
Elephant Larry, too.

Fearsome (NYC)
These guys grew on me. At first, I was like "they're just being absurd and weird without any grounding and it's losing me" but it eventually sunk in. (I think I'd had so many different styles this night that it was hard to adjust). I like them. Not the deepest stuff in the world, but fun, energetic, and funny. Fearsome is like a modern day Laugh-in, and that's a good thing.

So there. That was SketchFestNYC 2009. That was seventeen reviews in 3 entries.

I had a great time. Got to see a lot of groups I'd heard about but hadn't seen. I probably made some enemies with my reviews, but I was just being honest (maybe not the best move since I want to have my own career, but, F it). Great stuff at Sketchfest, opportunities to learn and grow and, most of all, laugh.

Looking forward to next year.

Photo Courtesy SketchFestNYC