Jan. 13--Even after 14 years, Chicago's Sketch Comedy Festival hovers below a lot of cultural radars. This is partly due to the glut of small festivals in early January; SketchFest competes both with the fringe-theater Rhinoceros Theater Festival and, this year, the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
But at one point Saturday night -- a night I spent at Stage 773, the festival's home -- I talked my way on to the balcony that rings the venue. Looking down, there was not an inch of spare space in the lobby. It was filled with hundreds of people. In an interview that night, Brian Posen, who runs SketchFest, said that he expected over 12,000 people to attend the 188 different shows on offer, performed by 169 groups, 100 of whom are new this year (another 150 were turned away). SketchFest, clearly, could be even bigger, if only the multi-venue Stage 773 had more seating capacity -- there is, of course, considerable overlap between performers and audience members. But even at this size, SketchFest is a significant economic engine in Lakeview. Bars and restaurants were humming. Good for Posen and his crew.
Are the shows any good?
Well, based on my viewing of four attractions during my four-hour Saturday stay -- shows performed by Snack Boys, The Cupid Players, The Cool Table and Baby Shoes -- I'd say that the fare generally is not at the level of polish one typically sees at the established purveyors of the noble form in town, such as Second City or iO. Many of the groups are young and, of course, the quick changeover format makes technical stutters a danger. But assuming you are in discovery mode and, ideally, accompanied by pals, you will find some amusements wheresoe'r you may wander. I hadn't been to SketchFest in two or three years, although I went to all the earlier incarnations. Not much has changed.
Including The Cupid Players (whom I had not seen in some years).
This efficient musical-sketch group, run by Posen from his piano, still relies for its laughs on the incongruity of very clean-cut and attractive young performers, all dressed in uniform fashion, taking and singing very dirty. If that floats your boat, they have the sub-genre down.
The most mature work of my night was done by The Cool Table, a veteran group that was based in Chicago -- until all of its members moved to Los Angeles. This was their "10th-anniversary reunion," we were told. I was tickled by a series of running sketches evoking advertisements for unusual fragrances, including one based upon "the look of you father's face when you told him you wanted to be an actor."
"See you in 10 years," said the performers, as they exited, looking reflective.
The Snack Boys (Adam Levin and Mike Migdall, plus accomplices) were not so much reflective as anarchic. I was especially amused by a sketch involving a baby in a stroller; the spewing munchkin, whose mother could have been Rosemary, was played by a Snack Boy head, with a little fake body attached. The Snack Boys show suggests a love of fluids (perhaps that's where they get their name). The stage, variously, was filled with milk, ketchup and various other syrups of unspecified origin. Oh, and Divvy Bikes, the finale, which almost resulted in several injuries, involved performers biking off in the lobby, all the while extolling the virtues of their shared conveyances.
As the night wore on, Baby Shoes took the stage. They were a bit of a mess, frankly, although they did score some laughs with a butt-dialing Pontiff and they had one running sketch with some oomph. This involved a high-school counselor who lives for the day a student will come out of the closet in his office, but who never gets to enjoy the Holy Grail of which a guidance counselor can only dream. Great sketches are often born of characters living lives of quiet desperation -- never easy in an amped-up festival like this one, but still worth the risk.
The 14th Annual Sketch Comedy Festival continues through through Jan. 18 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.; $15 at 773-327-5252 or chicagosketchfest.com.
cjones5@tribune.com
Twitter@ChrisJonesTrib
