Our Story
The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival (Chicago SketchFest) debuted in January, 2002 and lasted six weeks. Over thirty Chicago sketch comedy groups participated in the first year, on very little notice. Subsequent SketchFest's were shorter in duration; now the festival runs over two weekends.
Chicago SketchFest is the largest sketch comedy festival in the nation. The 2009 SketchFest featured more than 800 performers, representing over 100 groups, who performed over 120 shows.
While the majority of Chicago SketchFest performers are from Chicago (which, after all, is the sketch comedy capital of America), troupes from Boston, L.A., New York, Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Austin, and Denver have also performed at Chicago SketchFest.
In 2005, the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival went international for the first time, hosting groups from Toronto and Vancouver.
Unlike its cousin improv, sketch comedy consists of scripted short, satirical scenes. Strong writing is an extremely important element in sketch comedy.
For two weeks, the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival turns Stage 773 into a sketch comedy oasis, renting out the entire building and featuring simultaneous performances in all three theatres.
Chicago SketchFest features panels of sketch comedy experts each year who educate and entertain participants and the public with stories and advice. Participants have included Second City 's Sheldon Patinkin, Anne Libera and Kelly Leonard, Late Night with Conan O'Brian writer Kevin Dorff, Groudlings founder Gary Austin, Mick Napier of the Annoyance, Saturday Night Live 's Tim Kazurinsky, Reno 911!'s Carlos Alazraqui and Cedric Yarbrough, The Comic Toolbox author John Vorhaus and Charna Halpern of ImprovOlympic.
Chicago SketchFest experiments with sketch comedy under pressure. While most sketch shows take months of writing and rehearsing, the Chicago SketchFest tests its participants with OctaSketch: The Eight Hour Project . Octa-Sketch teams up performers from different sketch groups - and different cities – and sets them up with a seasoned sketch comedy director. Each group is given eight hours to create a brand-new 30 minute sketch show to be performed that evening.
Every year Chicago SketchFest attendance has significantly increased, with over 10,000 audience members enjoying the performances at the 2005 event. As the word gets out further each year, we look forward to continuing our audience growth as we entertain Chicagoans during the harsh Chicago winter.
