SF Sketchfest 2025

SF Sketchfest presents some of our favorite hand-picked up and coming sketch and improv teams from around the United States and beyond!

With BMC Improv (aka Bernie Mac and Cheese)(LA), Death Hammer (Portland), ItsQwere (SF) and Zoe and Claire (Chicago). Hosted by Ben Peterson.

Based on one audience suggestion (a title of a show that has never been written), The Improvised Shakespeare Company creates a fully improvised Shakespearean masterpiece right before your eyes. Prepare for an evening of spontaneous comedy using the language and themes of William Shakespeare. Nothing has been planned out, rehearsed, or written. All of the dialogue is said for the first time, the characters are created as you watch, and if ever you're wondering where the story is going...so are they! "TimeOut Chicago" calls it “Staggeringly Brilliant” and “Downright Hilarious!” You've never seen the Bard like this before!

With Joey Bland, Ross Bryant, Brendan Dowling, Greg Hess, and Blaine Swen.

Good Medicine is a national comedy showcase featuring the best and brightest Native comedians across North America. In 2020, Good Medicine launched virtually to fundraise for tribes impacted by COVID-19, raising over $11,000 for charitable causes. Since the show’s humble beginnings, Good Medicine has sold-out venues across the country and featured comedians hailing from over 35 tribal Nations who have been seen on Comedy Central, Netflix, ABC, NBC, FX and more! Don’t miss this nationally acclaimed showcase featuring fresh and diverse Native voices.

With Brian Bahe, Siena East, Jackie Keliiaa, Gigi Modrich, and Dash Turner

Brittany Carney began comedy in DC, and is now based New York. Her standup is featured on Comedy Central and Don’t Tell platforms. Brittany appears on "Fantasmas" and "That Damn Michael Che" on HBO Max, and has written for Adult Swim. She is one Vulture Magazine’s Comedians You Should and Will Know
In 2024 Brittany released her debut special, “That is My Horse.”

Saul Trujillo is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian hailing from Stockton, CA. Named one of Variety’s Top 10 to Watch in 2024 and featured as a 2023 New Face at Just For Laughs, Saul is quickly becoming a must-watch act. His man-child sensibilities have been showcased on Amazon’s "Laugh After Dark" and Comedy Central. Saul's unique observations on his own life will leave audiences both scratching their heads and laughing out loud. He performs regularly at the World Famous Comedy Store and headlines shows across the country.

Hosted by Darlene Bereznicki.

An improv show disguised as an acting class, from the creator of the “Dead Eyes” podcast.

Professional actor ("Mean Girls") and award-winning podcaster ("Dead Eyes") Connor Ratliff is a fixture of the NYC improv comedy scene -- a performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre for over a decade, where his George Lucas Talk Show developed a cult following and became the subject of an award-winning documentary. Ratliff is also a classically trained thespian who graduated with honors from the prestigious Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts over a quarter of a century ago, making his professional debut on the stage of the Royal Court Theatre in London’s West End. During that same year, he also performed at Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth II. In the decades that followed, he has accumulated numerous credits as a star of stage, screen and stream, appearing in multiple Netflix Original Films as well as content on CBS, NBC, FOX, TBS, Home Box Office, Amazon Prime and the now-defunct comedy channel, Seeso.

But none of that matters now.

What matters now is “CONNOR RATLIFF presents THE ACTING CLASS,” an unending series of public workshop performances where he will, before your very eyes, demonstrate what acting truly IS.

For this special SF Sketchfest edition, Connor welcomes a longtime collaborator and friend to THE ACTING CLASS – professional actor/podcaster Griffin Newman ("The Tick", "Vinyl", "Blank Check" podcast) – for an in-depth discussion of their shared craft and a full-bodied demonstration of Newman's unexplored potential that could, perhaps, push him to his breaking point.

This performance will be slightly interactive and completely improvised, lasting somewhere between 75 and 90 minutes, with occasional opportunities for students in attendance to ask questions.

Defiantly self-indulgent and beyond pointless, THE ACTING CLASS is your opportunity to witness the kind of greatness – only slightly appreciated by The Industry – that has kept Connor Ratliff steadily employed for nearly half of the past 9 years.

PRAISE FOR CONNOR RATLIFF:

The New Yorker: “Connor Ratliff is a brilliant and funny comedic performer and actor.”
Vulture: “Intentionally preposterous… utterly funny.”
Vanity Fair: “An Improv Star.”
The Financial Times: “Funny.”

PRAISE FOR GRIFFIN NEWMAN:

FilmSchoolRejects.com: “Newman... is proving to be one of the best new character actors of his generation.”

Returning for another round of intellectual inanity, Fake TED Talks are back! TED Talks are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech, and creativity. Fake TED Talks are simply hilarious. With all of the bullet points and none of the facts, Jonathan Coulton, Negin Farsad, Molly Lewis, Paul & Storm, Adam Savage and more will present a well-rehearsed presentation, live, in the present.

Maria Bamford brings her hilarious, brave, strange and wonderful standup back for SF Sketchfest's 22nd! From her semi-autobiographical Netflix comedy series "Lady Dynamite" to her many fantastic standup specials, Maria continues to consistently garner critical and popular acclaim for her own original material, while also managing to appear in other beloved projects in animation, live action television and film.

SF Sketchfest presents some of our favorite hand-picked up and coming sketch and improv teams from around the United States and beyond!

With Jonathan Cohall (NYC), Knockoff Broadway (SF), Queer Window (NYC), and Montessori Boy (NYC). Hosted by Kansei Yasuda.

SF Sketchfest presents some of our favorite hand-picked emerging stand-ups comics from around the country and beyond!

With Sammy Anzer, Dvontre Coleman, JJ Curry, Akudo Ejelonu, Tatyana Guchi, Diana Hong, Oba Oliniyi, Marcela Onyango, and Martin Phillips. Hosted by Marcus Howard.

Join Tight & Nerdy - the world's first and only all "Weird Al" themed burlesque troupe for an evening of hilarity, nudity, and deli meat. Delighting audiences and messing with their childhood memories since 2011, this is their weird semi-naked love letter to Al Yankovic. Spuds, Spam, and smorgasbord of laughs for everyone, but especially those who buy tickets.

Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher ("Late Show") take you on a guided tour through their latest and greatest VHS finds, including a video dating tape for women in 1987, a striptease video called "Males In Motion," and a mysterious New Age seminar called "Elimination: The First Step."

Join members of famed musical improv group Baby Wants Candy as they create an epic musical on the spot based on a historical celebrity of your choosing- from Genghis Khan to Kim Kardashian. It's the show Lin-Manuel Miranda calls "cease and desist!"

"Shamilton! The Improvised Hip-Hop Parody Musical" has enjoyed fully sold out runs at UCB in Los Angeles, UCB's Del Close Marathon in New York, and packed houses in Chicago at the Apollo Theater. They recently completed a wildly successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Start thinking of who you want to see a hip-hop improvised musical created for now!

With Ross Bryant, Jessica McKenna, Zeke Nicholson, Raquel Palmas, Adrien Pellerin, and Zach Reino.

Brittany Carney began comedy in DC, and is now based New York. Her standup is featured on Comedy Central and Don’t Tell platforms. Brittany appears on "Fantasmas" and "That Damn Michael Che" on HBO Max, and has written for Adult Swim. She is one Vulture Magazine’s Comedians You Should and Will Know
In 2024 Brittany released her debut special, “That is My Horse.”

Saul Trujillo is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian hailing from Stockton, CA. Named one of Variety’s Top 10 to Watch in 2024 and featured as a 2023 New Face at Just For Laughs, Saul is quickly becoming a must-watch act. His man-child sensibilities have been showcased on Amazon’s "Laugh After Dark" and Comedy Central. Saul's unique observations on his own life will leave audiences both scratching their heads and laughing out loud. He performs regularly at the World Famous Comedy Store and headlines shows across the country.

Hosted by Darlene Bereznicki.

Returning for another round of intellectual inanity, Fake TED Talks are back! TED Talks are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech, and creativity. Fake TED Talks are simply hilarious. With all of the bullet points and none of the facts, Jonathan Coulton, Negin Farsad, Molly Lewis, Paul & Storm, Adam Savage and more will present a well-rehearsed presentation, live, in the present.