SF Sketchfest 2025

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.”