It was just this past November that I was doubled over in my chair in a dark room at Coldtowne Theater, tears of laughter running down my face, trying to catch my breath while watching Stag Comedy's show: The Jerk Parade. A combination of live sketches and videos, the members of Stag filled the theater to the brim with as many people as the small space could fit. This coming February they will have a bit more room to run wild with their antics, with shows at The Alamo Drafthouse Ritz this February 12th and 19th. This will mark Stag's 4th full length show performed at the Alamo, and if past shows are any indication, tickets will be going fast. Despite being busy preparing for their show, Austinist was able to chat with the members of Stag (Joe Parsons, Mac Blake, David Jara, Dave Youmans, Andrew Rosas, and Ximena Estrada) to learn a bit about their writing process, what they think is funny, and the sketch comedy scene in Austin. more ›

ColdTowne Theater's most recently formed house troupe just announced their name: Journey to the Big Water. They are the ninth official improv house troupe to be formed out of ColdTowne Theater's Conservatory. One of the more successful and hardest working troupes that preceded them is Midnight Society, the second troupe to emerge from ColdTowne. Midnight Society's hard work has been rewarded with a nomination for a B. Iden Payne Award in 2009, appearances in festivals all around the country, a weekly improv slot and a regular slot for sketch comedy at ColdTowne Theater. One of the yearly highlights for Midnight Society has become their annual Halloween sketch show, dubbed the Halloween Spooktacular. more ›

Always wanted to write a sketch comedy show but need some motivation? Good news: This October, ColdTowne Theater is giving you a chance to create a 30-minute show from scratch. The catch? You’ve got 24 hours to do it. more ›

He blogs about professional wrestling. He's the host of Air Sex World Championship. He's got a rap career. He performs and teaches improv comedy. He just made a pilot for Comedy Central. Who is he? Chris Trew, of course. Can he combine all of these facets of his life into one show? Sure. It's called A Celebration of the Unremarkable, and it's playing at The New Movement Theater. more ›

On any given weekend, Austin has a wealth of dramatic theater and comedy offerings for people seeking a live show. The comedy scene, however, appears to be dominated by improv and stand-up. It seems to require a little more effort to track down sketch comedy offerings outside of Esther's Follies. ColdTowne Theater has been working hard to change that by putting an emphasis on sketch productions. Their primary focus in this arena is the current mainstage show Shanty Town Lake, follow up to their first show Eye for an iPhone. Shanty Town Lake stars some of ColdTowne's finest talent tackling the funny. The show started it's run on Friday April 2 and is running every Friday until the end of June. more ›

There’s a lot to hold your attention this weekend, but if you’re not of the Hook ‘Em Horns or sweltering music festival persuasions, Austin’s presenters of improv and sketch would like to welcome you with open, air conditioned arms. more ›

Even after the sketch comedy gem The State was grounded prematurely (and where’s that DVD already?) it hasn’t stopped Michael Showalter or Ian Black from bounding into many more comedic projects in the ensuing years. more ›

Only two weekends remain for local actors improvisers comedians hooligans The Frank Mills to bring you sketch comedy every Friday and Saturday in May, 8pm at the Blue Theater. The other day, we chit-chatted with Frank Mills member (and Austinist writer) Erika May about the show, improv in Austin, and some of Winning Dirty's more famous audience members. Here's what she had to say. What's up with the name "The Frank Mills." Was Frank Mills... more ›

We're OK when television networks choose to curb the amount of gratuitous "adult" content in prime-time programming, but we've always figured that such stuff, within reason, was fair game on cable networks. After all, Comedy Central has a sketch comedy show starring a naked trucker, FX's Nip/Tuck once had one of its stars engaging in gross raunchy sex with a mother-daughter duo, and Fox News regularly gets away with putting Bill O'Reilly on the... more ›

The following films played Saturday, March 10th as part of the SXSW Film Festival: Campaign - This Japanese doc follows the travails of a "parachute" candidate for the Kawasaki city council. He's called that because he moved to the city specifically to run for office through his allegiance to the powerful LDP party. Japan is as big a character as the candidate, as the candid shots of life there offer revealing snippets of the... more ›

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su... more ›

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into... more ›

Comedian/author Chelsea Handler comes to Austin this Saturday to deliver her unique stand-up routine at The Paramount. A regular on Oxygen Network's "Girls Behaving Badly" and host of her own sketch comedy program, "The Chelsea Handler Show," the 31-year-old recently published a memoir entitled My Horizontal Life, which recounts in hilarious detail her various one-night stands. [Chelsea Handler's Official Site] We're giving away a pair of tickets to the show. Fill out the form, and... more ›

A couple of shows with big phatty hype open this week. So ph-ph-phatty, that we’re bringing back the word phat (with a p.h. homeslice!) just to emphasize how phatty it really is. PHAT. PH. AT. Ok. Our Austinist Pick of the Week is a toss-up. Red Cans is the show the press just can’t get enough of. Josh Meyer and Matt Hislope, the delightful duo behind Rubber Repertory – the company producing the project... more ›

Continuing our weekly series on sketch and improvisation happening within Austin (in the lead up to the 5th year of the annual Out of Bounds Festival), Austinist continues to profile some of the sketch comedy and improvisation groups around town. more ›

We are soaked, soaked we tell you, in Frontera. This week, we've attended Best of Fest Bill A (to be repeated tomorrow night, and highly recommended), and the first Wild Card bill -- which won't be repeated, but we definitely suggest you take a stab at the second Wild Card bill, 2pm Saturday. It happens to be the only remaining Frontera show that's not sold out. Yikes! (A tip: If you want to try... more ›

Because, in their own words, "," the Dallas-based sketch comedy group Queertown is rolling into Austin tomorrow night only (8:00 pm) at Esther's Follies. more ›

If you’re looking to have your funny bone tickled this weekend and you can’t get us on our cell phone, head on over to The Hideout Theater for the Out-of-Bounds Comedy Festival. We checked it out last night, and as you would expect, some groups were stronger than others. Both the upstairs and downstairs stages run acts simultaneously. Last night there was improv upstairs and sketch comedy downstairs. The absurd and cute Rat Girl and her friend shared emcee duties downstairs. The highlight of the downstairs show last night was a group called The Plurals. The three young men who comprise the troupe mixed short video presentations and sketches to provide the near sold-out crowd with headscratching belly-laughs. We headed upstairs to catch the last improv group which was Jesters Ink from Richmond, VA. And not to put too fine a point on it, but they were horrible. It was pretty much beyond description. But with mid-sized festivals such as this, you can expect some laughs and some bombs. Regardless, it was good to see such strong crowds showing up to support these artists. Highlights for the weekend shows include Austin’s own Girls Girls Girls,a unique musical improv act, and local favorites Heroes of Comedy. more ›

Do we like political satire? Yes, we do. Do we like a little bit of raunchiness in our comedy? Why the hell not. Are we fans of the sketch comedy of SNL? Mos’ def. Does the improv of Second City make us blow beer out of our noses? Well, we’re going to Chicago this weekend if that tells you anything. So, with all that said, we have been promised we will love the “Austin Live Show.” Hairy Melon Media has partnered with The Victory Grill to bring Austin a new sketch comedy show in the vein of our venerable favorites mentioned above. more ›

Are you wondering where you will get your sketch comedy funny now that the Chappelle show is on “hold”? How about by supporting your local Latino Comedy Project ensemble. The LCP is performing two shows a night Thursday – Saturday at 8PM and 10:30PM over at The Hideout Theatre downtown. We caught the early show of "Citizen Quién?" last night and we laughed and cried laughed the whole night. more ›

Shocking news has surfaced revealing that Dave Chappelle, star of Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show,” has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital in South Africa. It may seem like just another Kaufman-esque type joke , but all signs point to Dave Chappelle and his show not returning to its sketch comedy throne anytime soon. Chappelle, who received a new 2-year 50 million dollar contract for seasons three and four, has pushed production back several times... more ›