The idea of The Chicago Sketchfest was born in October of 2001. The festival opened 2 months later in January of 2002, running for 7 weeks. Brian Posen, wanted to create a venue to showcase the cities best sketch comedy troupes, and also provide a venue for up-and-coming troupes, all free from financial burden. A theater was leased and sketch groups from around Chicago were invited to perform at no cost. The response was overwhelming. Over 30 sketch comedy groups performed, attracting Close to 2000 patrons.
Soon after the success of the first festival, The Chicago Sketchfest decided became an annual event. Sketchfest 2003 was host to 53 groups, this time from all over the nation. The festival was shortened to 3 1/2 weeks. We added a panel of sketch comedy experts to share their knowledge to performers and the public. Weekly forums were put together so that groups from all over the country can come together and share information. The community of sketch comedy artists was strengthened. There was a wonderful collaboration between groups. Cards were exchanged and bonds were made.
The Chicago Sketchfest 2004 expanded to three theaters and 120 performances, and ran two weeks playing close to 5,500 patrons. 71 groups performed that year. Besides the panels and forums, we added 2 new events: Sketchubator & Octasketch-The 8 Hour Project. Sketchubator ran Saturday night's at midnight, and provided a free-for-all for sketch groups to perform experimental work. Octasketch was an experiment modeled after ‘The 24 hours project’. 4 seasoned directors were randomly assigned 5 performers, all from different sketch groups, and given 8 hours to create a 30 minute sketch show performed that night. The festival also gained the sponsorship of Budweiser, WBEZ, Days Inn, Kinkos, & National Photo.
The Chicago Sketchfest 2005 had 83 groups over the 2 weeks. This time we reached into Canada for their funny people, officially becoming international, sort of. In addition to the events, writing workshops were added, including Joe Garden- head writer from the Onion, and John Vorhaus-author of "The Comic Toolbox" (This book is the bible for sketch writers). Budweiser was back. Red Bull joined the sponsors. WXRT jumped on board, as well as The Onion, and Whole Foods. American Airlines and Avis also couldn’t resist in joining the fun. In 2005, the Chicago Sketchfest officially changed its name to “The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival”. Some patrons actually called the box office to see if it was a festival about drawing. We needed the word ‘Comedy’.
January 2006 celebrated our 5-year anniversary. We had 92 sketch comedy groups performing. Over 700 artists came together to perform, collaborate, share information and support each other, all under the umbrella of funny and love. A rock star event called Master Sketch was added. Participating groups performed a scene in front of some of the masters in our industry and received their feedback. A sketch comedians geek-out session. Chipoltle joined us. We ate lotsa burritos.
2007… The festival was one shy of 100 groups (800 funny people performing) and hit 10,000 patrons. OctaSketch enters its 4th year, and honored four of the major comedy institutions (Second City, iO, Annoyance and comedy Sportz) by having them supply us with a director who created under their specific style. Sam Adams came on board as a sponsor.
This year celebrates our 7th year. 100 groups are signed on. Like all years, the festival is honored to host a mess of new groups while welcoming back some of our old friends. Lou Malnatis Pizza is the new sponsor this year…Chicago Pizza & Chicago Comedy. Great pairing. Each year, the festival gets more and more exciting. How we are going to do it this year? Just fasten your seat belts and jump on the ride.
The Chicago Sketchfest still holds true to its initial declaration: To create a supportive and creative venue to showcase the best sketch comedy from around the nation free from any costs so that each group can solely focus on the creative aspect of their shows. Our goal is to create a community so that sketch comedy artists can network, collaborate, and celebrate.
I so look forward to January 3rd-13th for some outstanding funny. The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival is so proud to host some of the very best in our business. Thanks for joining us for some wonderful celebration.
Executive Producer