Riff Riffs

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• Greg Behrendt
• Oscar Nunez
• Matt Nathanson
• Celebrity News
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

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As Sketchfest proves every year, stand-up comedians can do a lot more in a live setting than just rattle off a bunch of jokes. Events like Celebrity Autobiography, the Shit Show, and Game Show Explosion! have found comedians making the most of different formats that laugh outside the box. Earlier this year, San Francisco got its first taste of Greg Behrendt’s Bring the Rock, which features celebs telling humorous, embarrassing, and/or entertaining music-related tales and then having an appropriate song performed by the house band. Behrendt, the Bay Area native who, for better or worse, is best known for his work on Sex and the City and for co-writing books like He’s Just Not That into You and It’s Called a Breakup Because It’s Broken, deserves plenty of credit for designing Bring the Rock. But its success at Cobb’s in January can also be chalked up to the night’s contributors, who included Jason Segel, The Office’s Oscar Nuñez, and local songwriter Matt Nathanson busting guts before busting out, respectively, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker,” and Judas Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.” This weekend’s lineup — comedians Marc Maron and Nick Thune, singer-songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips, and the ever-popular “more” — has noticeably less star power, but good stories and songs are all that’s needed to bring the funny to Bring the Rock.
June 18-19, 8 & 10:15 p.m., 2010