Funny People

Comments (0) By Michael Leaverton Wednesday, Jan 5 2011

More About

It's no secret that SF Sketchfest draws celebrity performers, so let's dispense with this year's biggest names straightaway: Zach Braff, Dan Aykroyd, Candice Bergen, Garry Shandling, Neil Patrick Harris, David Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Cloris Leachman. And there are dozens more who travel in roughly the same orbits (Martha Plimpton), used to (Bobcat Goldthwait), or should (Marc Maron). But we can't name too many names (Moby) because there are well over 200 in the festival, including so many locals (Emily Heller) it makes our heart skip (Mary Van Note). This year, however, we'd like to point you toward the assuredly forgotten sketch troupe Totally False People, which reunites tonight. The group is notable because it landed a spot in the first-ever Sketchfest, not because the members knew the right people, but because they were the right people: the founders. Festival ringleaders David Owen, Cole Stratton, and Janet Varney get the old troupe back together for Sketchfest's "10-Year Reunion Show." Excited? You should be, because TFP is also smart enough to bring every other act of the 2002 Sketchfest — all five of them — with it onstage, shoving the whole inaugural festival into one show. Kasper Hauser appears, and its members have been in every Sketchfest since the first. So does Please Leave the Bronx, the launching pad of beloved local troublemaker and Sketchfest regular Sean Kelly. Joe Klocek hosts, just as he did in 2002 — if he ever bombed on a Chandra Levy joke, he gets his do-over.
Mon., Jan. 17, 8 p.m., 2011