One of our favorite Milwaukee comedy events is Sketch 22, which happens to be scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 10.
We have to wait for it every six months, so it’s about time for the 14th Sketch 22. And the event is about time, too. It’s about the time it takes to create a comedy sketch, about the time it takes a director to get actors ready to perform, and it’s about the fun time had by the audience and all those involved with the show.
Here’s how it works:
- 10 teams of writers get suggestions for comedy sketches late Friday night.
- 10 directors randomly select one of the completed 10 sketches at noon Saturday.
- 40 actors are randomly chosen to perform in one of the 10 sketches.
- 22 hours after the sketches are first suggested, they’re performed.
Part of the magic in this deadline-intense comedy sketch production is its team-building effect on the array of writers, directors and actors who volunteer for the project. The whole shebang is the doings of Patrick Schmitz, drama teacher at Brown Deer High School and improv instructor at First Stage Children’s Theater, who already has (Do the math.) 13 rounds of Sketch 22 under his belt.
Sketch 22, 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 10, ComedySportz
That’s at 420 S. 1st St., and it costs only $10 – $1 for each original sketch.
For a sample of what you’ll see, here’s one of the most popularly viewed vintage Sketch 22 sketches from the Milwaukee Comedy YouTube channel, featuring Kristin Althoff, James Boland and Scott Heaton:
[su_youtube url=”http://youtu.be/psmQZP4yRA0″ width=”460″ height=”300″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq7wXNrXq-Y[/su_youtube]