Story Pirates performing at Marines Memorial Theater during SF Sketchfest 2017. Photo: Jakob Mosur.
Story Pirates w/ special guests Sasheer Zamata and Michael Hitchcock
Marines Memorial Theater
San Francisco, CA
January 28, 2017
SF Sketchfest concluded just two days ago. I can't even begin to explain how fun this entire festival was, from StarTalk Live!, all the way to the event being covered in this article. Given everything that has been going on in our world, particularly throughout this month, laughter and smiles were needed in abundance. But perhaps, more than us adults, we needed to make sure that our children were smiling and laughing. They don't need to focus on what's going on in the world right now; they're just kids. Enter Story Pirates, a group of improvisers and sketch-comedy storytellers from New York and Los Angeles that have only one goal in mind at every live show they host: make people laugh.
The idea of Story Pirates is simple enough. A group of performers, with notebooks and microphones in hand, read stories from the audience. But there's a catch: all the stories have been written by elementary-school children. When I was provided a ticket for this event, I thought, 'Aw, cute.' Then you actually see it, and you see the faces of the kids' whose stories are being read. They light up, and they are the most excited people in the world. We need events like Story Pirates, because they capture the imagination of children in one of the coolest ways possible.
To add to the excitement, the group invites a couple of special guests to shows at SF Sketchfest. This year the guests included none other than Sasheer Zamata (Saturday Night Live) and Michael Hitchcock (Best In Show, Waiting For Guffman). Hitchcock appeared in place of Mr. Patton Oswalt, who unfortunately could not attend due to a severe case of food poisoning. (Get well soon, Patton!) Both guests did an incredible job and fit right in with the wonderful cast of storytellers.
The Story Pirates did another performance the next day, and there were several other events that took place for the coveted SF Sketchfest, but this was the last event we covered for the festival in 2017. SF Sketchfest is a festival that needs to be experienced, whether you go to just one event, or twenty of them. There's an electricity in the air throughout the month of January that matches nothing else out there. Once you walk in the doors of an event, whether it's something as intimate as Cobb's Comedy Club, or something as large as the Curran Theater, the festival intro plays and you suddenly know you're home. You know you're going to smile and laugh, no matter what. We'll see you next year, Sketchfest!
Story Pirates
www.storypirates.org
www.facebook.com/storypirates
@storypirates
SF Sketchfest
www.sfsketchfest.com
www.facebook.com/SFSketchfest
@SFSketchfest
This has been another Shameless Promotion.