Sketch comedy performances are taking place at a Lakeview theater this week for the second annual Sketchfest Chicago, a two-day festival running Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3, at The Home Comedy Theater on North Halsted Street. Luke Null is among the performers listed in this year's lineup.
Luke Null’s place in the lineup brings a national-TV résumé to the festival: he joined “Saturday Night Live” as a featured player in 2017, after building his comedy career in Chicago. TIME described Null as a guitar-playing musical comedian from iO Chicago, linking his festival appearance to the city’s improv scene as well as its sketch-comedy tradition.
The festival blends sketch comedy performances with daytime educational workshops, according to WGN-TV, which described the event as the largest sketch comedy festival in the country.
Chicago’s comedy infrastructure predates the festival: the Compass Players began performing improvisational theater in Hyde Park in 1955, and their work led directly to Second City, founded in 1959. The Encyclopedia of Chicago traces that connection, while its account of local theater notes Second City’s role in developing scenes through improvisation. That history gives the festival’s mix of staged sketches and workshops a distinctly local backdrop.
The Home Comedy Theater
The Home Comedy Theater, located at 2843 N. Halsted St., includes a training center focused on long-form improvisation and the Harold.
The Harold taught at The Home is part of a form with deep Chicago roots, not just a class offering. iO Theater identifies the Harold as its signature long-form improv structure and credits its founders with helping develop long-form improvisation. The Home’s training curriculum likewise teaches the Harold, connecting its instruction to a format that has shaped Chicago’s improv scene for decades.
Distinct From the Old Stage 773 Festival
Chicago sketch fans with long memories may recall the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, founded in 2002 by Brian Posen at Stage 773, which grew into one of North America's largest sketch events, featuring up to 150 troupes and 1,000 performers. Its nineteenth edition took place in January 2020, before the pandemic, according to its Wikipedia entry.
Organizers of the current Sketchfest Chicago are careful to draw a line between the two festivals. In official event documentation, they answer queries about the legacy event bluntly: “We ain't them.”
Building Community Year-Round
The festival is part of a broader comedy calendar that also includes a 24 Hour Sketch Comedy Competition.
WGN-TV's Spotlight Chicago segment featured hosts Andy and Luke covering the festival, part of the show that airs weekdays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. For now, Sketchfest Chicago runs through Saturday at The Home Comedy Theater, with more details available at sketchfestchicago.com.
