Carolyn Kelleher & Ashley Ellis - Hype Team: 2024 ATX Sketch Fest

Dear read­er, your author thought that this arti­cle would write itself. If you’ve met me, you know I have an infan­tile sense of humor, so of course I’m going to harp on the fact that the 15^th Annu­al Sketch Fest can be enjoyed the entire­ty of its five days for a mere $69. Heh heh. But, then that would be a dis­ser­vice to the months of hard work of our guests Car­olyn Kelle­her (Cre­ative Direc­tor of Austin Sketch Fest, and many, many oth­er hats) and Ash­ley Ellis (Pro­duc­er of Austin Sketch Fest) have spent curat­ing the 2024 fes­ti­val; such ded­i­ca­tion, so that we could laugh at the sketch­es put on by 150 per­form­ers from across North Amer­i­ca (and Cana­da!) over the course of May 23 to May 27!

My humor is val­i­dat­ed, when in the pod­cast Kelle­her and Ellis reveal they are ful­ly in on the joke of the $69 pass price. As if they had rehearsed, Kelle­her pro­claims ​“it’s such a steal,” and with­out skip­ping a beat, Ellis chimes in ​“it’s a naughty lit­tle steal.”

Kelle­her and Ellis are great spokesper­sons for pulling my mind out of the gut­ter and shar­ing what the 2024 Austin Sketch Fest brings to Austin’s Cold­Towne The­ater (which orig­i­nal­ly found­ed the fes­ti­val). This year’s fes­ti­val will have 14 sketch shows over the course of five nights, shows host­ed by Austin Chron­i­cle Best of Austin standup comics Angeli­na Mar­tin and Rochelle McConi­co, LGBTQIA+ per­form­ers, and giveaways!

But wait! There’s more!! I’m not even sure I can cap­ture every­thing you’re in for with the fes­ti­val. We do have the guar­an­tee from Ellis that ​“there’s some­thing for every­one — you won’t be let down.” We know this to be true from hav­ing attend­ed past Austin Sketch Fests, and when you reflect on the fact that past per­form­ers have includ­ed SNL’s Ego Nwodim, Net­flix’s I Think You Should Leave star, Tim Robin­son, and so many more.

This year’s fes­ti­val includes per­form­ers already estab­lished as super­stars. Hous­ton­ian, Chris Grace of Super­store, Broad City, and PEN15, will be head­lin­ing the fes­ti­val and run­ning a work­shop on musi­cal improv. Joan and Raft, a sketch-writ­ing super-duo known for writ­ing on Net­flix, HBO Max, Car­toon Net­work, and Com­e­dy Cen­tral are pre­sent­ing a work­shop about col­lab­o­rat­ing in the writer’s room. Past Com­e­dy Wham Presents guest, Woody Fu (UCB, Boom Chica­go, JFL: New Faces, Awk­wa­fi­na is Nora from Queens) is lead­ing a work­shop about char­ac­ters. The work­shops are not includ­ed in the $69 Fest Pass, but are well worth the invest­ment (and schol­ar­ships are avail­able). Sign up quick­ly before work­shop spots run out!

Check out the pod­cast to hear about my, Ellis’, and Kelle­her’s favorite sketch­es of all time, and a pseu­do-intel­lec­tu­al con­ver­sa­tion about the ​“art” of break­ing. If you’re not famil­iar with the term, you’ll know famous break­er, Jim­my Fal­lon. Known for break­ing dur­ing his entire tenure at Sat­ur­day Night Live, he was either loathed or loved for his habit. For Kelle­her, she ​“finds it endear­ing, specif­i­cal­ly in ensem­ble things like sketch because you’re get­ting a kick out of each oth­er and your­selves.” To her, break­ing is the ulti­mate sign that you’re hav­ing a good time, and ​“it’s fun to watch peo­ple who are hav­ing a good time.”

As an audi­ence mem­ber attend­ing the 15^th Annu­al Austin Sketch Fest from Thurs­day May 23 to Mon­day May 27, we’re guar­an­teed a good time. Head­lin­ers of the fes­ti­val are the afore­men­tioned Chris Grace and Joan & Raft. We’ll also be treat­ed to per­for­mances by Clara Black­stone, Woody Fu, Ghost Girl, and Par­ty Trick. And then in the ​“fine print” por­tion of the fes­ti­val per­form­ers, we’ll get to see local favorites Big Fart, Juice­bar, Juice­box, The Floor is Lava, and soooo many more performances. 

Welp, I guess this arti­cle did write itself, after all. All with­out the con­stant, puerile retread of an imma­ture ref­er­ence to 69. Ok, maybe a lit­tle bit. But real­ly, if you want to be in on the joke, buy a $69 all fes­ti­val pass and clear your sched­ule from Thurs­day May 23 to Mon­day May 27 and get ready to laugh. Maybe you’ll even see some­one break on stage. And be sure to say thank you to our guests Ash­ley and Kelle­her for being part of the team bring­ing us the best sketch fes­ti­val for its 15^th year.

Fol­low Austin Sketch Fest

• Web­site — atxs​ketch​fest​.com
• Twit­ter — @atxsketchfest
  
• Insta­gram — @atxsketchfest
• Face­book — face​book​.com/​A​T​X​S​k​e​t​c​hFest

Attend the 15^th Annu­al ATX Sketch Fest, May 23 – 27, 2024, at Cold­Towne Theater:

• $69 All Fest Pass!!
• 150 per­form­ers + 14 incred­i­ble shows
• Three work­shops on writ­ing, char­ac­ters, and musi­cal improv
• Head­lin­ers Chris Grace and Joan & Raft
• Shows host­ed by Austin Chron­i­cle Best of Austin stand up com­ic final­ists Angeli­na Mar­tin and Rochelle McConico
• Air puri­fi­er from Clear the Air ATX and a masked-only show block
• LGBTQIA+ head­lin­ers

Fol­low Carolyn

• Insta­gram — @tenenbaumdotcom

Fol­low Ashley

• Insta­gram — @trashleysmellis