Denver’s Newest Comedy Festival Comes to RISE

The city's comedy scene is about to get a whole lot weirder, thanks to the first-ever Denver Sketch Festival, hosted at RISE Comedy. And if you think sketch comedy is only about bad impressions, dated references and fake newscasters (cough, cough, SNL), think again. From clowns to outlandish characters, the festival promises to show us everything sketch comedy can offer — and a few things you didn’t even know it could.

"A personal goal of mine is for Denver to see people be inspired to do more types of sketch comedy after the Denver Sketch Festival," says festival co-producer Katie Congrove. "We don't have a huge scene here, but I’d really like to build the scene out and have people understand that it doesn’t have to look like SNL or Key & Peele. It can look like this totally other thing that people have never seen before. We have people who are doing really original, cool stuff from around North America, including classic sketch groups, clown acts, solo shows, workshops and everything in between."
Congrove, a Denver-based comedian and writer, met her co-producer, Connor Schuck, an improviser, writer and performer, in a sketch comedy class at RISE Comedy over Zoom during the early months of the pandemic. The duo immediately hit it off, and Schuck invited Congrove to join his friend group and sketch team, Big Ol' Mess. Since then, the team has filmed and performed a variety of sketches across the country.

After returning from the Portland Sketch Comedy Festival in July 2023, the pair was inspired to organize the inaugural festival. They noticed that, while RISE Comedy's annual festival emphasized improv and standup, there were not many sketch teams attending. This prompted them to share their idea with Nick Armstrong, co-owner of RISE Comedy, with whom they had previously worked on sketch and improv shows.

"There's something weird about sketch comedy or sketch comedians where, if it's not a sketch-oriented festival, then they won't go out of their way to go to a combined festival," Schuck muses. "We have a great relationship with Nick, so we pitched the idea of a sketch festival to him and he was like, ‘Okay, you guys can go ahead and produce it. We're like, ‘Hell, yeah — this is awesome!' Since then, we've been working around the clock after our day jobs to make this happen."
Armstrong notes that he immediately recognized the event's potential to help put Denver on the map for sketch comedy. “Our goal has always been to foster and grow the Denver comedy scene,” says Armstrong. “The Denver Sketch Festival is an opportunity to showcase local, national and even international talent.”

The three-day event, which runs from Thursday, October 17, to Saturday, October 19, features performers from across the U.S. and Canada. Acts include Baltimore's all-female sketch troupe Forevermore, whose works focus on relationships; Philadelphia's award-winning performer Sarah Knittel, who helped found Philadelphia's Fringe Festival; Canadian sketch sensation Cam Wyllie; and local groups such as Bedtime Worldwide, Chaos Bloom Theater's Thank You Sketch, Juls n' Lis and Big Ol' Mess.

"We're doing a mix of both live and recorded sketches," Congrove says. "We are doing a little mini-sketch film festival on Thursday night. As for the rest of the weekend, we'll have a healthy mix of traditional sketch comedy and more experimental stuff. I'm just so excited about how many out-of-town performers we got. We have a very wonderful comedy community here who love to come out and watch shows; however, I am hoping ultimately to attract people to the space who might have never been to RISE before but are interested in watching a few sketches."
Workshops are a significant part of the festival’s mission to inspire local comedians. "We’re offering two workshops on Saturday focused on sketch writing with Ryan Harrison and performance with Jet Eveleth, which is so important for anyone wanting to improve their craft," says Schuck. "We hope these workshops give people the tools and confidence to start creating their own material."

Although both organizers admit that producing the event has been like a "9 to 5 on top of another 9 to 5," they wanted to go all out for the festival. "Sketch is my favorite thing in the world, and it is so cool that it started as something we did with friends and has now spread so far beyond us," Congrove says. "I’m proud of the work Connor and I have done, our community and all these people who submitted; my life is going to be better because I get to see them at the festival."
The festival will award four prizes to participants: best of the fest in video, solo act, ensemble and dumbest of the fest. "The word 'dumb' is my favorite word in the world," Schuck says. "It's not a negative thing; that award will be for the silliest act." Looking ahead, Congrove and Schuck hope that the Denver Sketch Festival will become a fixture in the city's comedy scene, attracting well-known comedians and gradually growing to the level of events held in Portland and Austin.

"How cool would it be in five years that this is still going on, with so many Denver submissions and more sketch shows taking place across the city?" Congrove says. "That would be so cool. I could die happy if that happened. Eventually, I'd love to do this as my day job."

"I agree with Katie. Our trackable SMART goal is to grow each year, to raise the event's profile and to attract bigger names," Schuck adds. "I can't believe I just used the term 'SMART goal' unironically, but it's true. There’s no reason why this can’t become one of the biggest sketch festivals in the West. The first year is always a little nerve-racking, but ticket sales are trending in the right direction, and we can't wait to see everyone at RISE."

Denver Sketch Festival, Thursday, October 17, to Saturday, October 19, at RISE Comedy, 1260 22nd Street. Learn more at risecomedy.com.