SketchfestNYC 2010 - Hitting Up Jeremy Lamb, Executive Producer of the Festival

SKETCHFESTNYC Mere hours before the first act takes the stage, I checked in with the man of the hour, Jeremy Lamb, aka the guy accountable for keeping the SketchfestNYC dream alive and making the show happen this year.

As the new executive producer of SketchfestNYC this year, tell me about your day to day role in the fest?

I'm responsible for making sure the whole damn thing from pre to post-festival goes right. Whether that means delegating tasks or doing things myself, the buck stops at me and it just has to get done somehow, right? It's been a buttload of work but I love this kind of amorphous event and festival management work, especially when it pays $0.

What experience did you have coming into this and what's been the biggest challenge so far?

Well, among many years of producing independent comedy tours and shows (mostly improv), I also started a comedy festival in 2002 called Out of Bounds in my native Austin, TX and since then I've executive produced it every year but the two I was in Chicago. That festival is actually much larger than SF NYC and has taught me a lot about the challenges and joys of running a festival. You have to be a master of all trades and a jack of none, and I'm hoping my time at both of these important annual events, OOB and SF, will only enhance my continued time at the other. The biggest challenge has been coming into an established scene and staff and finding myself up against some precedence and not knowing exactly how important some of that history is. But the staff, comprised of almost all veteran SketchFest staffers, has been amazing and very understanding of my trepidations. They put a lot of trust in me, even though some of them had never even met me, and that was totally badass of them and allowed us to put together an awesome lineup.

Click to read more ...

News of the World

--SKETCHFEST NYC 2010 IS ON. There was some uncertainty as to who would take over the lead production reins this year, but Jeremy Lamb, the producer of Austin's weeklong Out of Bounds comedy festival, is heading up the efforts. If you'd like to perform at it, submissions are now being accepted.

--Comic Book Club's Alex Zalben wrote a comic book, Thor and the Warriors Four, due in stores April 7th.

--Both Comix and Carolines are doing NCAA basketball themed comedy competitions in the near future. Josh Filipowski started an event called March Comedy Madness at Carolines 3 years ago and decided to bring it to Comix for its 4th installment.  However, Carolines would very much also like a comedy competition, so they're hosting their own show called The Final Four.

--Speaking of Comix, we're excited for Tom Green next weekend. 

--This improv group needs a name and they're offering an alcohol fueled-oily rubdown to the best suggestor.

--The Leno/Letterman/Oprah Super Bowl ad made us feel like we were living inside the lyrics to Aaron Neville's Everybody Plays the Fool. Wut??

--Attention new home buyers who want to take advantage of the 8,000 dollar tax credit: Conan O'Brien's Central Park West apartment is for sale!

--In related news: Just as we warned, Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien content has been STRICKEN FROM THE INTERNET. If you act fast though, you can probably stock up on t-shirts from the NBC Experience Store before the TSWCOB eradication spreads to real life. Just think, ten years from now you can cash in and sell those shirts to the same people who buy 6 packs of Crystal Pepsi on Ebay.