Portland Sketch Comedy Festival

The 5th annual
Portland Sketch Comedy Festival

July 20-22, 2023

Sketchfest producers Shelley McLendon and Ted Douglass

The Portland Sketch Comedy Festival first began in 2017 as the brainchild of Ted Douglass and Shelley McLendon.
Both have a deep love of live sketch comedy, and have been a big part of Portland's sketch comedy scene for years.

Both had travelled to other cities with their respective sketch troupes to take part in festivals such as The San Francisco Sketchfest, The Chicago Sketchfest, Seattle Sketchfest, and NYC Sketchfest. Both found these festivals to be a total blast, and both wanted to create a destination sketch comedy festival in Portland. So Ted sent Shelley a text in 2016 and said, "Let's put on a sketch comedy festival!" And it was made so. And it was a hit.

The annual festival took place in July at The Siren Theater each summer from 2017-2019, and brought in huge crowds and out of town troupes like The Groundlings (LA), Kasper Hauser (San Francisco), and The Defiant Thomas Brothers (Chicago) as well as troupes from Austin, New York, Toronto, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC. It also showcased Portland's own spectacular sketch comedy scene with troupes like The Aces, Nacho Gold, D&D and Lone Wolves. It showed no signs of slowing down and then in 2020... we all know what happened.

The Portland Sketchfest made its triumphant return in 2022 and it was glorious. And now we are back for our 5th year and we couldn't be more excited!

Stay tuned for show schedule and tickets!

Want to apply to the festival?

CLICK HERE FOR SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS!

Thank you to our Festival Sponsors!:

These businesses are committed to keeping the arts alive in Portland, Oregon! Support them immediately!
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Email us at info@sirentheater.com

PAST FESTIVALS

Thank you to our 2022 performers:

SENSITIVE GUYS (Los Angeles & Portland)
SPAM RISK (Portland)
TSTMRKT (Las Vegas)
BRUNCH (Vancouver, BC)
LONE WOLVES (Portland)
BIG OL' MESS (Denver)
SISTERS OF MERCY (Portland)

Thank you to our 2019 performers:

Thank you to:

DAY JOB (Seattle)
The ACES (Portland)
PURE & WEARY (Los Angeles)
D&D (Portland)
MILWAUKEE! (NYC)
SODA FOUNTAIN(Vancouver, BC)
KIDS THESE DAYS (NYC)
SPECTRAVAGASM (Portland)
MAPLE DADDIES (Seattle)
JUICEBOX (Portland)

Here are some of our favorite moments from the festival!
(Photography by Amy Conway)

Thank you to our 2018 Sketchfest troupes:

KASPER HAUSER (San Francisco)

DEFIANT THOMAS BROTHERS (Chicago)

THE ACES (Portland)

TANTRUM (Los Angeles)

BRUNCH (Vancouver, BC)

HERBEAVER (Toronto)

NACHO GOLD (Portland)

HOT POT COMEDY (Austin)

PATSY (Los Angeles)

SLEEPOVER (Seattle)

BATH NIGHT (NYC & Portland)

D&D (Portland)

JOIN THE MAILING LIST FOR THE SIREN THEATER TO GET UPDATES ABOUT THE FESTIVAL AND COMEDY HAPPENINGS THAT HAPPEN ALL YEAR LONG!

JOIN MAILING LIST HERE