The end of January means the end of two SketchFests – Chicago and San Francisco.
And I think there’s some sort of sporting event going on today.
Falling so close together, the Chicago/San Fran leg of the sketch circuit is an infamously arduous trip. However, our friends in the New York sketch trio The Apple Sisters ambitiously tackled – not simply this two-city – but three city marathon, adding the Charleston Comedy Festival in South Carolina! Three ladies, three cities and three coasts in three weeks!
We caught up with Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Johnson, and Sarah Lowe who’ve sent us this report of their adventures along the mid-winter gauntlet!
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Kimmy: Hey, we’re the Apple Sisters! I’m Kimmy (on the left), and there’s Rebekka in the middle and that’s Sarah on the right. We just got back from traveling to, count ’em THREE comedy festivals in less than 30 days. Here we are post traveling, at the ECNY awards. Monday, 28th @ Comix in NYC, where we were nominated for Best Musical Act and Best Flyer/Postcard. (Winning status at the end of this travel blog). We don’t look too shabby looking after a month of travel. Honk!
Rebekka: The suspense is killing me!
Kimmy: Our first stop was the Chicago Sketchfest. This one by far had the most supportive community vibe. I met the most comedians from all over the country and saw a surprising amount of industry. The whole festival was in one building, with a rambunctious party with free booze, and comedy mess fest (Sketchubator – hosted by Brandon Campbell). Sketchubator was GREAT. Some highlights – Our pals Elephant Larry did a sketch with cottage cheese and tuna fish (and new friends Ted and Jordi from the Third Floor showed up in that sketch – Ted in a giant vagina costume, then Jordi gave birth – COMEDY GOSSIP – she’s for reals pregnant!). Then Jordi and Ted did a 
surprisingly hilarious and touching sketch called Manatee – it was Jordi’s last time on stage until the baby is born. Aww. Host Brandon told an insane story in the dark about warriors and the costumes were all made of various light stripes. It was beautiful. The finale was a group who did a sketch about kids eating, licking, & snorting candy. A LOT of candy. Off the floor. Where Elephant Larry had previously splattered cottage cheese and tuna fish. I’d heard we missed the sketchubator earlier in the week that had LIVE CHICKENS!
Kimmy: This is our pal that we aptly named “Dragon for a Dick.” Brian Posen collected a pool of $110 to cut his hair. It was a sight (that we didn’t capture – imagine his dragon dick lighting his hair on fire, that’s what it looked like)
Rebekka: if you notice, he is also cutting the dragon’s hair. i guess a bunch of wizards collected a pool of quizzarks to get the dragon to shave his head….
Sarah: We sang him a song in three part harmony and nearly slayed the dragon… I guess we are like the sirens…
Kimmy: Here we are at the Salt and Pepper diner, near Wrigley Field. What you can’t see is the 25 plus pounds of bacon they were cooking. Coffee and bacon grease. Even as a vegetarian, I have to admit, it smelled wonderful.
Rebekka: Thank god you can’t gain weight from smelling! (cause we smelled the shit out of that bacon.)
Sarah: Wait… I Thought thats how I gained 8lbs?!?!? You mean I could’ve been eating this whole time?!
Kimmy: Second stop was the Charleston Comedy Festival hosted by the Have Nots. They are in their fifth year. Our friends Harvard Sailing Team got us hip to the fest. I loved this festival – it was very artist friendly. We played here (above) at the American Theatre – a renovated movie theatre from 1942. Ohhhhh, it was so dreamy to play in that theatre. 
Our tech guy Andy Livengood (that’s his real name) was the BEST. He completes our Andy trilogy (Andy our piano player, Andy our assistant director, and Andy our Charleston tech man extraordinaire).
Rebekka: The American Theater was the perfect theater for our most patriotic show ever ever. And Charleston was perfect for Ribs, Wings, and Beer!
Sarah: Seriously. His name was LIVENGOOD!
Kimmy: Here we are performing in the theatre. We did a 55 minute set (which was also dreamy
Kimmy: This is Kenneth our cab driver. In Charleston, you can call the cab drivers directly – we developed a bond with Kenneth immediately, so we asked him if we be our Apple Driver. We met him after we went on a pilgrimage to the Piggly Wiggly…PIGGLY WIGGLY!
TRAVEL TIP: Hampton Inn has free coffee, tea, and cookies in the afternoon. The Holiday Inn where we were staying, didn’t. Score!
Kimmy: Here’s Andy, Sarah, and me at the Waffle House. Andy had never been to a Waffle House. It was just as undercooked and stale as we remembered.
Rebekka: Apparently this was the only breakfast place in town! We waited 20 minutes for a table.
Sarah: We all ate HUGE meals for $20. take that NY diners!!
Kimmy: Rebekka and her potato gun at Hyman’s Restaurant. We went with fellow performers Josh and Tamra (Check out Tamra new baby clothes line). We found out from Kenneth that Hyman’s isn’t the best seafood restaurant, but that’s OK by me because A. It’s called Hyman’s B. Customer service – they love to give out free stuff – crab dip, fried green tomatoes, and t-shirts.
Top 3 hyman jokes:
- “Let’s bust down the door to hyman’s”
- “Oh, we just popped into hyman’s”
- “Hyman, I barely know him” (that one provoked boos)
Rebekka: C. Hyman’s had little cards in the bathroom with pearls of wisdom, like this relationship tip: “When you’re wrong, apoligize, when you’re right….SHUT UP!” Now that’s a doozy.
4. “You could break lose your Hyman laughing at those jokes!”
Sarah: I loved Hymens. I loved going into it and eating its crabs.
Kimmy: Here’s Glennis from I Eat Pandas, me, and Andy, DRUNK off of $1 beers at Theatre 99. There was a big ol’ variety show (a la Sketchubator) to end the festival. Here we are trying to hail a cab. It’s impossible to hail a cab at 2am in Charleston. Luckily, John from the Charleston City Paper gave some of us a ride home.
Rebekka: Yes, some of you……
Sarah: NOTE: CABS IN CHARLESTON WILL NOT STOP. EVEN IF YOU ARE SINGING TO THEM WHILE STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET.
Kimmy: The other half of the crew (Sarah, Rebekka, and funny boys from Hot Sauce) shared a cab…in mustaches.
Rebekka: The cab driver overcharged us but we were lucky to get home!
Kimmy: Last stop, San Francisco Sketchfest! Here’s our hotel, Hotel Tomo. It’s a former Best Western that has been converted into a Japanimation/Anime style hotel. They had a wii lounge, where Rebekka, Sarah, and Andy played with new pals from freeloveforum. I missed out because my boyfriend and I drove through the snow and floods from LA. No joke!
Rebekka: I wish we had a picture of the hostess bar that we accidentally stumbled into down the street from the hotel.
Kimmy: Here’s Rebekka lounging at the Tomo.
Rebekka: I’m gonna send that sexy pic to Playboy.
Sarah: That lounge was magical!!! 5 seconds after Rebekka laid on it her clothes were gone… I wish we could show THAT picture!
Kimmy: We were thrilled to be invited to perform at the San Francisco Sketchfest. This festival was definitely had the highest profile acts -A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T with Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie!), The Kids in the Hall, Gene Wilder, and Freaks and Geeks. We got to perform with the esteemed and hilarious Kasper Hauser, amazing Will Franken, and fantastic 
Kathleen Phillips. I really enjoyed San Fran Fest – it’s a great town, well put together, and a great opportunity to rub elbows with celebs. I got to say hello to the guys in Hard ‘n’ Phirm. Genuine and hilarious. I would love to tour like they do! We tried like hell to hang out with other groups – we traded text messages with Backpack Picnic, but we couldn’t get it together…sigh! Next time!
Rebekka: TRAVEL TIP: Drink lots of wine at the Wattle Creek Winery and Cellar 360 in Ghirardelli Square….then get on a plane.
Sarah: And if you can- be sure its PINK WINE
Kimmy: We ate at the legendary Sears Fine Foods “World Famous Little Pancakes.” Here is the lesser known mascot “Pancake Eyes.”
Rebekka: I ordered the 1800 pancakes and made the waitress laugh. I am hilarious.
Sarah: The real joke came when the waitress delivered 1800 pancakes!!!
Kimmy: It’s a good thing we came to Sears because Sarah found one of her long lost relatives – Grandma “1800 Pancakes” Lowe.
Sarah: Speak up… I cant hear you.
Kimmy: Sunset
Rebekka: What a romantic way to see Alcatraz.
Kimmy: Here we are back to the present. And guess what? We WON! Best Musical Act and Best Flyer or Postcard! It was an honor to win – the award is peer and industry voted and we couldn’t have been happier.
Rebekka: The award was a bobbling donkey’s butt! An Asses Ass!
February 14th marks our one year anniversary. In the past year, we have been to six comedy festivals in five cities (San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Charleston, New York), opened for Ingrid Michaelson at the Bowery Ballroom, written 9 brand new shows, and have had a sold out audience every single show. When the Apple Sisters met one year ago, it felt like we formed a comedy Voltron (but in the 1940’s).
One year anniversary show is Feb. 14th. Then on the 15th we’re opening for Ingrid Michaelson at Webster Hall. Further dates can be found on our myspace page. http://www.myspace.com/theapple
Thanks Josh for letting us share our memories.
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Back at’cha, ladies!
