Mikail Faalasli / DC Sketchfest
Herndon’s Isaiah Headen co-founded the fun-filled four-day festival
Prepare for a laughter-filled extravaganza as D.C. Sketchfest, the capital’s premier sketch comedy festival, returns for its highly anticipated annual celebration from March 26 to 29 at The D.C. Arts Center.
Now in its second year, the hilarious antics of 36 comedy troupes from across the U.S. and Canada will compete in the four-day festival.
“This will be four nights of amazing comedy with more than 100 performers taking part,” said co-founder Isaiah Headen, a writer and performer of Bad Medicine, a Washington D.C.-based sketch comedy group, who is from Herndon. “There will be solo acts, large groups, duos—it’s a hodgepodge of the artform of sketch comedy. It’s kind of a team sport when it comes to comedy.”
The event was the brainchild of Headen and the creative minds behind Bad Medicine, which specializes in the dark, cerebral, and absurd. The troupe, which started in 2013, is a collection of singers, designers, lawyers, and students with the shared goal of writing the best comedy about the worst of humanity.
They met while writing for a sketch networking event called Sketch Jam, and when that ended, they decided to start their own troupe. Soon, they were performing around the D.C. area and spending a decade-plus bringing their comedy to venues and festivals around the country.
“We started teaching online classes during the pandemic and coming out of that, we started hosting shows, and things have really blossomed throughout the years,” Headen said. “It’s been an awesome experience making friends from around the country by performing sketch comedy.”
Mikail Faalasli / DC Sketchfest
The inaugural D.C. Sketchfest was a huge success last year, and this year’s event will feature even more sketch artists and almost double the number of shows and performers.
“I would say just the number of sketch performers around our area has doubled in that time as well,” Headen said. “Things continue to grow. You’re going to see stunt work, big characters, people doing impersonations and improv. You might not know what you’re going to get, but what you’re going to get, you’re going to love.”
Among those performing in the festival are 15 Minutes Away!, a New York City-based diverse cast of women, queer and POC comedians; comedian A.J. Schraeder; Canadian improv favorite Andy Assaf; and sketch comedy groups Big Apartment, Big Ol’ Mess and D.C.’s own Chaps.
“It was such a blast last year, and things are going to be just bigger and better in year two,” Headen said. “People say we’re all politics in D.C., but that’s not true. I think D.C. is full of very smart, creative people who like to laugh. There may be some serious jobs, but sketch comedy provides a very nice, fun way for people to do weird, wacky things and to get big laughs.”
D.C. Sketchfest will also feature several workshops for inspiring sketch artists, and people will have the chance to learn the art form.
Growing up in Herndon, Headen noted he’s always been a visual person who loves photography and wants to write, so sketch writing was a natural fit for him, though it’s not something he imagined doing as a kid.
“I’m one of seven kids, and we’re a very theatrical, loving family who played a lot of games,” Headen said. “I went to American University to do video, so that’s the art form that attracted me the most. I started working editing video and that’s stayed with me.”
But storytelling has always been important to him and an interest that began early on, so sketchwork fills that need.
“Writing short sketches is a good way to learn to build character, to tell a story and to succeed with your words,” he said. “When the opportunity to do a sketch team came up, I knew this would be a great opportunity and it’s been a great journey.”
For tickets or more information, visit www.dcsketchfest.com.