The 15th Annual SF Sketchfest ended it's three week run with a big bang last weekend at Mezzanine with Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince cover band, PRINCESS. The stream of people flooding into night club as soon as doors opened to the sold-out show at 7:00 on Sunday night was non-stop until the show started just after 8:30.
It wasn't easy to move around amongst all of the Prince fans, comedy enthusiasts and of course Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum fans alike standing shoulder to shoulder in the packed house. Everyone remained cool though as people pushed past each other trying to get situated and the fun really started when the stars of the show hit the stage.
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| PRINCESS @ MEZZANINE 1/24/2016 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Hoots and hollers filled the room as the place went a little crazy when PRINCESS kicked things of with "Let's Go Crazy", the perfect song to open with.
Playing the part right down to their wardrobe, the two funny ladies' outfits had their own take on the famous Purple Rain album cover, you know the one: Prince sitting on a motorcycle wearing a purple suit with a studs on the shoulder. Mrs. Rudolph wore a metallic purple jacket dress while her blonde counter part wore a sleeveless black collared dress with a police cap (perhaps this is the cop that "pulls Prince over"?). Both dresses were appropriately adorned with a studded shoulder and accessorized with fingerless lace gloves that screamed the 1980's. They took their show as seriously as it needed to be taken: their singing wasn't bad at all, often times switching the lead on vocals either from song to song or verse to verse and their saucy performance persona's were a riot full of hair flips, dirty dance moves and jazzy hand gestures. The good time rolled on between songs with silly banter about being nasty. Maya Rudolph handled shout-outs from hecklers like a pro with witty jabs like, "hi, yes I see you, hi. I love you too. We love you all, you're all so nice here, especially in the Mission District." When the crowd wasn't dancing they were rightfully laughing!
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| PRINCESS @ MEZZANINE 1/24/2016 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Being that PRINCESS is a Prince cover band the set included dirty ditties, "Sister" which Lieberum basically apologized for after the song was over and "Jack U Off" complete with explicit hand movements. Of course they played some hits too: during "If I was Your Girlfriend" they were accompanied by young fellow we came to know as Bergito (a "pool-boy" backup singer of sorts whom Mrs. Rudolph claimed to have found while fishing in Brazil) who sang the spoken word segment of the song as the stars danced around him and the room literally turned red when they played "Little Red Corvette."
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| PRINCESS @ MEZZANINE 1/24/2016 photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Taking time to graciously thank the SF Sketchfest for having them back before ending the regular set with "Darling Nikki", they returned to the stage for an en-core and after a couple songs the night ended with none other than "Purple Rain" around 10:00.
PRINCESS has been on the SF Sketchfest bill for the last three years and hopefully they'll be back next year for the comedy festival's sweet 16th year! If you like nights full of laughs and a good, fun show you won't want to miss it! Keep your eyes out for when the 2017 SF Skecthfest schedule is announced because tickets to PRINCESS always sell out!
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