Austin Sketch Fest: The Encyclopedia Show

The third annual Austin Sketch Comedy Festival is happening May 23rd to May 27th over Memorial Day weekend and will feature two headlining shows from comedian Paul F. Tompkins as well as other incredible local and national acts.

The Encyclopedia Show is a live variety extravaganza that commissions local and touring artists and experts from all the performance disciplines to activate their individual talents to present a different verbal encyclopedia entry each month.

The Encyclopedia Show endeavors to build an age-integrated, non-competitive performance community cultivating accidental knowledge and irreverent loving kindness. Though the show is accredited by The Institute of Human Knowledge and Hygiene, it is our ongoing mission to chafe against logic and proof and find meaning in obfuscation.

Started in the minds of poets Robbie Q. Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney-Magnusson in Chicago, Illinois, The Encyclopedia Show has spread across the United States and the globe to share a passion for embodied and enjoyed learning.

Hosts Mike Graupmann and Ralphie Hardesty began The Encyclopedia Show Austin in February 2010 after both wandering souls agreed that Austin held the perfect fertile ground for just such a creative venture. Together, with friends living in and around Austin, they have dared to bridge the gaps between fiction, poetry, theatre and stand-up comedy.