Willard adds character to Sketchfest
When Fred Willard agreed to appear at SF Sketchfest in only its second year in 2003 for an evening of sketch comedy with his Hollywood Players, the comic legend raised the profile (and credibility) of the comedy festival. Since then, the 78-year-old actor and comedian has returned for several events to become a regular presence at SF Sketchfest. Last year, SF Sketchfest honored him with “A Tribute to Fred Willard,” and now for the event’s 17th annual run, he’s back for “Celebrity Autobiography” and will also take part in “Audible Presents ‘Dr. Katz: The Audio Files.’ ” He talked to The Chronicle before his annual visit to San Francisco. Q: Tell us about that first experience with SF Sketchfest. A: I belong to a sketch group here in L.A. (the MoHos). We meet every Monday, and people come in and bring sketches . ... The Sketchfest people heard about a show and they said, “Would you come up to San Francisco?” … We did a couple of shows and we just all had a good time. Q: You’ve done “Celebrity Autobiography” before. Now, you’re doing it again. Do you know at this point what you’ll be doing? A: I usually don’t know till a day or two before we go up. I’ve done Richard Burton in a piece about Elizabeth Taylor. I’ve done Justin Bieber, Burt Reynolds — that’s a favorite. My favorite to do is Richard Burton because I don’t usually do accents, but I think I pull off a pretty good Richard Burton, and it’s very funny ... I’ve done Joe Namath, Mr. T and Hasselhoff. David Hasselhoff, that’s another good one. Q: You’re also doing “Dr. Katz: The Audio Files” this year. A: I don’t know what that’s about, but it sounded interesting to me. They offered me a couple of shows — one followed “Celebrity Autobiography,” but that makes it too long an evening, I think. When that’s over, we like to just go off and find a little bar or restaurant to relax. But the other one sounded interesting, so I said, “Yes!”
Q: You’ve done all kinds of things at Sketchfest: “Celebrity Autobiography” and retrospectives on things like “Fernwood Tonight” and “Waiting for Guffman.” Last year, there was even a tribute to you. What do you prefer doing? A: “Celebrity Autobiography,” and I’ll tell you why: Because it’s pretty cut-and-dried. You just come out, you read out of a book, and the audience is very receptive to it. You get to do several different characters. I think that’s what I prefer. Occasionally, I get a chance to do a reading of someone’s play, which is always fun, too.
Q: Is there anything that you would like to do at a future SF Sketchfest?
A: The MoHos do shows about three or four times a year, and we have a lot of young writers and some older writers . ... We’ve done, if I must say, some very funny sketches, and I would love to bring them up and just do a 45-minute total sketch show . ... That’s my idea, I love sketch work, and I would love to do a proper show.