St. Louis has become a destination for comedy lovers. The eighth Flyover Comedy Festival features fan favorites Aziz Ansari and Dulcé Sloan and St. Louis natives Jason and Randy Sklar.
The identical twin brothers known as the Sklar Brothers, found their love for comedy at a young age growing up in St. Louis. Jason Sklar said his identity as a twin was something he knew they could draw on for the sake of a laugh.
“I think being twins, even from an early age, was an attention getter. Back when we were born in the '70s, [it was] rare to see twins. You rarely saw a double-wide stroller,” he said. “I think as we got older there was a lot of attention on us. We love getting laughs and being connected to people.”
Sklar and his brother left St. Louis in 1990 for college, where their love of comedy blossomed. At that time, St. Louis’ comedy scene was not at the level it is today.
“When we started out, it was hard to live in St. Louis and give yourself lots of opportunities in the comedy world,” Sklar said. “We went to the University of Michigan for college and really started to develop our comedy chops. Then we had a choice back then — it was either go to New York or go to Los Angeles if you wanted to really try and make a run at this business. So we chose New York because we loved New York and the energy there.”
Comedy in St. Louis boomed in the years since. In 2017, Zach Gzehoviak and Brady McAninch founded the Flyover Comedy Festival celebrating all forms of comedy. The Sklar Brothers will headline the festival for the second time this year.
“I'm so psyched that this festival is in St. Louis … and that people are continuing to go, and great comics are coming to be a part of it,” Sklar said. “They call it the Flyover Festival because it's a derogatory term that they're reclaiming. Usually you fly over St. Louis on your way to Chicago or some other city, but to make St. Louis a destination for comedy is like a dream for us.”
The Sklar Brothers will bring their “twin-tuition” to two performances at this year’s festival. This year, the Flyover Comedy Festival runs Thursday through Sunday at venues across the city including Delmar Hall, Hot Java Bar and the St. Louis Art Museum. The Sklar Brothers perform at 9 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Sunday.
“We host a show called ‘Tag It!’ which is so fun. Randy and I are on stage [while] comedians perform their set of comedy. We're writing tags for their jokes, which are little jokes that go on at the end of their jokes, and then we keep them on stage and pitch them the tags on stage. It's half improv mixed with punch-up jokes.”
They’ll also bring their podcast “Dumb People Town” to the stage with co-host Daniel Van Kirk, which, according to Sklar, is “a glorious romp through dumb behavior.”
“We take three stories usually from the state of Florida,” Sklar said. “Some guy robs a house with his cat, we're going to break down that entire story. If some woman decides to drive around town with her kids in a baby pool on top of her car, she's trying to be mother of the year. It's an exploration of dumb behavior and trying to fight back against the wave of dumb in this world with comedy.”
Sklar and his brother now live in Los Angeles, but he said they haven’t lost their Midwest sensibilities.
“It's so interesting, because I do think we still draw on all the things that shaped us as we were growing up.,” he said. “We have a St. Louis attitude towards a lot of things. We feel like small-town kids who moved out to the coast. Meanwhile, I've lived in Los Angeles longer than I lived in St. Louis, which says a lot about how great St. Louis is.”
In addition to their shows, they’ll be spending the weekend doing their favorite St. Louis things and showing their friends their local favorites.
“We'll stay at our house in our old beds. There's something beautiful about that,” Sklar said. “We're going to turn Ted Drewes upside down and eat the extra Heath-filled, pistachio-flavored concrete that I love, and do all the things in St. Louis we love.”
To hear more of the Sklar Brothers' St. Louis highlights and what they are bringing to this year’s festival listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
Related Event
What: Flyover Comedy Festival
When: Nov. 13-16
Where: Various locations in St. Louis
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
