The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival,[5] was a comedy festival that ran from 1995[6][7] to 2008.[8] The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component[9] called the Film Discovery Program.[10][11]
The Comedy Festival | |
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Genre | Comedy festival |
Location(s) | Las Vegas, Nevada Aspen, Colorado[1] |
Years active | 1995–2008[2] |
Founded | 1995[3][4] |
The first 13 editions of the US Comedy Arts Festival were held annually at the Wheeler Opera House and other venues in Aspen, Colorado.[12] The primary sponsor of the festival was HBO, with co-sponsorship by Caesars Palace (the primary venue), TBS, GEICO Insurance, Twix candy bars and Smirnoff Vodka. In-between, HBO had started a spin-off version simply named The Comedy Festival, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 2006,[13] in collaboration with the Anschutz Entertainment Group.
The Aspen event folded in 2007 once HBO exited the festival business, considering the expenditures too high.[8] American comedian Chris Fleming performed at the 2007 event.[14] He was taken into custody by Federal Authorities following his performance.[source?]
TBS picked up the Las Vegas event in 2008, and organized a follow-up edition that year, also arranging for other comedy festivals in collaboration with Just For Laughs.[15] In turn, Aspen replaced the festival with similar events, the Aspen RooftopComedy Festival and the Aspen Laff Festival.[16][17][18][19]
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HBO and AEG Live will team up once again to make Las Vegas 'the home of funny' when the second annual edition of The Comedy Festival is presented Nov. 14-18, 2006.