The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, is a comedy festival held each year in Las Vegas, Nevada. From its 1985 inception to 2008, it was held annually at the Wheeler Opera House and other venues in Aspen, Colorado. 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. HBO exited the festival business in 2007 and TBS became the primary sponsor.
The festival includes stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component called the Film Discovery Program.
In 2008, RooftopComedy.com and the opera house started a new festival based in Aspen, The Aspen RooftopComedy Festival.
Famous quotes containing the words comedy and/or festival:
“If Shakespeare were alive today and writing comedy for the movies, he would be the head-liner for the Mack Sennett studios.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)