Lineup Announced for North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival; Runs Feb. 4-27

This year's North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival has been 10 years in the making. This nationally renowned festival is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with some substantial growth. The festival runs February 4-27, 2010 and has added two new weeks of sketch comedy performances and film screenings. The festival will be held at six venues throughout the Chapel Hill and Carrboro area. Tickets and a full schedule are available at www.nccomedyarts.com.

Throughout the last decade, the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival has made Carrboro a national comedy destination. Last year, the festival boasted over 500 performers from 17 states and Canada. This year is no exception. The festival continues to get entries from acts across the country.

The festival begins with its first block of sketch comedy performances. Sketch Comedy will run from February 4-6. Performers are from all over the Triangle and the rest of the country. The sketch line-up includes: Boston's Sawyer and Hurley, Chicago's Comedogenic, New York's Whitney Does What She Wants, Philadelphia's Meg & Rob, and Toronto's Annabelle Goes It Alone, and many others. DSI Comedy Theater's DSI Witness News is also performing in a prime slot.

The Sketch Comedy block is followed by Stand-up Comedy from February 11-14. Introduced last year, the stand-up block will happen at DSI Comedy Theater and Mansion 462 in Chapel Hill. There will also be surprise, unannounced stand-up shows at Local 506 in Chapel Hill on Friday, February 13. The stand-up block features over 50 standup comics and is highlighted by a performance at Cat's Cradle from Letterman talent booker and noted stand-up comic Eddie Brill. Other stand-up performers include 2009 Carolina's Funniest Winner, John Betz, Jr., Austin's Mike McRae, Los Angeles' Max Goldberg, Washington DC's Aparna Nancherla, St Paul's Mike Brody, Atlanta's Viet Huynh and Brooklyn's Elon White.

The following weekend, the mainstay of the NCCAF takes the stage. Gracing five stages, the Improv block will run February 16-21 and will feature improv teams from all over North America. More than 80 groups will fill this six day extravaganza including festival faves Jill Bernard and her wildly popular one-woman show Drum Machine, Washington DC's onesixtyone, Chicago's Beatbox, New York's Death by Roo Roo, and Aphasia (who wraps a tour on Norwegian Cruise Lines just in time for the festival). NCCAF also showcases over 15 college teams including UNC's CHiPs, Clemson's Mock Turtle Soup, UVA'a The Whethermen, and high school improv teams from Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Hillsborough and Chicago.

The festival will close with Film and Video from February 25-27. Partnering with the newly renovated and re-opened Varsity Theatre on Franklin Street, NCCAF showcases feature-length comedy films and digital shorts from all over North America. Feature-length highlights include Visioneers (featuring Hangover star and NC native Zach Galifianakis), Trust Us, This Is All Made Up (a documentary about two Second City-veterans improvising Off-Broadway), and Laughology (a documentary about the science of laughter).

In 2008, the festival raised the population of Carrboro by 4% for a week and generated $150,000 in spillover spending for the downtown business community. Local leaders and the Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau have started to take notice of DSI and the NCCAF as contributors to area economic development.

Starting with the 2009 festival, the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival began a partnership with the website RooftopComedy.Com. Staff members from RooftopComedy filmed all of the standup sets from the festival and pulled comics from the NCCAF to perform at the new 2009 Aspen Comedy Festival. This partnership will continue with the 2010 festival.

More information is available at: http://www.nccomedyarts.com.

The full festival schedule is:

SKETCH COMEDY: FEBRUARY 4-6, 2010

Thursday Feb. 04
8:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Mon Frère (Greensboro, NC)
CHiPs (Chapel Hill, NC)
The Robot Johnson Show (Charlotte, NC)
Annabelle Goes It Alone... (Toronto, ON)
10:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
The Joseph Weinhouse Extravaganza (Raleigh, NC
Whitney Does What She Wants (New York, NY)
The Pushers (Norfolk, VA)

Friday Feb. 05, 2010
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Annabelle Goes It Alone... (Toronto, ON, Canada)
DSI Witness News (Carrboro, NC, USA)
Meg & Rob: We Stole This Baby! (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Boat (New York, NY, United States)
Fantastic Genius (New York City, NY)
The Ruckus (Cambridge, MA)
11:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Comedogenic (Chicago, IL)
Whitney Does What She Wants (New York, NY)

Saturday, February 6
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Fantastic Genius (New York, NY)
Comedogenic (Chicago, IL)
Sawyer & Hurley (Boston, MA)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Meg & Rob: We Stole This Baby! (Philadelphia, PA)
The Ruckus (Cambridge, MA)
The Matt Fried Hour (New York, NY)
11:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
The Pushers (Norfolk, VA)
Boat (New York, NY)

STANDUP COMEDY: FEBRUARY 11-14, 2010

Thursday Feb. 11, 2010
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Spencer Yoo (Charlotte, NC)
Christopher Wilcox (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Martin Montana (Boston, MA)
Chelcie Rice (Atlanta, GA)
Viet Huynh (Atlanta, GA)
John Betz Jr. (Morrisville, NC)
8:00 pm @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Anthony Sarfino (Chicago, IL)
Mike Lebovitz (Chicago, IL)
Karl Hess (Los Angeles, CA)
Christian Spicer (San Diego, CA)
Jared Cullum (Richmond, VA)
Matt Conty (St Louis, MO)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Brooklin Green (Wilmington, NC)
Nicholas Rutherford (Los Angeles, CA)
Raj Sivaraman (Cambridge, MA)
Ian Harvie "Parts Sold Separately" (Carrboro, NC)
Mike Brody (St. Paul, MN)
10:00 pm @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Trenton Davis (Chicago, IL)
Katie Hughes (Orlando, FL)
The Jamille Harley Show (Atlanta, GA)
Mike Blejer : Symbology (Washington, DC)
Billy Bob Neck (Boston, MA)
Greg Brainos (Raleigh, NC)

Friday Feb. 12, 2010
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Mike Blejer : Symbology (Washington, DC)
Raj Sivaraman (Cambridge, MA)
Trenton Davis (Chicago, IL)
Bryson Turner (Austin, TX,)
Herbie Gill (Washington, DC)
Kevin McCaffrey (New York, NY)
8:00 pm @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Herbie Gill (Washington, DC)
Dan Wilbur (New York, NY)
M. Dickson (Toms River, NJ)
Tim Miller (Washington, DC)
Max Goldberg (Los Angeles, CA)
Mike Brody (St. Paul, MN)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Claudia Cogan! (New York, NY)
Comedy's Ron Babcock (Los Angeles, CA)
Viet Huynh (Atlanta, GA)
Aparna Nancherla (Washington, DC)
Mike MacRae (Austin, TX)
10:00 pm @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Chelcie Rice (Atlanta, GA)
Christopher Wilcox (Cedar Rapids,IA)
Martin Montana (Boston, MA)
Seaton Smith (Washington, DC)
Brooklin Green (Wilmington, NC)
John Betz Jr. (Morrisville, NC)
11:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Danny Rolando (Rockville, MD)
Jared Cullum (Richmond, VA)
Courtney Fearrington (Washington, DC)
Chelsea White (New York, NY)
Marty Grimes (Campbell, CA)
Midnight @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Nicholas Rutherford (Los Angeles, CA)
Jessie Geller (New York, NY)
Pete Kuempel (Philadelphia, PA)
Phil Mazo (Newark, NJ)

Saturday Feb. 13, 2010
5:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
RooftopComedy LIVE, 20 comics get 3 minutes to BE FUNNY!
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Spencer King (Salt Lake City, UT)
Pete Kuempel (Philadelphia, PA)
Christian Spicer (San Diego, CA)
Brooklin Green (Wilmington, NC)
Tom Keller (Greensboro, NC)
8:00 pm @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Ian Harvie "Parts Sold Separately" (Carrboro, NC)
Claudia Cogan! (New York, NY)
Marty Grimes (Campbell, CA)
9:00 pm @ Cat's Cradle, 300 East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Mike MacRae (Austin, TX)
Aparna Nancherla (Washington, DC)
Eddie Brill (New York, NY)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
M. Dickson (Toms River, NJ)
Seaton Smith (Washington, DC)
Max Goldberg (Los Angeles, CA)
Anthony Sarfino (Chicago, IL)
Phil Mazo (Newark, NJ)
Matt Conty (St Louis, MO)
10:00 pm @ Mansion 462, 462 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514
Chuck Watkins (Austin, TX)
Charlie Gadd (Chicago, IL)
Comedy's Ron Babcock (Los Angeles, CA)
Danny Rolando (Rockville, MD)
Kevin McCaffrey (New York, NY)
Chelsea White (New York, NY)
11:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Tim Miller (Washington, DC)
Carolyn Castiglia (New York, NY)
Bryson Turner (Austin, TX)
The Jamille Harley Show (Atlanta, GA)
Jessie Geller (New York, NY)
Sunday Feb. 14, 2010
6:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
DSI Standup Student Showcase
8:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Tyler Sonixon (Arlington, VA)
Katie Hughes (Orlando, FL)
Courtney Fearrington (Washington, DC)
Charlie Gadd (Chicago, IL)
Dan Wilbur (New York, NY)
Jennifer McPherson (New York, NY)
Chuck Watkins (Austin, TX)
Spencer King (Salt Lake City, UT)

IMPROV COMEDY: FEBRUARY 16-21, 2010

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010
7:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Student Showcase (Carrboro, NC)
8:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
AU JUS (Carrboro, NC)
The 708 (Carrboro, NC)
Natural Selection (various)

Wednesday Feb. 17, 2010
8:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Mano A Mary (Los Angeles, CA)
Fritter Kings (Chicago, IL)
Natural Selection (various)
10:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
NCCAF CageMatch

Thursday Feb. 18, 2010
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Season 6 (Washington, DC)
Nobody's Token (New York, NY)
QUILL (Chicago, IL)
Boy Toy (Austin, TX)
8:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Unleashed! Improv (Rochester, NY)
CUBED (Philadelphia, PA)
Banana Breakup (Carrboro, NC)
This Improvised Life (Cambridge, MA)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Wildcard (Chicago, IL)
WDWMKR (Toronto, ON)
Bastards Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
10:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Middle Management (Richmond, VA)
Marjean (Cambridge, MA)
Boys Club for Men (New York, NY)
The Real Housewives of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
11:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
MOTEL (Atlanta, GA)
Casual Sex Offenders Explore Your Dirty South (New York, NY)

Friday Feb. 19, 2010
7:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West End, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Let's Try This! (Atlanta, GA)
The Francis Bacon Experiment (Buffalo, NY)
Suspicious of Whistlers (St. Louis, MO)
FrankenReagen (Chicago, IL)
DHARMA (Toronto, ON)
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Boston (Toronto, ON)
Einstein meets Elvis (Altanta, GA)
Badman (New York, NY)
8:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
ImprovBoston Mainstage (Cambridge, MA)
Aphasia (Chicago, IL)
Drum Machine (Minneapolis, MN)
8:00 pm @ UNC Campus, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599
Easy Baked Improv (Mount Berry, GA)
Mock Turtle Soup (Clemson, SC)
New & Improv.'d (Harrisonburg, VA)
CHiPs (Chapel Hill, NC, USA)
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
MISTER DIPLOMAT (Carrboro, NC)
9:30 pm @ ArtsCenter West End, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
The Glamping Trip (Austin, TX)
Maxitor Presents: Harold to the Max (Cambridge, MA)
NouN (Boone, NC, USA)
Mythical Newsroom (Washington, DC)
10:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Jinx (Washington, DC)
Rare Bird Show (Philadelphia, PA)
Rachel & Dave (Austin, TX)
The New Deal Gets Bailed Out (New York, NY)
11:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
BUST (Chicago, IL)
FuseBox (Richmond, VA)
Midnight Society (Austin,TX)
Midnight @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
onesixtyone (Washington, DC)
Beatbox (Chicago, IL)

Saturday Feb. 20, 2010
6:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Grandma Hates Technology (New York, NY)
underage sugar addicts (Chicago/Evanston, IL)
7:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West End, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Veal (New York, NY)
Mr. Lizard (Philadelphia, PA)
Toast Improv (Columbia, SC)
Population 6 (Baltimore, MD)
The N Crowd (Philadelphia, PA)
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Griggs, Robbins & Thom (Toronto, ON)
Thy Will be Done (Boston, MA)
Wizard's Duel (New York, NY)
Resist Butch (Minneapolis, MN)
8:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
CHiPs ALUMNI (Chapel Hill, NC)
SENIOR PGA (Carrboro, NC)
9:00 pm @ Cat's Cradle, 300 East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
SCHEDULE TBA
9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
The Immortals (Cambridge, MA)
Nakatomi Protocol (Toronto, ON)
Superbest (Washington, DC)
Junior Varsity (New York, NY)
9:30 pm @ ArtsCenter West End, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
Penzano (New York, NY)
Total Panic (Austin, TX)
rom-com (Chicago, IL)
The Whethermen (Charlottesville, VA)
Unfurled (Austin, TX)
10:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
ColdTowne Tourco (Austin, TX)
Made of BEES (Richmond, VA)
BillyHawk (Hollywood, CA)
NCCAF All-Stars (Carrboro, NC)
Midnight @ ArtsCenter Main Stage, 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC, 27510
The Bat (Carrboro, NC)

Sunday Feb. 21, 2010
6:00 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
CHHS Improv Co.
Comedia Fresca - Cedar Ridge High School (Hillsborough, NC)
7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. B-11, Carrboro, NC, 27510
Randomax - East Chapel Hill High School
GIUSEPPE (Carrboro, NC)

FILM & VIDEO: FEBRUARY 25-27, 2010

Thursday Feb. 25, 2010
7:15pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
9:30pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA

Friday Feb. 26, 2010
7:15pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
9:30pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
11:30pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA

Saturday Feb. 27, 2010
3:00pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
5:00pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
7:15pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
9:30pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA
11:30pm @ Varsity Theatre, 123 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514
SCHEDULE TBA

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About NCCAF

Dirty South Improv (DSI) produced the first North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival in 2001 to give North Carolina audiences and students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the chance to experience workshops in the art of Chicago-style improvisation. Then known as the Dirty South Improv Festival, the festival has rapidly become one of the largest comedy festivals in the nation. Last year, the Dirty South Improv Festival increased the population of Carrboro for a week by 4%. With professional performances in Chicago and New York and its college touring company, DSI started to receive national attention. The 2006 festival celebrated the opening of the DSI Comedy Theater, an 80-seat venue in North Carolina and the new home for shows and the DSI Training Center. The festival has attracted high level instructors in improvisation including: Asaf Ronen, Jeff Griggs, Dan Izzo, Eric Hunicutt, Kevin Patrick Robbins, Anthony King and Jill Bernard. From the DSI Comedy Training Center and DSI Comedy Theater in Carrboro, NC to its productions in Chicago, and professional Touring Company, the Dirty South name has spread around the country, drawing both participants and quality teaching staff to its annual comedy festival year after year.

 

 

 

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