13th Annual North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival Announces Sketch Block; Features Second City and RISK! from MTV's The State Alumn Kevin Allison

The 2013 North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival continues with a weekend of top notch sketch comedy. The sketch portion of the festival runs Thursday, February 7-Sunday, February 10. The sketch line-up features acts from all over the country and is highlighted by an appearance from the Second City Touring Company and an evening with Kevin Allison's RISK!, a live storytelling event. Tickets to festival shows range $10 - $37 and are available online at www.nccomedyarts.com. Sketch comedy shows will take place at DSI Comedy Theater, 200 N Greensboro St. and at the Arts Center 300-G East Main St. in Carrboro. Second City will take the stage at the Carolina Theatre, 309 W. Morgan Street, in Durham.

The Second City Touring Company comes back to the Triangle for one-night only after a sold-out show last year. On Friday, February 8 at 8 p.m., Second City: Laughing Matters takes center stage at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. With economic uncertainty, political gridlock and a dearth of Khardashians clogging up our televisions, laughing has never mattered more and The Second City brings some well needed silliness and hilarious spontaneity to a world in need of some comic relief. This show puts comedy first in a wickedly funny revue that skewers and celebrates in equal doses. From the company that launched the careers of Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and more, comes the next generation of the comedy world's best and brightest in an evening of hilarious sketch comedy and Second City's trademark improvisation.

RISK! takes the stage at the Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 9. The brainchild of Kevin Allison, of MTV's The State, this show is a risky, wild show where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share in public. This award-winning live show, hosted by Allison, happens monthly in New York and Los Angeles. It's featured people like Janeane Garofalo, Lisa Lampanelli, Kevin Nealon, Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, Sarah Silverman, Lili Taylor, Rachel Dratch, Andy Borowitz and more, dropping the act and showing a side of themselves audiences have never seen before.

In North Carolina, RISK! will feature stories from Allison and from Jane Borden and Josh Gondelman. Borden is a veteran of NCCAF. She is an improviser and former comedy editor at TimeOut NY. She recently released her first book, I Totally Meant To Do That. Gondelman is a working comic, a popular blogger, and one of the creators of the @SeinfeldToday Twitter feed, which has been getting national attention. He was featured in last year's NCCAF All-Star Showcase during Stand-up Week and the Great American Comedy Festival. His comedy album Everything's the Best is available on RooftopComedy.

"The popular demand for Second City now, after a decade of shows, has truly validated both our festival mission and the effort DSI has put into programming professional acts from Chicago to educate local North Carolina audiences, to show comedy fans what improv and sketch comedy could be," explains Executive Producer Zach Ward. "I am humbled that the growth of NCCAF has allowed us to attract shows like RISK!, the storytelling show hosted by Kevin Allison of MTV's The State - The State was truly ground-breaking sketch comedy and work performed by that cast was an important part of my own comedy education."

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