North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival Closes With Five Days of Improv

The North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival's foundation has always been improv and this year, the Improv Block of the festival maintains that tradition. The 11th North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival will close with its annual Improv Block running from Wednesday, February 16-Sunday, February 20 on five different stages throughout Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The Improv Block features some of the best improv teams from around the country and will have a headlining stand-up comedy set from Emo Philips, who may also appear as a special guest at a few improv performances during the week.

Philips will play a headlining slot, performing an hour of standup comedy, on Friday, February 18th at the Cat's Cradle. The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets cost $14. Opening the show is Chicago's Funniest Hip-Hop Improv Comedy Crew, BEATBOX. Scenes are cut, mixed and transformed by a human beatbox and some of the most acclaimed improvisers in the country.

Jay Leno described Philips as "the best joke writer in America." Many comedians, including "Weird Al" Yankovic, consider him one of the funniest people on the planet. Philips has performed over 6000 times, throughout the English-speaking world (including a multi-week run at The Playhouse Theater in London's West End.) Since starting out, at the age of twenty, in Chicago in 1976, Emo has had award-winning comedy albums, several cable specials (including HBO), and appearances on network television. He has appeared in films (most notably, as the table-saw demonstrator in UHF) and has lent his distinctive voice to animated TV shows (Doctor Katz, Slacker Cats, Home Movies), but his first love remains stand-up.

"I was floored to get a personal call from Emo last month," explained Executive Producer Zach Ward, "Emo said, 'I found your card in my pocket and just wanted to say hello.' I brought up the Comedy Arts Festival and, from his response, clearly that's the real reason he was calling. His recent performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival must have sparked the festival bug and we are lucky and honored to have him in North Carolina. Strange though, I gave Emo my card over two years ago."

The Improv Block will also be highlighted by performances from some of the best improvisers in the country. New York's Junior Varsity heads to the festival this year. From the Magnet Theater in New York City, this talented team is one the city's most traveled improv groups. The festival is also excited to welcome Neutrino Boston. They create an improvised movie, live in front of the audience, taping everything in and around Carrboro while the audience watches the opening act. The festival is also hosting a Super CageMatch where teams from North Carolina, Atlanta, Boston, and Toronto will compete for the audience and one will be crowned the 2011 Super CageMatch Champion. Finally, the festival is welcoming the return of The Josh and Tamra Show. Josh Cohen, a Henson trained Muppeteer, is traveling without Tamra, but he is packing up the puppets and performing at the festival with Executive Producer Zach Ward.

"5 days, 5 venues and almost 500 improv comedians performing on stages in Chapel Hill and Carrboro," says Executive Producer Zach Ward, "Sometimes I forget how much comedy that is and what it means to have that many funny people in one place until the week gets here. I am proud to host some of the most talented veterans in North America, new up-and-coming acts on the National scene, and the country's most inspiring college teams all together, on stage here in North Carolina."

North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival Schedule

Wednesday Feb. 16, 2011

7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $10

Armageddon' It (Carrboro, NC)

DoubleD20s (Carrboro, NC)

Houdini (Carrboro, NC)

Pound for Pound (Carrboro, NC)

 

9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $10

Kid Lincoln (Carrboro, NC)

AU JUS (Carrboro, NC)

The 708 (Carrboro, NC)

 

Thursday Feb. 17, 2011

7:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

DOPPELGANGER (New York, NY)

The Immediate Gratification Players (Cambridge, MA)

Gangs of Recess (Fort Worth, TX)

Jessica Tandy (Philadelphia, PA)

 

7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $10

Rintersplit (Philadelphia, PA)

Blue Suede (New York, NY)

Evil Skivvers (Alexandria, VA)

CSO (New York, NY)

 

8:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main $10

Adrift (Philadelphia, PA)

pHrenzy (Chicago, IL)

Fritter Kings (Chicago, IL)

 

9:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

The Swish Improv (Greenville, NC)

Toast (Columbia, SC)

Biological Necessities (Raleigh, NC)

Death By Improv (Sayreville, NJ)

Easy Baked Improv! (Mt. Berry, GA)

 

9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $10

The HITMEN (Chicago, IL)

The Ones Your Moms Warned You About (Philadelphia, PA)

Maxitor Presents: Harold to the Max (Boston, MA)

 

10:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main $10

Plan B (Cambridge, MA)

The New Deal (New York, NY)

Banana Breakup (Carrboro, NC)

 

11:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $10

4DDI (Carrboro/Chicago)

 

Friday Feb. 18, 2011

7:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

NouN (Boone, NC)

Kid Lincoln (Carrboro, NC)

New & Improv'd (Harrisonburg, VA)

Mythical Newsroom (NYC/LA/DC)

 

7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $14

North Coast (New York, NY)

The N Crowd (Philadelphia, PA)

Neutrino Boston (Cambridge, MA)

 

8:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main $14

SENIOR PGA (Carrboro, NC)

Griggs, Robbins & Thom (Toronto, ON)

Junior Varsity (New York, NY)

 

9:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

The Whethermen (Charlottesville, VA)

Nobody's Token (New York, NY)

CUBED (Philadelphia, PA)

AU JUS (Carrboro, NC)

 

9:00 pm @ Cats Cradle $14

BEATBOX (Chicago, IL)

Emo Philips (Los Angeles, CA)

 

9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $14

** DSI Super CageMatch **

Einstein Meets Elvis (Atlanta, GA)

ImprovBoston Mainstage (Cambridge, MA)

DHARMA (Toronto, ON)

Sparky Anderzander (Carrboro, NC)

 

10:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main $14

Festival All-Stars

MISTER DIPLOMAT (Carrboro, NC)

 

11:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

Red Letters (Tahlequah, OK)

Mock Turtle Soup (Clemson, SC)

The Space Cadettes: Everything Must Go! (New York, NY)

Madame Senator (Chicago, IL)

 

11:30 pm @ DSI Comedy $14

rom-com (Chicago, IL)

The Swash Improv (Greenville, NC)

Let's Try This! (Atlanta, GA)

 

Saturday Feb. 19, 2011

7:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

underage sugar addicts (Chicago, IL)

The Arsenal (Boston, MA)

DMG (Washington, DC)

Ay Diego! (Cambridge, MA)

 

8:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main $14

Festival All-Stars

PT Scarborough Is A Movie (Carrboro, NC)

The Josh and Tamra Show (Los Angeles, CA)

 

8:00 pm @ UNC $10, $5 Students

Amuse Bouche (Charlottesville, VA)

Festival All-Stars

CHiPs (Chapel Hill, NC)

 

9:00 pm @ ArtsCenter West $10

Rookie Card (Philadelphia, PA)

Middle Management (Richmond, VA)

The Cascade (New York, NY)

Marjean (Cambridge, MA)

 

9:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $14

Doctor Ballroom (Boston, MA)

3 Men and a Little Lady (Charleston, SC)

BillyHawk (Los Angeles, CA)

Date Night (Baltimore, MD)

 

10:00 pm @ ArtsCenter Main $14

The 708 (Carrboro, NC)

Festival All-Stars

The Bat

 

Sunday Feb. 20, 2011

7:30 pm @ DSI Comedy Theater $10

Comedia Fresca (Hillsborough, NC)

GIUSEPPE (Carrboro, NC)

 

About NCCAF

DSI Comedy Theater (DSI) produced the first North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival (NCCAF) in 2001 to give North Carolina audiences and students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the chance to experience a professional improv showcase and workshops in the art of improv comedy. The festival has rapidly become one of the largest comedy festivals in the nation now incorporating film, sketch and standup comedy. In the past, the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival increased the population of Carrboro for a week by 4%. With professional performances in Chicago and New York and its college touring company, NCCAF 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. In honor of the festival, February 2010 was declared DSI Comedy Arts Month by both the Town of Chapel Hill and the Town of Carrboro and the Mayor of Carrboro declared February 5th Zach Ward Day in the Town of Carrboro. 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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