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]

History

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]}