DSI Announces Dates & Expansion for The North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, 2/1-19

Comedy acts all over the country are getting their acceptances for the 12th Annual North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival. This year, those acts will gather in the Triangle for three weeks of comedy throughout Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Durham. This annual event runs February 1-19, 2012 and features stand-up, sketch, and improv acts in seven venues across the region. Tickets and a full schedule will be available at www.nccomedyarts.com.

“Every year the festival has built on its own momentum and 2012 looks to be no different. NCCAF received triple the number of submissions this year,” boasts Executive Producer Zach Ward, “which allowed the Festival to accept more comedy acts and allowed the Festival jury to demand higher quality from each act.”

The festival begins a partnership with the Carolina Theatre in Durham this year. The first weekend of the festival will feature a performance from acclaimed stand-up comic, Mike Birbiglia. Birbiglia will appear on Friday, February 3, 2012 at the Carolina. The following week, the festival will welcome the famed Second City Touring Company to the Carolina Theatre stage on Saturday, February 11, 2012.

“After the success of co-presenting Margaret Cho in 2010 I am looking forward to partnering with the Carolina Theatre for the 2012 NC Comedy Arts Festival,” explains Executive Producer Zach Ward. “And after 11 years focused on production in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, expansion with multiple festival events in Durham will mark a significant step forward for DSI Comedy Theater and comedy in North Carolina.”

Each year, comedians flock to The Triangle to perform and attend workshops, making the region an annual destination for comedians of all styles and the festival one of the largest comedy events of its kind in the country. This year, the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival is expecting over a 1000 performers.

New this year, the festival will open with the stand-up comedy week. Birbiglia headlines this block along with a second Late Show with David Letterman showcase with Late Show comedy talent booker, Eddie Brill. Stand-up comedy will run from February 1-5, 2012. The second week will feature sketch comedy. Second City highlights this week, which runs from February 8-12, 2012. The festival closes with a week of improv comedy from February 14-19, 2012. The longest running portion of the festival will feature performances from the Magnet Theatre Touring Company from New York City, Junior Varsity (NYC), The Chris Gethard Show (NYC), BEATBOX (Chicago), Dual Exhaust (Chicago), ImprovBoston Mainstage (Boston), Death By Roo Roo and Two Man Movie from the Upright Citizens Brigade (NYC) are also set to perform.

For the last 12 years DSI Comedy Theater has produced and presented one of the largest comedy festivals on the East Coast, the annual North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival. Each year, the festival welcomes improv, stand-up and sketch comedians to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. The festival features workshops and performances from talent that has been seen on the small screen on Saturday Night Live, MTV, Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central, and on stages at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Second City. As the festival grew, DSI found itself a home and in 2005, opened the DSI Comedy Theater, an 84-seat venue in North Carolina, and the company’s new home for shows and the DSI Training Center. The festival and theatre have attracted high level instructors in improvisation and stand-up comedy including: Eddie Brill, Asaf Ronen, Jeff Griggs, Eric Hunicutt, Kevin Patrick Robbins, Anthony King and Jill Bernard. From the DSI Comedy Training Center and Theater in Carrboro, NC to its productions in Chicago, and professional Touring Company, the DSI name has spread around the country, drawing both participants and quality teaching staff to its theater and to the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival year after year.

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