North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival Announces Additional Performance Blocks and 2010 Dates

The North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival announced Thursday afternoon that the 10th Anniversary of the festival will be the biggest yet. Last year, the festival rebranded and added stand-up comedy to it's already nationally renowned improv line-up. In 2010, the festival will welcome sketch comedy teams and film and video to its line-up. With the two new performance blocks, the festival will expand to two more weekends and will run from February 4-27, 2010. The festival will be held at four venues throughout the Carrboro area and will showcase some of the best rising comedy talent in the nation.

The 2010 NC Comedy Arts Festival will run as follows:

· Sketch Comedy will run February 4-6

· Stand-up Comedy will run February 11-14

· Improv Comedy will run February 17-20

· Film and video will run from February 25-27

Throughout the last decade, the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival has made Carrboro a comedy destination. Last year, the festival boasted over 500 performers from 17 states and Canada. 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 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 stand-up 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.

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.