A laughing matter

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005 | 7:27 a.m.

Festival facts

When: Various times Thursday through Saturday.

Where: The Colosseum at Caesars Palace; various ballrooms at Caesars Palace; the Flamingo Showroom.

Tickets: Various packages from $190 to $365; individual tickets $22 to $70.

Information: 731-7333; 877-823-3378; ticketmaster.com and thecomedyfestival.com.

Among the various events:

* Lewis Black/Dave Attell performing at 10:30 p.m. Thursday in the Palace Ballroom at Caesars Palace.

* Dennis Miller Comedy Hour, 8 p.m. Friday in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

* Dane Cook performing at 10 p.m. Friday in the Palace Ballroom at Caesars Palace.

* Jon Stewart, 8 p.m. Saturday in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

* Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at midnight Saturday in the Flamingo Showroom.

At its peak in the mid-'90s, the Comdex computer convention drew crowds of geeks in excess of 200,000 each November.

Fewer than 50,000 attended the final show in 2003.

"This weekend used to be for Comdex, but Comdex wasn't all that funny," quipped John Meglen, president and co-chief executive of AEG LIVE/Concerts West.

Filling the void this year is the first The Comedy Festival (TCF), a three-day party that will feature some of the top comics in the world, and a few unknowns struggling to make it in the world of humor.

There probably won't be 200,000 fans attending the more than 50 events at Caesars Palace and the Flamingo, but there will be a million laughs.

Among those who are expected to perform at various venues and times Thursday through Saturday are Dave Chappelle, Larry David, George Lopez, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Garry Shandling and Jon Stewart.

Jerry Seinfeld will be honored with the festival's first The Comedian award.

It took Meglen and co-creator Bob Crestani, chairman and chief executive of The Comedy Festival, two years to put together the comedy package, a co-production of HBO and AEG.

For the past 11 years HBO has produced the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Crestani is the chief executive of the festival, which will be held in March.

"We felt it would be interesting to have a larger festival as well," Crestani said.

He noted there are major comedy festivals around the world, from New Zealand to France.

"But there aren't any giant, premier comedy events in this country," Crestani said.

He describes the upcoming festival as "the Woodstock of comedy."

"There needed to be something like this, something the industry could get involved in," Meglen said.

Las Vegas was a natural choice for the site.

"It's the world center of live entertainment," Meglen said. "This is a 24/7 town, and we wanted to create a three- or four-day event that went around the clock, so to speak.

"We're featuring everything we could conceive of in comedy -- old and new, standup and sketch, films."

Comedy films will roll 24 hours a day in various theaters. The films will include features, shorts, adult animation, commercials and more in the Florentine and Pompeiian ballrooms at Caesars Palace.

The Second City Room at the Flamingo will feature three nights of new comedians and alternative comedy.

At 8 p.m. Thursday a star-studded event, "Earth to America!," will be held at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The comedy event has a serious message about global warming. It will be taped and then air Sunday on TBS.

There will be a celebrity poker event, featuring cast members of the popular HBO series "The Sopranos."

But the heart of the festival will be comedy concerts Friday and Saturday by some of the top comedians in the country.

"We got everybody we wanted," Crestani said. "It's pretty rare in this industry to have this kind of level of cooperation -- everyone was very accessible."

Meglen said it should be fun for everyone who attends.

"We have kept the prices reasonable," he said. "We want people to come and hang out.

"One of the cool things is that this allows the public a chance to interact with people in the industry. Some great comedians will be walking around. You don't know who you will run into. We want people to come and get involved with the spirit of the event."

The producers are planning to make this an annual event.

"We're very happy with the program that we put together," Crestani said.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.