LAS VEGAS - A Lollapalooza of laughter kicks off tonight on the Strip as more than 130 comedians are set to perform over five days.
The Comedy Festival, in only its second year, has emerged as the world's biggest comedy event, filling four showrooms at Caesars Palace and drawing a wide range of talent led by red-hot Dane Cook, Sarah Silverman, Damon Wayans and many more.
Chris Rock is set to receive the festival's Comedian Award, given last year to Jerry Seinfeld, on Friday. Don Rickles, who turned 80 this year and whose Vegas appearances date back to the 1950s, will be the first star inducted into a celebrity walk of fame at Caesars on Wednesday. Both are performing.
"It's something old, something new, something edgy, something different, something for everyone," says John Meglen of AEG Live, an organizing sponsor along with HBO. "We're excited about the scope and depth of what we're doing."
The festival's capper is the revival on Saturday of Comic Relief, a three-hour benefit concert co-hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, which will air on TBS and HBO (9 p.m. ET/PT). Eight Comic Reliefs, from 1986 to 1998, raised more than $50 million for the poor, but the event went on hiatus as the co-hosts became huge stars with complicated schedules. They made it work this time to help families impacted by Hurricane Katrina, Goldberg says.
"We got a call from (HBO CEO) Chris Albrecht, who asked if we'd be interested in doing this again," she says. "Everybody's always busy, but it's a situation where we all thought it was a very smart thing to do because we felt we could help put some stuff together for the folks who were affected in a way that hasn't been done."
Digital comedy gets its due with:
oThe talent show "Stand Up or Sit Down," in which five unknown comedians selected by MySpace.com users perform (TBS, Friday, 10 p.m. ET/ PT). Fans vote online, and the winner gets $50,000.
oAlso Friday, creators of popular viral videos will re-enact their online performances or create new ones for a live audience.
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