This is our greatest civic challenge: No Dave Attell this year.

Now the trend is getting downright scary. Fresh off the blow that CineVegas is on an indefinite hold comes word that Caesars Palace’s Comedy Festival is taking 2010 off as well — only promising to “be back in the near future.”

Much like the indie movie crowd, the festival brought with it a core of die-hard comedy fans who would work a frantic three-day schedule trying to see as many acts as possible. And they did a good job of mixing up mainstream comics with lesser-known acts.

For ever Jerry Seinfeld or Dane Cook or Jeff Dunham that headlined the fest, there were plenty of Jim Nortons and Dave Attells and Brian Posehns and Zach Galifinacki who might not otherwise have played Vegas otherwise. Our track record on alt-comedy is the occasional Nick Thune or Doug Benson or Daniel Tosh show. It’s not exactly a hotbed. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

To think we were so close to never having to see another Jaywalking bit.

If you missed your shot at The Comedy Festival this past weekend, you can catch up on all the excitement that the Caesars Palace ballrooms had to offer when Jay Leno airs a “Pass the Mic” segment that filmed at the Fest during tonight’s broadcast.

Leno, by the way, could land on Fox when his Tonight Show run ends. It’s a little soon for Fox to return to the late-night arena after Arsenio left. The wound’s still there, Fox. Give it time to heal.

By Jason Scavone

Bow down.

We’re not sure why, but someone scheduled three comics to do short sets before Dave Attell. Though Robert Hawkins and Whitney Cummings were both good and Jordan Rubin was adequate, Attell proved early on why Jim Norton said, “Attell is so brilliant, I don’t want to know what he’s doing, because it’s just going to bum me out to listen to how great his mind works.”

Attell was a beast on stage. A mad scientist run amok, cackling manically at his own material as he paced frantically back and forth. Half the time his laughter was punctuated by a vicious smoker’s cough, making him sound even more like a supervillain of comedy. Before the show started, a girl next to us said to her friend Attell was the sexiest short, fat, bald guy ever. Clearly, chicks dig evil genius. He had the energy of Robin Williams on a four-day coke binge. Except, you know, funny. In a festival that saw brilliant turns by The Kids in the Hall and Norton, Attell may have been the class of the bunch.

No one and nothing got spared. Not Caesars Palace (“It looks like an Olive Garden threw up on a Sopranos reunion”), not To Catch a Predator (“Chris Hansen is the Blade of pedophiles”), not Michael Phelps (“Ladies, would you fuck him? You would if you were drowning.”). Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

‘We invented the words. We’ll tell you how to use them.’

John Oliver brought something to The Comedy Festival that the rest of the crowd was lacking. Other than a lilting British accent, we mean.

Oliver’s droll, urbane sensibilities, so readily apparent on The Daily Show, were on full display last night, clear from the start when he chided one audience member immediately for several minutes for ululating at him. It wasn’t the last time he’d throw that word out before the night was through.

Oliver followed Daily Show producer Rory Albanese and fellow correspondent Rob Riggle with a wealth of new material and some of the better holdovers from his Comedy Central Presents special, John Oliver: Terrifying Times. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Dane Cook’s biggest fan.

Straight up, we don’t like Dane Cook. We think he’s hacky, we don’t like his mugging, we hate the way he uses schmaltz to try to sound like a sensitive guy who just happens to like a couple of non-threatening blowjob jokes, and we think he gets by on physical energy and college dude charm more than on the quality of his material. And that’s all putting it nicely. But clearly, we’re in the minority.

His show at the Colosseum last night, nearly a sellout, was a case study in Cookology. Sitting right in front of us were four sorority girl types, clearly in love with the guy, who were a perfect example of a divide in people’s taste in comedy.

Every time they cracked up, like when Cook referenced his “powerful chest” and “big, fat cock,” we sat in stony indifference. One girl even went so far to parrot back Cook’s manic movements in fits of laughter, as if flailing were the ne plus ultra of comedy. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Bruce McCulloch – pants + wig = comedy gold.

An hour before the Kids in the Hall took the stage in Vegas for the first time, fans lined up almost all the way to the escalators were ready to see five Canadians whose television series ended in 1995 return to the stage for the first time in six months.

Dave Foley, who found post-Kids success with News Radio among other projects, whipped everyone into a frenzy by coming out to shake hands with fans. One group in the front had been waiting since 7 p.m. for the 9:30 show. Little wonder when the doors finally opened, people stampeded to the front while frantic ushers yelled “No running!” Grade schoolers crammed full of candy couldn’t have been more giddy.

A video intro where the other four Kids decide it’d be funny to rape Kevin McDonald kicks off the show, but as soon as the bass kicked in from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet’s “Having an Average Weekend,” the wave of mania that gripped the crowd wouldn’t have shocked David Lynch at a Lady in the Radiator convention. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

What does he do here? He’s … Ken. (Via AMCTV.com)

Well, if you ever wanted to know which of your favorite celebs were the best at … bagging groceries, now’s your chance. 10 Items or Less cast John Lehr, Kim Coles, Roberta Valderrama and Greg Davis Jr. along with Mad Men’s Aaron Staton, Vincent Kartheiser and Alison Brie — that’s Ken Cosgrove, Pete Campbell and Trudy Campbell, to you — My Boys stars Kyle Howard, Michael Bunin, Jamie Kaler and Kellee Stewart; and Penn & Teller will be there, bagging away like $5.15 an hour depended on it.

This all goes down at 6:30 p.m. outside the Palace Ballroom, right in the thick of The Comedy Festival. The winner will have a donation made in their name to DoSomething.org, a non-profit aimed at getting young people active in causes in their community. We’re mostly going to check it out to find out if Pete Campbell will throw a roast chicken out of the windy in defiance of Trudy.

By Jason Scavone

Doing the entire set from behind the stool might have improved his act about 15 percent.

Last night’s Late Show at The Comedy Festival saw Scottish comic Danny Bhoy, veteran Mich Fatel and Ghost Whisperer actor Jamie Kennedy take the stage as the Triple Threat of Comedy, although why they were packaged like that is something of a mystery. There’s nothing in particular to tie these three acts together, unless “triple threat” has some new connotation of “one guy dragging the other two down” that we’re not aware of.

Every so often, and import from across the pond like Eddie Izzard or Ricky Gervais will find success in the States. Other than that, European comedy is a largely unknown quantity. So we were unfamiliar with Danny Bhoy who, gimmicky name that we’re not even positive is a stage name aside, was charming and good natured with a strong physical element to his comedy that wasn’t overbearing or schticky.

Mitch Fatel, who we honestly had to have someone explain to us that he really didn’t have a learning disability, was great as always. Our only knock was that he did a lot of older material mixed in with some new twists, including the second-best handjob joke we’ve head after Louis CK’s “Saddest thing that ever happened in America” bit. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

It’s just like Sullivan, without making the Stones change their lyrics. (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

Ellen DeGeneres kicked off The Comedy Festival last night at Caesars Palace with Ellen’s Even Bigger Really Big Show — a variety extravaganza inside the Colosseum. We were expecting it to be her crying for 90 minutes about puppies, but apparently there were acrobats and stuff. Today, she’s taping an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show right at the show, with an additional 200 or so people in her “riff-raff room” at Spago from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Flamingo headliner George Wallace turned up at the Fest last night. If you ever saw George Wallace on the street without his Kangol, you’d assume he was just the world’s best George Wallace impersonator, right?

By Jason Scavone

Jim Norton will be replacing Christian Bale as the next Batman. (Via myspace.com/jimnorton)

Jim Norton has a nasty habit of being on underappreciated TV shows that meet an early demise. See Lucky Louie an Tough Crowd. It’s a good thing he’s multimedia, then, as a co-host on the Opie & Anthony radio show; with an HBO special (Monster Rain) and show (Down and Dirty); and his second book, I Hate Your Guts reaching No. 13 on the New York Times Best-Seller List.

Norton hits the stage tomorrow night at 7 p.m. as part of The Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace. We caught up with him while he was on a train bound for New Hampshire. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone