@patrickneville The future. The awesome awesome future. #bacon #donuts 6 hrs agoFollow Zach on Twitter

Posts Tagged ‘NC Comedy Arts Festival’

May
12

Next stop, Boston!

On May 5th I accepted my new job as Managing Director of ImprovBoston. The week since has been a whirlwind of packing and planning for myself and Jessica, considering options for DSI Comedy Theater, and OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS! Wait, before I continue, you should read THE ANNOUNCEMENT!

DSI Comedy Fans can rest assured, North Carolina will enjoy the same quality comedy classes and weekly performances that they have come to expect from DSI. My #Hustle and our local company wouldn’t have it any other way. I will stay Executive Producer, but the theater will be under new management starting this Summer. And Lord knows NCCAF (@nccomedyarts) can’t stop and won’t stop, So get ready for 2012!

We’ve already confirmed Second City and are partnering with Carolina Theatre to present Mike Birbiglia!

My publicist Carrie Gorn released the Boston news to press while I recorded a surprise curtain speech.

I know, I could have slowed down. I just didn’t have an audience and I was excited about THE ANNOUNCEMENT!

I am offline for most of the weekend, but I wanted to thank everyone for being so supportive and for all the congratulations. YES! AND! Accepting the job as Managing Director is an incredible career opening for me and a great challenge for the ZW #Hustle, it’s a critical growth move for an already successful organization like ImprovBoston and it’s a real opportunity for my company of performers, teachers and directors at DSI Comedy Theater to step up and grab leadership positions, to defy logic, exceed expectations and continue to make a significant impact on the community, audiences, students and each other.

I ended my official ImprovBoston job announcement news to DSI Company Members earlier this week with this next paragraph, and I think, if you’re from a different improv community, or maybe even a company that just operates like a family, you could change a few details and it might still be appropriate for you.

There is a world-famous comedy theater open for business on a loading dock, behind a diner and near some sketchy railroad tracks, in a small town where you would least expect it. Let’s work hard to keep it that way. For a lot of people, myself included, that place has become a second home.

I would “officially” like to thank coffee, @garyvee and #vampiremode for making this possible.

I would actually like to thank the Board of Directors and Staff at ImprovBoston, you know, for the job.

But, most of all, I would really like to thank my future wife Jessica, not only for agreeing to marry me, but for packing up her life and agreeing to move with me to Boston, so I could do what I love to do.

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Posted in improv, leadership, personal | 1 Comment »

Jan
31

Charitable Comedy Takeover

As Executive Producer and Artistic Director of the NC Comedy Arts Festival, I want to personally welcome you and invite you to enjoy the largest comedic event in the South.

DSI Comedy Theater works yearlong to produce the most thrilling festival possible and we are dedicated to supporting the local comedy scene so that the very best comedians in the country want to play here. I’m enormously proud of what this festival has accomplished since 2001 and I hope everyone reading this will have an opportunity to witness the immense amount of talent we’ll have in the Triangle during the month of February, to experience the community and, most importantly, to laugh.

If this is the first you’ve heard of the NC Comedy Arts Festival, let me take a moment to tell you what we do. For the last decade, NCCAF has welcomed comedy acts from across North America to showcase improv, sketch and standup comedy right here in the heart of North Carolina.

Each week the festival showcases a different comedy genre. This year we open with sketch comedy and film. Week two boasts some of the hottest up-and-coming standup acts on the road today and week three closes with a return to our roots with 26 incredible improv comedy shows featuring acts from New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto and North Carolina.

If you are returning as an audience member or participant, welcome back and thank you. Its dedicated comedy fans and artists like you that make this festival possible year after year.

And for the 2011 festival my company has decided to donate 10% of ALL proceeds to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA We Build People Scholarship Campaign.

If we Sold Out our Festival shows we could raise $10,000 for the YMCA! So buy a ticket TODAY for you and a family member, buy a block for people at work or click around the festival site and suggest shows for your friends to go see. Laugh Out Loud and help DSI make a difference in the community.

NCCAF Sketch Comedy (February 2-5), http://nccomedyarts.com/sketch

NCCAF Standup Comedy (February 9-13), http://nccomedyarts.com/standup

NCCAF Improv Comedy (February 16-20), http://nccomedyarts.com/improv

Thank you.

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Posted in business, community, festival production | 1 Comment »

Feb
7

NCCAF Twenty 10

Twenty 10, Two Thousand AND 10. Whatever year it is, last week was awesome. On stage on Thursday, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton declared February 2010 DSI Comedy Arts Month (and then Mayor Chilton added, “Be it further resolved that Friday February 5, 2010 be recognized as Zach Ward Day in the Town of Carrboro” What? I was floored!) I haven’t called my Mom yet. I should do that.

Anyway, the shows were awesome. I was pumped for our local audiences to see some really great sketch comedy last weekend and I’m always excited to see Acts inspired by each other at festivals. We had Sold Out shows EVERY NIGHT, despite rain on Friday and snow on Saturday. And a fantastic day of workshops on Saturday with Second City Chicago’s Anthony LeBlanc, SAINTS FTW!

But we’ve got 3 weeks left and Standup Comedy starts Thursday

Last year when I was producing the Toronto Improv Festival I wanted to blog about what was happening in REAL TIME, problems, solutions, Festival details. I was pretty overwhelmed and out of the country so it didn’t happen, but maybe that can change for #NCCAF. You should keep me honest.

Let me know your questions OR any feedback you have.

Biggest issue so far. Last week I tweeted that we were experiencing a 2007 Horatio Level Event. Short backstory – In 2007, Horatio Sanz agreed to do the festival but he went into surgery on Tuesday before his Friday show. My friend Anthony calls me on Thursday to let me know Horatio won’t be coming. I scramble for 24-hours and Louis CK saves comedy. That was awesome. But… what could equal that?

HLE PROBLEM: Last week a venue we contracted for NCCAF 2010 Standup Week picked up the phone, only to let me know they were closed until further notice because of flooding and electrical problems. WTF? Especially 7 days out. ZW SOLUTION: I need a place that has a similar vibe, not a performing arts space that seems too sterile for standup and not just a bar because we need to charge admission, and preferably ONE VENUE for all three nights (7 total shows). The next morning I meet with Tyler’s Taproom owner and manager and we confirm a new venue. Speakeasy, 100 E Main St Carrboro. It’s actually two blocks CLOSER than the other venue. Two drawbacks, No raised stage. And it seats 65 instead of 100. But the venue is excited to host and most of the comics are also playing DSI so I think we did okay.

You could check it out and let me know. http://nccomedyarts.com/standup

Back to work.

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Posted in clips, festival production | No Comments »