One of the biggest entertainment events of the year comes to Caesars Palace this month when the Comedy Festival returns for its fourth year in Las Vegas. The lineup is impressive, including Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Tracy Morgan, Dane Cook, John Oliver and many more.

The responsibility for putting together the festival fell to Dennis Adamovich, who was recently named senior vice president and general manager of comedy festivals for Atlanta-based superstation TBS, which is partnering with AEG Live to put on the Comedy Festival. Adamovich recently spoke with Casino Connection Managing Editor Greg Jones about this year’s lineup and the challenges of hosting this kind of event in Las Vegas.

The Comedy Festival runs November 20 through 22 at Caesars Palace. A three-day pass is available, as are tickets to individual performances. To see the schedule and purchase tickets, go to www.thecomedyfestival.com.

When you’re putting together this kind of event, how do you decide who to invite?

Adamovich: We decided that we wanted to have a very diverse lineup. We didn’t want it to just be stand-up; we didn’t want it to be all headliners. We wanted a wide range of entertainment, so we brought in the sketch comedy with Kids in the Hall, and we have something that is different, like the celebrity roast that we’re doing with Cheech and Chong. At the same time, we still have the headliners like Katt Williams, Ellen Degeneres and Dane Cook.

The other piece to this that was really important was that we’re also having people whose names haven’t been out there. In the Emperor’s Ballroom, we’re doing a unique concept that hasn’t been done before. It’s the TBS LOL lounge and we’re going to do a broadband feed back to the comedy festival page at TBS.com. For three hours every night, from 6:30 to 9:30, we’re going to have new faces from around the country who are going to be doing some stand-up. There is a lot of great new talent that most people haven’t seen, and this is their opportunity to check out some of those folks.

Does having the show in Las Vegas make it easier for you to attract headliners?

Las Vegas is the Mecca of entertainment, so there are a lot of people who are already there. But the performers like coming there. There is more comedy being booked through the casinos on the Strip, and that really helps our cause.

Could you talk about hosting the Comedy Festival at Ceasars Palace? It looks like it would be a great fit, having access to the rooms, the restaurants and a number of different show rooms and meeting spaces.

Caesars is a great partner, and being able to house it all in one spot like this is great. It provides us with the opportunity to go from a small venue like we’re doing to the LOL lounge, where we have 200 to 250 seats, all the way to the Colosseum, where we’re doing 45,000 seats, and everywhere in between. It gives us a lot of flexibility to do it at Caesars, and they’re just great partners to work with.

Do you find it more difficult doing this kind of festival in Las Vegas compared to other cities like Chicago or Aspen because of the large amount of entertainment options available to people?

There is certainly more entertainment competition, but with Caesars and AEG Live, we couldn’t ask for better partners because they know how to market to this crowd very well. Working with Harrah’s, they have multiple touch points throughout the city. Then you layer in TBS and our national exposure and everything we have, and if you’ve been watching the playoffs, you’ve been seeing a lot about the Comedy Festival.

How do you put together a schedule for this kind of show so people aren’t forced to decide between seeing one headliner and another?

The way we scheduled was to try to allow like audiences to go to like shows; that similar shows aren’t happening at the same time so you have the ability to go from show to show and so there is the right flow for consumers.

One unique thing this year is a roast of Cheech and Chong. It’s been a while since those two have worked together, and the celebrity roasts are very popular right now. How did you come up with this idea?

It all came about, the two of them getting back together for a tour they’re doing called Smoke Signals. We had been talking to their management and suggested the roast. They’ve never been roasted and there are so many other comedians that have been influenced by them. What better place to do it than the Comedy Festival?

It goes back to the variety. The Cheech and Chong roast is great flavor, and when you look at all of the festival, it’s a great meal. Cheech and Chong, going to a roast like that, a one-time only event makes for a great festival.

By Greg Jones

Greg Jones is managing editor of Casino Connection Nevada, as well as associate editor of Global Gaming Business magazine.