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THEATRE TO FILL WITH SOUND OF LAUGHTER AT 11 TH COMEDY FESTIVAL
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(NORFOLK, Neb.) - Laughter, lots of laughter, is on the agenda at the 11 th annual Great American Comedy Festival June 14 th -16 th at the Johnny Carson Theatre in Norfolk. The festival begins Thursday, June 14 th , with the Comedy Magic Show featuring Ben Seidman, Curt Miller and Greg Dow. Friday’s schedule includes the Comedy Showcase with master mimic/comedian Rich Little as headliner at the theatre. An adults-only Late Night Show at 10 at Divots follows the Friday Showcase. Activities return to the Johnny Carson Theatre Saturday at 7 for the Comedy Festival Gala featuring Joel McHale as headliner. 

Rich Little has been described as the master mimic of more than 200 voices, including U.S. presidents like Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama and others like Dr. Phil, Sylvester Stallone and Jack Nicholson. The Comedy Festival is a tribute to the legacy of Norfolk’s favorite son, Johnny Carson, and Little guest- hosted “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” 12 times. McHale starred in the comedy series,“Community,”which aired for five years on NBC and one season on Yahoo. He also starred for 12 years in E!s “The Soup,” a satirical look at pop culture and current events. He currently stars in a weekly Netflix show, “The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale.”

Friday night host and opener Jeff Caldwell will introduce Little on the Johnny Carson stage. The late comedy legend George Carlin described Caldwell as both smart and funny after seeing him at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York. Caldwell has hosted ESPN’s “Sports Figures.” He has also performed his standup routines on “Conan,” ESPN’s “The Lighter Side of Sports” and A & E’s, “An Evening at the Improv.” 

Caldwell has also made three appearances on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and appeared six times on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” where he was described as one of Dave’s favorite acts. He is also in demand on the college circuit and has toured nationally with Jon Stewart.

He is known nationwide as a clean, clever comedian and has been a keynote speaker at
Fortune-500 events around the country.  A former civil and environmental engineer, he also blogs at
the “Huffington Post,” commenting humorously on scientific topics affecting the world today.

Andy Erikson returns to the Great American Comedy Festival after being a finalist at the 2013 festival. She says her love for cats and unicorns is only surpassed by her love of performing standup comedy. In 2015, she placed third in season nine of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and, in 2016, she played Chanel #7 on Ryan Murphy’s television series, “Scream Queens,” on Fox. She has been a semi-finalist for an Andy Kaufman Award and won several comedy competitions. She has also appeared on “The Guest List: Live from the Barrel House,” on Seeso,
the NBC/Universal online enterprise. 

Francisco Ramos will also appear at Friday’s Comedy Showcase. Ramos is the 2016 winner of the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival in Jamestown, N.Y., and performed in the 2015 Cabo Comedy Festival in Cabo, Mexico, and the New York Comedy Festival, in New York, N.Y. 

He has also been a Top Ten finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and performed featured sketches on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He has performed his standup sketches on the Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) Comedy Tour in Afghanistan and Kyrgyztan, at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, Cal., The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and San Diego, and at The Improv at venues across the country. 

Saturday’s Comedy Festival Gala will also include standup sketches by Kellen Erskine and Taylor Tomlinson.
Erskine was featured on season seven of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” He, too, has been a finalist at the Great American Comedy Festival and the San Francisco International Comedy Competition. He has also performed at the prestigious Bridgetown Comedy Festival. He opens regularly for comedian Frank Caliendo on FOX’s “NFL Sunday.” In February of this year, he made his late night TV standup debut on TBS’ “Conan.” His jokes have also appeared in many publications, including the “Reader’s Digest.” 

​At just 23 years of age, Tomlinson can currently be seen as a series regular on MTV’s “Safe Word.” She was recently featured on the Comedy Central series, “Adam Devine’s House Party.” She was also a Top Ten finalist on season nine of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and was
recently honored as a New Face at the prestigious Montreal Comedy Festival, where her performance was described as “undoubtedly the set of the night.” 

Tomlinson is a popular performer at comedy clubs, colleges and corporate events across the country because of her self-deprecating charm and conversational wit. Her stage presence is said to be matched by her surprisingly honed and authentic point-of- view, one that emphasizes how wildly normal she can be in a wildly bizarre world.
The 11 th annual Great American Comedy Festival is presented by Nucor Vulcraft Nebraska, Cold Finish Nebraska, Nucor Steel Nebraska, and Nucor Detailing Center.

Lisa Wattier is festival chairperson. For more information and tickets, visit www.greatamericancomedy festival.com or call
402-370- 8004.

​(NORFOLK, Neb.) – Promoters again promise a magical evening during the Great
American Comedy Festival’s Comedy Magic Show Thursday, June 14.
Curt Miller, Greg Dow and Ben Seidman will perform at the opening event of the 11th
annual comedy festival. The Comedy Magic Show is at 7 p.m. at the Johnny Carson Theatre, as
are the shows on Friday and Saturday, June 15-16.

The festival is presented by Nucor Vulcraft Nebraska, Cold Finish Nebraska, Nucor Steel
Nebraska, and Nucor Detailing Center.

Professional magician and comedian Miller performs at corporate and special events all over the
country.  He combines illusions, clean comedy, and audience interaction to provide a program described
as pure entertainment. 

Miller began his magic career at age of 11 and spent his teen years performing all over northern
Indiana and Ohio before moving to Houston, Texas, to earn a degree in theatre from the University of
Houston. He still resides in Houston.vHe has performed on national television on The Disney Channel and been a featured magician at Magic Island. He has entertained more than 100,000 people over 10 years with his Grand Illusion Show at Moody Gardens in Galveston.

He has also performed for corporations like ExxonMobil, Continental Airlines, Shell, Dell
Computers, HP, and Coca-Cola at corporate events. He says he has even fooled the rocket scientists at
NASA.

Media materials said Miller’s passion for entertainment and love for his audiences come through
in each performance, as young and old are equally entertained and amazed.  He says his tagline sums it
up: Magic + Comedy = Entertainment!

With over 20 years’ experience as an entertainer, mentalist, comedian and magician, Dow is
currently the resident magician at the LINQ on the Las Vegas strip, as well as The Desert Club Resort.
His television appearances on Masters of Illusion, Fool Us with Penn & Teller, and SyFy's
Wizard Wars are among the top rated episodes of all time, with over 10 million TV and online
views.

Dow has worked with Motley Crue in their residency at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. In
his alter-ego The Shocker, he has performed Halloween week at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and
headlines the Sapphire Comedy Hour in Las Vegas.

He has performed magic for celebrities like The Rock, Jeff Ross from Comedy Central and
Sheldon Adleson, owner of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. He has entertained for companies like
Disney, Chevrolet, and the Chicago Bulls. Promoters say his quick wit and connection with the audience
create a magical experience the audience will never forget.

Drew Carey, the 2013 Great American Comedy Festival Gala headliner, describes Dow’s work as
“amazing!” Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has described him as “thoroughly entertaining.”
Dow holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and resides in Las Vegas.
With his sleight-of- hand magic and stand-up comedy act, Seidman has also appeared on
Penn & Teller’s Fool Us on the CW Network and starred in two specials on The Travel
Channel.  He was the highest rated performer for Princess Cruises and won its Entertainer of
the Year title in 2015.

He is the only person in history to be named the Resident Magician at Mandalay Bay,
Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. After several thousand performances at numerous luxury casinos,
he is known as a powerful staple of the Vegas entertainment scene.

Now based in Los Angeles, Seidman continues to bring his one-man show across the
world.  He has headlined at the Atlantis Resort & Casino in the Bahamas and The Royalton
Riviera in Cancun.  He has also been voted Best Small Venue Artist by Campus Activities
Magazine. He spent three months in Stockholm, Sweden, writing and directing magic for SVT,
the biggest TV channel in Sweden.

Seidman is also a favorite at the world-famous Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa
Beach, Cal., a headliner at Catch a Rising Star, and a frequent performer at the Magic Castle in
Hollywood. He has been featured in two Just For Laughs tours spanning 23 cities across Canada
and appears in a feature film documenting the tour.

The Great American Comedy Festival was created in 2008 to pay tribute to the legacy of
Norfolk’s favorite son, Johnny Carson. “Johnny Carson was a tremendous influence on me as a
performer, said Magician Miller. “As a young magician I would stay up late and study Johnny to
learn how he made performing seem so effortless and why his audiences loved him so much? He
always made us feel like there was nowhere else he’d rather be?

“I’d study his comedy timing, his phrasing, and his use of language. But mostly I studied
how he treated his guests. Johnny knew what few comedians then (and now) know: the better
your guest looks, the better YOU look!” Miller continued.

“I carry forth his philosophy today. When I have volunteers on stage, I do everything
within my power to make them have fun and look good! I set them up to get laughs and let them
insert their own jokes when possible. I thank Johnny Carson for teaching me this valuable
lesson. I miss him, but how lucky were we to have him entertaining and delighting us for so
many years?

“The people of Norfolk must be very proud, and I’m looking forward to meeting them"
Miller concluded.

Austen Hagood and Chase Pflueger have served as talent bookers for this year’s Great
American Comedy Festival. Festival Board of Directors officers include Lisa Wattier,
chairperson; Becky Wacker, vice chair; Linda Libengood, treasurer, and Jean Hopkins, secretary.

“I have said it before and will say it again many times,” said Wattier, also 2018 festival
chairperson. “Austen and Chase have done an outstanding job finding great talent for this year’s
festival. Their efforts will help us continue the sterling reputation established by the first 10
Great American Comedy Festivals.”