The Colorado-based event, which ran Feb. 28-March 4, offered prizes for the best of the festival's live performers. Jamie Kennedy hosted the ceremony; presenters included Mary Lynn Rajskub, Billy Baldwin, Judith Light, Dave Hill and last year’s Breakout Award winner, Eliza Coupe.
The Breakout Award Female was presented to TastiSkank (Sarah Litzsinger and Kate Reinders), and the Best One Person Show prize went to Nilaja Sun for No Child… Jennifer Westfeldt (Wonderful Town) also earned a Best Actress award (part of the USCAF Film Program's Awards) for her turn in the Best Feature winner "Ira & Abby."
Litzsinger (Beauty and the Beast, Amour) and Reinders (Wicked, Gypsy) performed at the Feb. 28 "Fat City Lounge" as TastiSkank, their music-comedy duo. Billed as "the rockin' love child of Tenacious D and the Indigo Girls," TastiSkank performed songs from their repertoire including "The Sex Song" and "I Heart Dirty Boys."
Nilaja Sun performed her current Off-Broadway work No Child..., Feb. 28- March 4. (The show did not perform in New York while Sun was at the festivities.)
Hal Brooks directed No Child, which is billed as "an unflinching look into the New York City public school system... [in which Sun transforms] into the teachers, students, parents, administrators, janitors, and security guards who inhabit our public schools every day and are shaping the future of America." Also featured at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival was Alan Zweibel, who contributed to Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. The Emmy Award winner and original "Saturday Night Live" writer performed his new one-man show, Alan Zweibel: The History of Me, which concerns his SNL career.
For more information, visit the official U.S. Comedy Arts Festival website at www.hbocomedyfestival.com.