The Cologne Comedy Festival is an international comedy festival

Comedy festival

A comedy festival is a celebration of comedy with many shows, venues, comedy performers and is held over a specific block of time...

 held in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, Germany every year since 1991. The festival initially started by importing comedians from around the world. During the 1990s, stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

became popular with young German audiences, who had experienced humor whilst living outside Germany. This led to home-grown comedy acts, which in turn led to the growth of the festival, to its present point, where many of the brightest stars of German and international comedy perform to sold-out houses in over 20 venues, ranging from small clubs to large theatres. Many German comedy acts have been discovered via the festival.

Awards

The Cologne Comedy Festival has presented the annual German Comedy Prize since 1997. The Categories for the Prize are :

• Best Comedy Show
• Best Comedy Series
• Best Sketch Show
• Best Comedy Improv
• Best Actor/Actress
• Best Newcomer
• Best Comedian
• Best Comedienne
• Best Film Comedy
• Honorary Prize