Comedy Central launching Twitter comedy festival

Comedy Central is launching #ComedyFest, a comedy festival programmed with Twitter.

The US cable channel’s five-day event will run between April 29 and May 3. It will kick off with a live stream of a comedy show filmed in Beverly Hills and featuring Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Judd Apatow.

It will follow Brooks as he sets up a Twitter account and fields questions from the public via the social networking site.

The event will be shown on Comedy Central’s website and all concerned will be tweeting throughout.

Comedy Central said there will be 16 events in all through the week and 50 comedians will feature.

Other confirmed shows include Ben Hoffman Tweets on Ambien in which the titular comedian “will take you inside the medication-addled mind of Ben Hoffman” and I Figured Out the Internet: Secrets of My Twitter Success, a half-hour panel discussion featuring various Twitter celebrities.

“Twitter has become an essential medium for comedy and comedians,” said Michele Ganeless, president, Comedy Central. “#ComedyFest will exist in the twittersphere – creating comedy that lives on social media. It’s a great extension for our brand; it’s where our audience lives.”

Fred Graver, head of TV at Twitter, said: “Awesome to have @ComedyCentral on-air and on Twitter celebrating comedians and the rise of 140 character comedy. Please RT.”