Dogwood Comedy Festival aims to be one of the Southeast's premier comedy festivals. Held at ComedyWorx, founded in 1989 in Raleigh as an improv comedy club, "DoCo" features 5 days of longform improv comedy performances from teams around the Southeast, including ComedyWorx's own house teams and its premier Armando troupe, Capital City Culture Club.

We are delighted to welcome Bianca Casusol (Second City New York, Magnet Theater, NC Theater Conservatory, and more) to DoCo! Bianca will teach four different workshops and perform in shows!

Schedule of Events:

Wednesday April 23, 2025

7:00 pm - 8:40 pm: Local Laughs

Headliner: Ladies of the Unknown
Feature: Nerd Lenz
Opener: Irish Springs Eternal

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9:00 pm - 10:40 pm: Late Night Local Laughs

Headliner: Rat People
Guest: Popcorn
Feature: Organic Panic
Opener: The Safeword is Martha Stewart

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Thursday April 24, 2025

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm: The ComedyWorx Conservatory

?The ComedyWorx Conservatory is our premier youth program. Four different teams, featuring both shortform and longform improv, will entertain and delight with the out-of-the-box thinking that children and teens excel at.

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8:30 pm - 10:00 pm: ?Comedy Game Show

Join us for a special Dogwood Comedy Festival version of The Comedy Game Show! If you blended Johnny Carson's Tonight Show with the Price is Right and threw in a sprinkling of David Lynch's weirdness, you'd get something that resembles the Comedy Game Show! It features top local comedians not only performing stellar stand-up, but battling it out in such notable games as "Press Your Duck," "Mitten Cups," "Bad Actors Studio," and the "Staircase Showdown."

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Friday April 25, 2025

8:00 pm - 9:40 pm: Friday Night Laughs

Headliner: Mavis Beacon
Feature: Mmm Hmm
Guest: Still Life
Opener: Mom's Adhesive

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10:00 pm - 11:40 pm: Late Night Laughs

Headliner: Newt Work
Feature: The Beavers
Guest: Man Candy
Opener: Bianchi and Byland

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Saturday April 26, 2025

10:00 am - 12:30 pm: WORKSHOP: Monologue Deconstruction

Bianca Casusol, our featured workshop instructor for the 2025 Dogwood Comedy Festival, started her improv journey at The Magnet (Armando Diaz's theater), and ultimately spent years in the cast of the Armando Diaz Experience. This workshop is a deep dive into tips and tricks for that specific form, based on Bianca's years of experience in the ultimate Armando-style show and theater. This workshop is appropriate for improvisers who have more than a beginner's level of longform improv experience and will focus on the Armando style of longform improv.

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1:30 pm - 4:00 pm: WORKSHOP: Surprise Party

Surprise Party is an open skill level workshop focusing on practical tips and tricks to take yourself to new and surprising places in your scenework. Scene work stale? In a character rut? We'll use our minds and bodies to play and find fun gifts to surprise ourselves and our scene partners with. We'll rediscover how joyful improv can be when there's no "right" answer. A mix of scene work and individual character exercises will leave you with the tools to create memorable and unique characters with distinct perspectives. This workshop is appropriate for improvisers who have taken at least one intro-level improv class, whether at ComedyWorx or elsewhere.

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4:00 pm - 5:40 pm: SHOW: Dogwood Comedy Festival's - Improv Jam

It's an improv Jam, hosted by Newt Work Comedy! Come see some fabulous improvisers create fun new realities. Or join them on stage yourself - we welcome audience participation at our jams! When else will you get the chance to perform with such amazing improvisers? Don't miss the fun!

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6:00 pm - 7:40 pm: SHOW: Dogwood Comedy Festival's - Capital City Culture Club

Join us for a very special edition of Capital City Culture Club, featuring improvisers from multiple teams. Special guest monologist Bianca Casusol will regale the audience with short stories. The players will then bring the short stories to life in unique, heartfelt, and hilarious ways!

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8:00 pm - 9:40 pm: SHOW: Saturday Sillies

Headliner: That Thing You Pull When You Want to Stop
Feature: Now Are the Foxes
Guest: Momentary Hedonism
Opener: SuiteTooth

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10:00 am - 11:40 pm: SHOW: Last Night Laughs

Headliner: Blue Text Bubbles
Feature: BABE
Guest: Teen Angst
Opener: Middle Rage

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Sunday April 27, 2025

10:00 am - 1:00 pm: WORKSHOP: It's Us in the End

If this was the last hour on earth, what would your character choose to do? This workshop-to-show focuses on grounded character work. With no time jumps or tag outs, the show format encourages us to explore a shared world where our characters make discoveries before we say goodbye to them together. All of our characters die at the end of every show, so let's honor that and explore that together! This workshop is appropriate for improvisers who have at least some longform improv experience and will involve performing in a show later the same day.

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2:00 pm - 4:00 pm: WORKSHOP: Make It Matter

Make It Matter is a longform improv-specific workshop focusing on longevity in scene work. This workshop will focus on finding anchors in our scenework to help us dive deeper into a character's point of view and build characters with texture that we can explore and play with for longer scenes. We'll focus on "yes and-ing" our own choices, and delving deeper and finding the beauty in even the "smaller" details and choices we make in our scenes. This workshop focuses on longform improv and is appropriate for improvisers who have taken at least one longform improv-specific intro course, whether at ComedyWorx or elsewhere.

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5:00 pm - 7:00 pm: SHOW: The Last Laugh

Headliner: Vatican City Navy
Feature: Diabolical Fishbank
Guest: Higher Education
Opener: Dome
Special Event: It's Us in the End

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Date:
April 23 - 27, 2025

Location:
ComedyWorx,
3801 Hillsborough Street Ste #121,
Raleigh, NC 27607

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