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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DENVER COMEDY GROUP TO BOYCOTT ASPEN COMEDY FRINGE FESTIVAL ASPEN, COLORADO - March 18, 2002 A.C.E., a Denver based comedy trio, announced that it plans to boycott itself at the 2002 Aspen Comedy Fringe Festival. The annual festival, now in its fourth year, runs concurrently to HBO's US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. A.C.E., a three time winner at the festival, claims the self-produced Comedy Fringe Festival has become too commercial and has lost sight of what the word "fringe" really means. "We're all about smoozing now, getting to know the in people. And that's just not right," says Barbara Gehring, the Canadian contingent of the trio. A.C.E. first invited themselves to their festival back in 1999 and were elated when they awarded themselves first place. Each year A.C.E. stands in a class of its own as all other performing groups do not even make the first round of invitations. "We used to sit on pins and needles every year on the day the invitations come out. Just because we produce the festival doesn't necessarily mean we'll be invited. But this year when we invited ourselves, it felt like it was all about the money." says Matthew Taylor, the Englishman of the group. To draw attention to their issues, A.C.E. plans on heading to Aspen during the festival to stage a demonstration involving some sort of viscous goo and a monkey. A.C.E. would not comment further on their plans. Linda Klein of the Fringe Festival Committee, as well as the
American third of A.C.E., stated that A.C.E. has misinterpreted
the committee's movement to rename the festival to "The
Invesco Comedy Fringe Festival at Aspen" as a sign that
the festival is going commercial. Klein said nothing could be
further from the truth…and she means it. A statement which
could be applied to this press release in general. |