The voice behind the duck in AFLAC Insurance commercials is coming to Penn.
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried will headline Mask and Wig Club's eighth annual Intercollegiate Comedy Festival on April 4 and 5, ComFest co-Director and College junior David Fraga said.
A former Saturday Night Live cast member, Gottfried has appeared in a variety of comedy films, ranging from Beverly Hills Cop to Problem Child. He also regularly appears on the game show Hollywood Squares.
But Gottfried is perhaps best known for his distinctive voice.
"His voice is kind of grating, but that's what makes him funny to listen to," College freshman Tyler Morgan-Wall said.
Gottfried will be, however, far from the event's only attraction.
"We're expanding the event into a large festival, with multiple stages and multiple genres," Fraga said.
The festival will kick off on April 4 with a showing of comedy documentary The Aristocrats and a question-and-answer session with the film's director, College alumnus and former Mask and Wig member Paul Provenza.
Provenza will host an improvisational comedy show at Mask and Wig's Center City clubhouse following the screening. Penn improv group Without a Net will perform with troupes from several other universities.
Gottfried will host a sketch-comedy show in Irvine Auditorium the following night.
He worked with Provenza in The Aristocrats, which depicts famous comedians telling their own versions of a raunchy joke that centers on a vulgar circus act. In the film, Gottfried tells the joke at a 2001 Comedy Central roast of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Mask and Wig will perform with Gottfried next Wednesday night along with groups from Yale, the University of Maryland and the University of Chicago.
Yale junior Justin Noble, a member of the participating comedy group Fifth Humour, said he is eagerly anticipating the festival.
"I'm very much looking to performing," Noble said. "It seems like there's a great comedy scene at" Penn.
And a name like Gottfried's is likely to draw a crowd, Fraga said.
College junior Eugene Braude said he is planning to see the sketch comedy show specifically because of Gottfried.
"Gilbert Gottfried is a funny guy," Braude said. "The Aristocrats is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen."
Tickets for both the improv and sketch-comedy shows go on sale today on Locust Walk.
Tickets for the sketch-comedy show on April 5 are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets to the April 4 improv show are $5, but attendees can save $1 by purchasing tickets to both at the same time.
The film screening is free for students.
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