The Comedy Festival wrapped up its second year on the Strip on Saturday, and I wish it could be every week.

Wait, you say. Isn't it already?

Comedy is the one area where Las Vegas consistently gets the hottest names. It has been that way from Joe E. Lewis cracking 'em up at the El Rancho Vegas, to Dane Cook's back-to-back Friday shows in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Or look at it this way: Beyond all the Comedy Festival events, Dana Carvey and Craig Ferguson also were in town this weekend, doing their thing in regular, unrelated bookings.

But we can always do better, and the festival opens the door to possibilities.

Las Vegas comedy tends to be all stand-up, falling into two categories: The "brick wall-and-stool" clubs with weekly lineups, and theater shows by headliners.

Based on very scientific evidence -- i.e., I don't hear friends and co-workers talk about going anymore -- the clubs seem to have gone stale.

And there's a huge gap in the middle. It's rare to find anything between Journeyman Club Comic and Ray Romano. When it does happen, it's a fluke. Longtime comic Chris Bliss thanks a "viral video" of his juggling routine for a Labor Day gig at the Suncoast.

The festival points to other alternatives, made possible by media deals on the back end.

Casinos love stand-up acts because they're cheap. They balk at the idea of paying a union band to back up Don Rickles: He tells jokes. Why does he need music?

Comedians can work in front of a curtain, without disturbing a resident show. Even the Blue Man Group got in on the time-sharing act a couple of weeks ago by subletting to Shawn Wayans.

But that tends to limit the range of comedy. Unless, perhaps, there's a secondary market for more things such as "The Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up!"

The festival didn't promote "A Salute to the Troops" until the last minute, because ticket sales didn't pay for the TBS broadcast. AOL and HBO have announced a new broadband site called This Just In, which will replace the AOL Comedy channel. Where better to generate programming?

You'd think the success of all this comedy would embolden casinos to take a chance on more emotionally resonant "long-form" comedy, such as Billy Crystal's "700 Sundays."

But casino audiences just want the cheap, raunchy laugh, right? Wrong, says Bill Maher.

"Every time I play Vegas we do well," says Maher, who has made no secret he wants to do a late-night show here every month or two.

Maher doesn't believe casinos are afraid of political humor. Instead, he thinks "they don't want to keep people out of the casinos at that (late) hour. That's when they're drunk and losing."

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.