Sarah Silverman, raunchy puppets and the finals of an Internet comedy contest are among the latecomers to the schedule for The Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace Nov. 15-18.

Silverman will perform with "Magical Friends Wierdo and Beardo" (Brian Posehn and Zach Galifianakis) on Nov. 18. The Nov. 15 "Puppet Up!" offers adults-only improv comedy with puppets from the Jim Henson Company. Seems only fair for the Henson folk to strike back at "Avenue Q," which parodied "Sesame Street."

George Lopez will host the "Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge" on Nov. 15. The finals of a MySpace competition will be shown on TBS the next day. "Viral Videos Live!" on Nov. 17 will invite stars of frequently downloaded videos to perform live.

The edgy, divisive Silverman gives the festival an extra push to stand out on the Strip, where many of the featured performers -- Dane Cook, Kathy Griffin, Don Rickles -- already have performed in the past six months.

Co-producer John Meglen, president of AEG Live, said the festival "has to be looked upon as the sum of the parts. ... It's everything about comedy, not just about who can line up the big headliners."

He compares it to the annual Coachella music festival in the desert near Palm Springs, Calif. "It's a week of coming and enjoying comedy. ... And it blows Montreal and Aspen out of the water," he said, referring to the Just For Laughs and HBO Comedy Festival, respectively. ...

Producer Greg Thompson said he was "kind of shellshocked" after both of his Las Vegas shows closed in the same weekend.

Thompson said Harrah's Entertainment bought out his remaining contract for "Erocktica" at the Rio to make room for pop star Prince, who is said to be leasing Club Rio.

And Thompson closed "Bareback" at Harrah's Las Vegas before Monday, when his contract would have changed to pass all costs to him. Thompson said he was fine with that, but not with inheriting a dispute between Harrah's and a third party over the show's graphic logo.

About 30 cast and crew members are temporarily out of work. Freed from a no-compete clause with Harrah's, Thompson is shopping both topless revues elsewhere on the Strip. Both shows are profitable with modest margins of 200 people per night, and "Bareback" had been running closer to counts of 280 or 300, he said.

"I'm seeing the beginning of the end for revue shows in Las Vegas," said the Seattle-based producer, who was Harrah's go-to guy in Las Vegas and other casino cities before the company grew by swallowing Caesars Entertainment. Name stars such as Prince and Toni Braxton are "going to be the flavor of the month for awhile," he added.

The Prince deal also affects afternoon headliner Jeff Trachta, who will move across the casino to the Chippendales Theater starting today.

Earlier this week, Harrah's wouldn't go on the record about Prince. The legalities of getting signatures on a contract have apparently dragged on and on.

Nonetheless, the decision to use Club Rio instead of, say, the bigger Penn & Teller theater is starting to make more sense in light of what Thompson was told, as well as the Prince shows at the Rio and Empire Ballroom last Memorial Day weekend.

Prince probably won't guarantee performances and so won't follow the casino model of Elton John or Barry Manilow. Instead, it sounds like he will lease the room and possibly the adjacent Fiore Steakhouse, rebranding them with a name such as Club 3121.

On nights the Purple One performs there himself, admission will be upward of $120. But when Prince is on tour or otherwise indisposed, proteges such as singer Tamar or acts within the extended family -- such as Morris Day & The Time -- will fetch a $31.21 ticket.

Negotiations for a similar deal were made public this summer by the operator of the Empire Ballroom, a free-standing nightclub on the Strip. Talks didn't go beyond the Prince shows there May 27 and 28. Those shows came the night after Prince teamed with Day at Club Rio.

He was said to have liked the purple color scheme.

Turning the entire room over to Prince will help the Rio sidestep any content issues. The Memorial Day shows were typical of Prince sets in small venues: light on hits, heavy on extended jamming.

While longtime fans will swoon for such workouts in a cozy setting, there's the issue of how well it will translate to casino tourists who expect concise showcases of hits, a la John's "Red Piano" shows. ...

The Sahara is pulling "Redneck Comedy Live!" after Saturday to enable producer Bill Caron to "make some content changes," according to a news release. The quartet of country comedians was booked through the National Finals Rodeo in December.

If the show returns before then, it probably will be with a stronger headliner to close. The current four stand-ups were more "middle acts" who lacked the knockout punch of a headliner. ...

Finally, a local Halloween tradition continues. Magician Dixie Dooley will pick up that metaphysical phone and attempt to ring up Harry Houdini, in a Tuesday seance at 12:30 p.m. at Zingers, 1000 E. Sahara Ave.

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