Festival Features Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Tiffany Haddish, Howie Mandel, Aidy Bryant and More
You can invite an all-star comedy line-up into your own home when Hollywood comes to Western New York. (courtesy of National Comedy Center)
For those running out of TV shows to binge watch look no further than Western New York! Jamestown, NY’s very own National Comedy Center’s Annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival is going virtual this year and inviting everyone to watch their events via their new online platform and Facebook Live.
Over 30 artists from stand-up, theater, television and film will participate in all-new, candid, in-depth conversations about their work, careers, influences and the art of comedy. The festival kicked off this past Friday with the likes of Jay Leno, Roy Wood Jr and Margaret Cho. Upcoming events feature Lewis Black, Aidy Bryant, Kelly Carlin, Frank DeCaro, Bill Engvall, Jimmy Fallon, Kate Flannery, Gilbert Gottfried, Tiffany Haddish, Penn Jillette, Howie Mandel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Flame Monroe, Paula Poundstone, Kenan Thompson, “Weird Al” Yankovic and many more.
The virtual festival will also recognize founding National Comedy Center Advisory Board Member and comedy legend Carl Reiner, who passed away just six weeks ago, by featuring a long-form interview with exclusive, never-before-seen footage of Carl directly from the Comedy Center Archives. All programs will be available free online via live stream at the National Comedy Center’s new online platform, National Comedy Center Anywhere, at ComedyCenter.org/Festival as well as via Facebook Live on the National Comedy Center’s Facebook page.
“The mission of the National Comedy Center is to provide education on the comedic arts in the form of commentary and contextualization of its bodies of work, telling the vital story of comedy in America across all eras and genres of the art form,” stated National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson. “As a non-profit cultural institution, the museum celebrates comedy’s great minds and unique voices, while providing an examination of the time-honed creative processes that have elevated comedy to an art. I can’t think of a better way to tell the story of comedy than via these artists’ voices, at a time when we all need laughter more than ever.”
Opened in August 2018 in Jamestown, New York, the National Comedy Center is the nation’s official cultural institution based on Lucille Ball’s vision for her hometown of Jamestown, NY to become a destination for the celebration of comedy. The museum complex offers an unprecedented visitor experience using state-of-the-art technology, interactivity and personalization to create the first true 21st Century museum environment. The Center encourages donations to support the museum and the Center’s mission of presenting the vital story of comedy in America, preserving its heritage for future generations.
For the official Festival schedule and more information on the museum please visit www.comedycenter.org.
