JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — The National Comedy Center will present its Lucille Ball Comedy Festival virtually this year, featuring conversations with a diverse lineup of artists, starting this Friday and streaming over three weekends throughout August.
Over 30 artists from stand-up, theater, television and film will be featured in all-new, candid, in-depth conversations about their work, careers, influences and the art of comedy, including Lolly Adefope, Lewis Black, Aidy Bryant, Kelly Carlin, Margaret Cho, Frank DeCaro, Anna Drezen, Ophira Eisenberg, Bill Engvall, Jimmy Fallon, Kate Flannery, Wayne Federman, Judy Gold, Gilbert Gottfried, Harrison Greenbaum, Tiffany Haddish, Sam Jay, Penn Jillette, Jay Leno, Howie Mandel, Charles McBee, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Flame Monroe, Paula Poundstone, Mark Russell, Dulce Sloan, Kenan Thompson, Roy Wood, Jr., Rutledge Wood, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Alan Zweibel, and legendary creative team members from Mad Magazine.
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 with Reiner 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: Facebook.com/NationalComedyCenter. Following each live stream, these programs will remain available for free, on-demand viewing on the National Comedy Center Anywhere platform.
The non-profit National Comedy 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. Visit ComedyCenter.org/Donate.
“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.”