The National Comedy Center

Chris and Wendy were here for the weekend and we wanted to try something a little different so we went to Jamestown, NY to the National Comedy Center. Since nearby Celeron is the birthplace of Lucille Ball the city has been celebrating comedy and had already opened the Lucy and Desi Museum. We spent about two and a half hours there and it was amazing. I highly recommend it. It was very interactive and Don and I got to star in the famous Lucy and Ethyl candy factory scene. Chris did an impromptu stand up comedy skit at a mike and drew admiring applause. 

Opened in August 2018, the National Comedy Center quickly received formal designation from the U.S. Congress as the nation’s official cultural institution dedicated to the art form of comedy, as well as a position on TIME magazine’s “World’s Greatest Places of 2019.”

The Center is also a destination for live programming, such as comedy shows, festivals and other special events that will bring people to Jamestown, especially in the more temperate seasons.

The thing that the Comedy Center does very well is present a lot of information—some might say an obsessive amount, but we are talking about comedians—accessible at many different levels, depending on a visitor’s interests (and how much time they have to spend).

National Comedy Center, 203 W. 2nd St., Jamestown, NYNational Comedy Center

Jamestown is where Lucille Ball, the beloved star of “I Love Lucy,” was born. And the Center embraces its origin story: that Ball, in her later years, insisted that any future institutions built to recognize her, also recognize “all of comedy.”

The impact of both the materials and the technology cannot be overstated. According to museum data, the average visit is 2.5 to 3 hours. You could conceivably spend all day, or even all weekend.

you have to drive to Jamestown to visit it. But a center for comedy was the dream of Lucille Ball, born and buried in Jamestown, so that's where it was built and opened on August 1, 2018.

The Puffy Shirt.

The Center is part museum, part hall of fame, and part high-tech comedy club. Visitors are given an RF "laugh band" when they enter and are instructed to create a "sense of humor profile" by tapping a series of screens. This skews what they will see, running the har-de-har gauntlet from vaudeville to sketch comedy to YouTube videos of cats.

The Center has a room with a bar where visitors can perform "comedy karaoke" by reading their favorite comedians' jokes on a stage. The "Blue Room" is devoted to adult humor; a "Stand-up Lounge" offers holograms of the famous. And there are comedy relics as well: Seinfeld's puffy shirt, Chaplin's cane, Weird Al Yankovik's accordion, a Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award from Laugh-In.

For kids -- or adults who refuse to grow up -- the Center provides a "Ham it Up" video wall that encourages funny faces (or Louis Black-inspired angry faces), and at least one bench with a secret built-in whoopee cushion

Here is another review....

As full-time travelers, we’re often skeptical when we hear about “must-see” sights. Can this museum or that hotel really be so spectacular? 

In the case of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, N.Y., the answer is a laugh-out-loud, “Yes!” 

We can understand why Time magazine listed it as one of the 100 greatest places (in the world!) to visit in 2019. It’s that good.

The National Comedy Center opened in 2018 in Lucille Ball’s hometown, four blocks from the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, a traditional display of artifacts that opened in 1996. The legendary redhead comedian, who died in 1989 at 77, had expressed a desire to see the creation of a museum celebrating all of comedy. That took 22 more years, and the two museums are now managed by one organization.

There are some classic comedy artifacts on display, like Jerry Seinfeld’s Puffy Shirt from 1993 and Carol Burnett’s cleaning lady costume. But what really sets the National Comedy Center apart from is the totally customized interactive experience. 

Upon entry, visitors create a personal “sense of humor” profile, selecting favorites on a series of touch screens from hundreds of comedians, TV shows, and movies. This information is loaded into a Laugh Band worn on the wrist to be scanned at various exhibits throughout the museum. Each visitor will see slightly different footage, depending on specific comedic preferences.