August 4, 2026 • 17 mins
On today’s episode, Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, N.Y. – Lucille Ball’s hometown -- explains why it’s important to have an institution devoted to the study of comedy. Jamestown will be abuzz with laughs as the center hosts the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival Aug. 7-9 headlined by Jerry Seinfeld, Bert Kreischer and Seth Meyers.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, August fourth, twenty
twenty six. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
editor in chief of WRITY alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
LA He's in New York, and Bridy has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:32):
we'll hear from Jerney Gunderson. She is executive director of
the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York that happens
to be the hometown of lu Seale Ball. And this weekend,
the National Comedy Center is hosting its annual lu Seale
Ball Comedy Festival, which runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The
headliners this year are Jerry Seinfeld, Bert Kreischer, and Seth Myers.
(00:55):
The National Comedy Center is a first of its kind
institution devoted to the study of comedy, and it opened
its doors in twenty eighteen. We'll talk about plans for
this year's festival and the growth of the institution, but
before we get to that, here are a few headlines
just in this morning that you need to know. Paramount's
Guidance CEO David Ellison has spoken out on the legal
(01:18):
drama surrounding his effort to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery. This
deal has been drenched in politics from the start. In
an op ed published in The New York Times on
Tuesday morning, he goes right to the heart of what
he sees as the political issue that spurred twelve state
attorney generals to file suit to block the deal. He
sees the big issue coming down to the ownership of CNN.
(01:42):
Ellison asserts in the op ed that he will quote
not bend newsrooms to my view end quote. He also asserts,
quote I believe that news should be based on facts
and truth end quote. We'll get a little more insight
on what's going on at Paramounts guid Dance later today
when the company reports its second quarter earnings after the bell,
but business march is on at Paramount, Viola Davis has
(02:05):
cut a deal to starr in and executive produce the
new Paramount Plus series Ascent. She'll play an elite corporate
fixer in the series from veteran screenwriter John Logan and
Paramount Television Studios. Davis, of course, won an Emmy for
her work on ABC's How to Get Away with Murder
in twenty fifteen, not that there was much doubt, but
(02:26):
in fact, spider Man Brand New Day has crossed the
one billion dollar mark at the global box office in
just six days. Only Avengers Endgame got to that mark
faster in twenty nineteen. All of these stories and so
much more can be found on varietay dot com right
now and now it's time for conversations with industry leaders
(02:53):
about news and trends and show business Today. My guest
is Jerney Gunderson, executive director of the Nash Comedy Center.
The Center is both a hands on museum and a
repository of papers and memorabilia for such legends as George Carlin,
Carl Reiner, and most recently, mel Brooks. Gunderson is the
dynamo that got the museum up and on its feet
(03:16):
and to open its doors in twenty eighteen. She's done
so much work to build ties with the comedy community
in New York, Los Angeles and throughout the country. I've
been to the National Comedy Center, and I can assure
that for comedy buffs, it's worth the trek to Jamestown
in beautiful Western New York. Jereny Gunderson, thank you so
(03:37):
much for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You are getting ready for a fun filled, action packed
week as you host the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival
that is presented by the National Comedy Center, which you
head and have run now for almost going on ten years.
I know from experience how much fun the National Comedy
Center is, how important it is to really capturing and
(04:01):
putting into its proper historical social cultural context the importance
of comedy. That's right, Yes, let's talk about this year's
lucille Ball off. This Jamestown is in fact the birthplace
of America's most famous redhead, Lucille Ball. So you have
incredible headliners like Jerry Seinfeldbert Kreischer, Seth Meyers. What's new
(04:23):
and different this year?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I always tell people that there's no substitute for experiencing
live comedy, and yet we operate a museum of comedy
year round, and so there's no better way to spend
a few days than seeing live comedy in the evening,
but being able to consider it within the context of
the whole of the art form and any artist you're
(04:45):
seeing live, you're also connecting the dots to the entire
pantheon of our history and heritage in this great art form,
and I think that transforms the experience. It makes it
much more profound.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Even before the Comedy Center was opened in twenty eighteen,
the fest all existed and get top names. Is it
the Lucy connection that brings you such I mean, these
are marquee comedy names in any city, let alone Jamestown,
New York.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yes, I do think that this date on any comedians
calendar has become something different, and the idea that one
can come and perform, whether it's Seth Myers or Bert
Kreischer or Jerry Seinfeld in a place that has taken
up the mantle to tell comedy story and give it
the museum treatment it has long deserved, to the place
(05:32):
that has established the archive that never existed before. I
do think that that sets us apart from any other
city that an artist is touring and performing within, and
so that does help. I think now people word has
gotten out in the artist community that you have to
make ample time to traverse the galleries of the National
(05:52):
Comedy Center when you come and perform at the Lucia
Wall Comedy Festival in Jamestown. That's my favorite part of
the job is touring comedians themselves. When John Stewart toured
the museum before headlining the festival last year, he just said,
no one's ever done this for us before, no one
has done this. I think it felt profound to him
this realization as he was walking through the museum that
(06:15):
it wasn't until twenty eighteen that anybody opened a museum
that tells the story of this art form. And so
I lay awake many nights wondering if perhaps building something
formal and institutional for the group of people most apt
to lampoon anything formal or institutional, was perhaps a bad idea.
And yet here we are.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
It's been many years, but I have been to the
festival because Jamestown is a it's not a tiny city,
but it's not a big city. And because of that,
it just feels like the whole town is a buzz
with again these big names that must be very exciting
for the larger Jamestown community, which I know you are
in a very important hub.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yes, every year at the comedy festival we see ticket
buyer zip codes from more than forty states presented. And
you know, Jamestown is a within a day's drive of
more than a third of the US population. So while
it's a destination, people are showing up in droves. It
only took three weeks to see visitors from all fifty
(07:14):
states to the National Comedy Center when we opened. And finally,
there is a place for a comedy nerd to go
and to take a deep dive. And when we were
designing the museum, we said, we've got a design for
the skimmers, the swimmers, and the divers, and that's more
of a museum design term than a comedy term. But
we wanted to make sure that if somebody came through
the museum who was a Carl and fan, for example,
(07:36):
for whom this is mecca, that they could spend hours
deep diving through his joke notes, of which we have
scanned tens of thousands. You can explore those joke files.
But if you're a nineteen year old kid with his
family on a road trip and you're not sure why
you're supposed to yet care about George Carlin or Carl
Reiner or Melbrooks, et cetera, that we also communicated to
(07:56):
that museum visitor that's our job is to elevate the
reverence and respect for this art form and its artists.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Well, I don't want to blow it for future visitors,
but there is a very fun setup that allows you
to be part of let's just say, a very famous
episode of I Love Lucy you referenced George Carlin, Carl Reiner,
mel Brooks. The National Comedy Center in recent years has
acquired their papers, has acquired their archives, And to your
(08:22):
point about John Stewart recognizing the significance of this, it's
a repository of things that maybe in the past weren't
seen as that worth preserving in a museum fashion, but
certainly are now. Is that a level up going into
what you'd planned in opening the National Comedy Center or
was that always a goal?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
That was always the goal and we knew there was
a void of anybody taking responsibility for conservation and preservation
in this way. I think most people agree that comedy
history is important, but also assume that important things somehow
get saved automatically and they don't. Pres does not happen passively.
(09:01):
Someone has to decide to preserve something before it's lost,
and that is why we built the National archive. There's
an urgency to this conservation work as well, so that
it can be around for future generations to learn from.
Mel Brooks is a great example. The collection of Melbrook's
archives is more than one hundred and fifty thousand documents,
(09:23):
including more than five thousand photographs. And when addressing why
this matters and why that's important just in his case,
I think from a very early age, mel Brooks knew
how to wield comedy to take back power. His ability
to fearlessly satirize the atrocities of war and the horrors
of humanity not only helped heal a post World War
(09:46):
two nation, it was It's a playbook. We want future
generations to have that this is a method of processing,
it's a method of grieving, but it's also as a
way of taking power or back from a situation. And
mel Brooks could blend what some might consider lowbrow slapstick
(10:07):
with high brow satire like no other. And I'm glad
he's still doing it to this day.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
If I recall right journey, Kelly Carlin was really key.
As I recalled, George Carlin's papers were the first big
collection that you acquired. That must have been a leap
of faith for her to give her father's most treasured,
her father's life work to a museum.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes, I'd heard that Kelly was preserving herself her father's archive,
and I also knew that George Carlin was an archivist
of his own career. He saved everything, and I had
heard the legends of the way his system of joke
files with ziplock baggies and scraps of paper, hotel stationary
(10:49):
bar napkins, sometimes a scrap of paper no larger than
a quarter organized in his own hand, with labels that
said things like religion, death, stupid pace words. And so
I reached out to Kelly and visited and got to
know her. She got to know a little bit about
what our vision was. And Kelly always said, this was
(11:10):
the right decision because they're doing it for the right reasons.
These people are in it for the right reasons. It's
a nonprofit. They seek to elevate this as an art
form and position it for study and make it accessible.
She said that she knew that if she gave it
to a different institution, it might just end up like
that scene in Raids of the Lost Arc, where it's
(11:30):
maybe being preserved in a basement somewhere, But really, what's
the point unless people can learn from it and engage
with it? And that was really validating, But also it
was a key domino to your point.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Do scholars come and want to look through if they're
working on something? Do you have that access for people
that are doing research?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We do. We do, and anyone can make an appointment
to research within the archives. And we've worked with documentary
filmmakers like Amy Poehler and Chad Appatou. In Amy's case
her dot Or documentary on Lucy and Desi, which was
so good, yes, and in Judd's case on his documentary
about George Carlin and now on mel Brooks. What's interesting
(12:08):
is that we see academics and researchers and students of
all ages. So now we do field trips throughout the museum.
We have a lot of college courses for whom this
is a destination and also something they're tying their curricula to.
So it's great to play the role of the institution
that presents comedy in a way that it can really
be learned from and studied. And the other thing that
(12:30):
I think the museum achieves and that was a compass
for us is that good comedy looks easy. So for
casual consumers of comedy, everyone kind of thinks that comedians
are winging it, and it's just the opposite. Anybody who
works in comedy knows that there is such a great
deal of precision to doing this well. And that was
again something that we hope to do with the exhibits
(12:51):
was pull back the curtain on the process of this
art form and in doing so engender and visitors or
respect for the artists and the creators.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Does the Center have an endowment? How is it funded?
Is it through grants and public donations?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yes, the center has an endowment. No one pays us
to do this work. It is our job not just
to do the preservation, but to figure out a way
to sustain the effort. And so every day I'm spending
as much time overseeing the preservation and the conservation and
the curation and the storytelling that takes place within the
museum as I am finding the next underwriter of this work,
(13:28):
sponsor of this work, and donor to the endowment.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Has institutional Hollywood been helpful to you?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, yes it has. Certainly that's a job made harder
by the geography of Jamestown. We aren't right in la
or New York, but once people visit, they get it.
I think every headliner of our festival, every comedic artist,
once they have toured, has become a donor. And that's
again really validating. They're walking through the museum, they're learning
(13:56):
about the archive, and they're understanding again, like John Stewart said,
has done this for us before, and this is also
work you want to be done by a nonprofit. And
so from the very beginning, we've taken the approach of
being more of an art museum and a history museum
than a hall of fame. And I remember Kelly Carlin
saying that many entities had approached her with more of
(14:17):
a hard rock cafe vision of putting her father's materials
on display, and I think she always knew it was
better suited for something much more comprehensive and that could
have an impact more profound.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It's a serious effort to study, as you said, the precision,
the timing, the cultural moment. It absolutely warrants that. I
know that the National Comedy Center has been one of
the biggest things to come to Jamestown in a long time.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Lucile Ball deserves from some credit. Many No, she was
a really savvy businesswoman in addition to being a great comedian.
And she was the one who said to Jamestown decades ago,
don't just make a museum about me. Don't make it
just a shrine to Lucy. Make Jamestown a desk the
nation for the study and celebration of all comedy. And
(15:03):
so I think we were wise as a community to
listen to that. And we joked recently that she made
her hometown every comedian's hometown, because what's in your hometown?
All that stuff you saved. So this is where the
comedy keepsakes now live, and thank goodness, now comedians have
a new hometown in the National Comedy Center Archives and
museum journey.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Thank you so much for your time and keep in touch.
Thank you for having me. As we close out today's episode,
here's a few things we're watching for Disney reports its
earnings before the Bell on Wednesday, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Versust Media,
(15:42):
Fox Corp, Lionsgate, and Roku all go on Thursday. Bill Hayter,
the very talented multi hyphenate, will deliver a keynote address
at Variety's upcoming Entertainment and Technology Summit in Los Angeles
on September seventeenth. Dayly Variety listeners rest assured you will
be hearing more about this summit in the coming weeks.
(16:03):
Turner Classic Movies is launching a Friday night documentary showcase
Films on Film. It'll be hosted by Ben Mankowitz. It
will debut September fourth, with the twenty twenty five retrospective
Charles Grodin Rebel with the Cause, about the great actor
and director who left us in twenty twenty one. We
love to hear from our listeners, so please send thought,
(16:26):
scripes and other feedback about Daily righty two podcasts at
Variety dot com. Before we go, Congrats to Christopher Halpin.
He's been named chief financial Officer of NBC Universal, reporting
to Comcast co CEO Mike Cavanaugh. Halpin joins the company
from Barry Diller's People, Inc. Formerly known as IAC. Thanks
(16:47):
for listening. This episode was written and reported by me
Cynthia Lyttleton. Stick Snick Hick Fix. Please leave us a
review at the podcast platform of your choice, and don't
forget to tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily
Variety
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Tuesday, August fourth, twenty
twenty six. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
editor in chief of WRITY alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
LA He's in New York, and Bridy has reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:32):
we'll hear from Jerney Gunderson. She is executive director of
the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York that happens
to be the hometown of lu Seale Ball. And this weekend,
the National Comedy Center is hosting its annual lu Seale
Ball Comedy Festival, which runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The
headliners this year are Jerry Seinfeld, Bert Kreischer, and Seth Myers.
(00:55):
The National Comedy Center is a first of its kind
institution devoted to the study of comedy, and it opened
its doors in twenty eighteen. We'll talk about plans for
this year's festival and the growth of the institution, but
before we get to that, here are a few headlines
just in this morning that you need to know. Paramount's
Guidance CEO David Ellison has spoken out on the legal
(01:18):
drama surrounding his effort to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery. This
deal has been drenched in politics from the start. In
an op ed published in The New York Times on
Tuesday morning, he goes right to the heart of what
he sees as the political issue that spurred twelve state
attorney generals to file suit to block the deal. He
sees the big issue coming down to the ownership of CNN.
(01:42):
Ellison asserts in the op ed that he will quote
not bend newsrooms to my view end quote. He also asserts,
quote I believe that news should be based on facts
and truth end quote. We'll get a little more insight
on what's going on at Paramounts guid Dance later today
when the company reports its second quarter earnings after the bell,
but business march is on at Paramount, Viola Davis has
(02:05):
cut a deal to starr in and executive produce the
new Paramount Plus series Ascent. She'll play an elite corporate
fixer in the series from veteran screenwriter John Logan and
Paramount Television Studios. Davis, of course, won an Emmy for
her work on ABC's How to Get Away with Murder
in twenty fifteen, not that there was much doubt, but
(02:26):
in fact, spider Man Brand New Day has crossed the
one billion dollar mark at the global box office in
just six days. Only Avengers Endgame got to that mark
faster in twenty nineteen. All of these stories and so
much more can be found on varietay dot com right
now and now it's time for conversations with industry leaders
(02:53):
about news and trends and show business Today. My guest
is Jerney Gunderson, executive director of the Nash Comedy Center.
The Center is both a hands on museum and a
repository of papers and memorabilia for such legends as George Carlin,
Carl Reiner, and most recently, mel Brooks. Gunderson is the
dynamo that got the museum up and on its feet
(03:16):
and to open its doors in twenty eighteen. She's done
so much work to build ties with the comedy community
in New York, Los Angeles and throughout the country. I've
been to the National Comedy Center, and I can assure
that for comedy buffs, it's worth the trek to Jamestown
in beautiful Western New York. Jereny Gunderson, thank you so
(03:37):
much for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You are getting ready for a fun filled, action packed
week as you host the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival
that is presented by the National Comedy Center, which you
head and have run now for almost going on ten years.
I know from experience how much fun the National Comedy
Center is, how important it is to really capturing and
(04:01):
putting into its proper historical social cultural context the importance
of comedy. That's right, Yes, let's talk about this year's
lucille Ball off. This Jamestown is in fact the birthplace
of America's most famous redhead, Lucille Ball. So you have
incredible headliners like Jerry Seinfeldbert Kreischer, Seth Meyers. What's new
(04:23):
and different this year?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I always tell people that there's no substitute for experiencing
live comedy, and yet we operate a museum of comedy
year round, and so there's no better way to spend
a few days than seeing live comedy in the evening,
but being able to consider it within the context of
the whole of the art form and any artist you're
(04:45):
seeing live, you're also connecting the dots to the entire
pantheon of our history and heritage in this great art form,
and I think that transforms the experience. It makes it
much more profound.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Even before the Comedy Center was opened in twenty eighteen,
the fest all existed and get top names. Is it
the Lucy connection that brings you such I mean, these
are marquee comedy names in any city, let alone Jamestown,
New York.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yes, I do think that this date on any comedians
calendar has become something different, and the idea that one
can come and perform, whether it's Seth Myers or Bert
Kreischer or Jerry Seinfeld in a place that has taken
up the mantle to tell comedy story and give it
the museum treatment it has long deserved, to the place
(05:32):
that has established the archive that never existed before. I
do think that that sets us apart from any other
city that an artist is touring and performing within, and
so that does help. I think now people word has
gotten out in the artist community that you have to
make ample time to traverse the galleries of the National
(05:52):
Comedy Center when you come and perform at the Lucia
Wall Comedy Festival in Jamestown. That's my favorite part of
the job is touring comedians themselves. When John Stewart toured
the museum before headlining the festival last year, he just said,
no one's ever done this for us before, no one
has done this. I think it felt profound to him
this realization as he was walking through the museum that
(06:15):
it wasn't until twenty eighteen that anybody opened a museum
that tells the story of this art form. And so
I lay awake many nights wondering if perhaps building something
formal and institutional for the group of people most apt
to lampoon anything formal or institutional, was perhaps a bad idea.
And yet here we are.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
It's been many years, but I have been to the
festival because Jamestown is a it's not a tiny city,
but it's not a big city. And because of that,
it just feels like the whole town is a buzz
with again these big names that must be very exciting
for the larger Jamestown community, which I know you are
in a very important hub.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yes, every year at the comedy festival we see ticket
buyer zip codes from more than forty states presented. And
you know, Jamestown is a within a day's drive of
more than a third of the US population. So while
it's a destination, people are showing up in droves. It
only took three weeks to see visitors from all fifty
(07:14):
states to the National Comedy Center when we opened. And finally,
there is a place for a comedy nerd to go
and to take a deep dive. And when we were
designing the museum, we said, we've got a design for
the skimmers, the swimmers, and the divers, and that's more
of a museum design term than a comedy term. But
we wanted to make sure that if somebody came through
the museum who was a Carl and fan, for example,
(07:36):
for whom this is mecca, that they could spend hours
deep diving through his joke notes, of which we have
scanned tens of thousands. You can explore those joke files.
But if you're a nineteen year old kid with his
family on a road trip and you're not sure why
you're supposed to yet care about George Carlin or Carl
Reiner or Melbrooks, et cetera, that we also communicated to
(07:56):
that museum visitor that's our job is to elevate the
reverence and respect for this art form and its artists.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Well, I don't want to blow it for future visitors,
but there is a very fun setup that allows you
to be part of let's just say, a very famous
episode of I Love Lucy you referenced George Carlin, Carl Reiner,
mel Brooks. The National Comedy Center in recent years has
acquired their papers, has acquired their archives, And to your
(08:22):
point about John Stewart recognizing the significance of this, it's
a repository of things that maybe in the past weren't
seen as that worth preserving in a museum fashion, but
certainly are now. Is that a level up going into
what you'd planned in opening the National Comedy Center or
was that always a goal?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
That was always the goal and we knew there was
a void of anybody taking responsibility for conservation and preservation
in this way. I think most people agree that comedy
history is important, but also assume that important things somehow
get saved automatically and they don't. Pres does not happen passively.
(09:01):
Someone has to decide to preserve something before it's lost,
and that is why we built the National archive. There's
an urgency to this conservation work as well, so that
it can be around for future generations to learn from.
Mel Brooks is a great example. The collection of Melbrook's
archives is more than one hundred and fifty thousand documents,
(09:23):
including more than five thousand photographs. And when addressing why
this matters and why that's important just in his case,
I think from a very early age, mel Brooks knew
how to wield comedy to take back power. His ability
to fearlessly satirize the atrocities of war and the horrors
of humanity not only helped heal a post World War
(09:46):
two nation, it was It's a playbook. We want future
generations to have that this is a method of processing,
it's a method of grieving, but it's also as a
way of taking power or back from a situation. And
mel Brooks could blend what some might consider lowbrow slapstick
(10:07):
with high brow satire like no other. And I'm glad
he's still doing it to this day.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
If I recall right journey, Kelly Carlin was really key.
As I recalled, George Carlin's papers were the first big
collection that you acquired. That must have been a leap
of faith for her to give her father's most treasured,
her father's life work to a museum.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes, I'd heard that Kelly was preserving herself her father's archive,
and I also knew that George Carlin was an archivist
of his own career. He saved everything, and I had
heard the legends of the way his system of joke
files with ziplock baggies and scraps of paper, hotel stationary
(10:49):
bar napkins, sometimes a scrap of paper no larger than
a quarter organized in his own hand, with labels that
said things like religion, death, stupid pace words. And so
I reached out to Kelly and visited and got to
know her. She got to know a little bit about
what our vision was. And Kelly always said, this was
(11:10):
the right decision because they're doing it for the right reasons.
These people are in it for the right reasons. It's
a nonprofit. They seek to elevate this as an art
form and position it for study and make it accessible.
She said that she knew that if she gave it
to a different institution, it might just end up like
that scene in Raids of the Lost Arc, where it's
(11:30):
maybe being preserved in a basement somewhere, But really, what's
the point unless people can learn from it and engage
with it? And that was really validating, But also it
was a key domino to your point.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Do scholars come and want to look through if they're
working on something? Do you have that access for people
that are doing research?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We do. We do, and anyone can make an appointment
to research within the archives. And we've worked with documentary
filmmakers like Amy Poehler and Chad Appatou. In Amy's case
her dot Or documentary on Lucy and Desi, which was
so good, yes, and in Judd's case on his documentary
about George Carlin and now on mel Brooks. What's interesting
(12:08):
is that we see academics and researchers and students of
all ages. So now we do field trips throughout the museum.
We have a lot of college courses for whom this
is a destination and also something they're tying their curricula to.
So it's great to play the role of the institution
that presents comedy in a way that it can really
be learned from and studied. And the other thing that
(12:30):
I think the museum achieves and that was a compass
for us is that good comedy looks easy. So for
casual consumers of comedy, everyone kind of thinks that comedians
are winging it, and it's just the opposite. Anybody who
works in comedy knows that there is such a great
deal of precision to doing this well. And that was
again something that we hope to do with the exhibits
(12:51):
was pull back the curtain on the process of this
art form and in doing so engender and visitors or
respect for the artists and the creators.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Does the Center have an endowment? How is it funded?
Is it through grants and public donations?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yes, the center has an endowment. No one pays us
to do this work. It is our job not just
to do the preservation, but to figure out a way
to sustain the effort. And so every day I'm spending
as much time overseeing the preservation and the conservation and
the curation and the storytelling that takes place within the
museum as I am finding the next underwriter of this work,
(13:28):
sponsor of this work, and donor to the endowment.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Has institutional Hollywood been helpful to you?
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, yes it has. Certainly that's a job made harder
by the geography of Jamestown. We aren't right in la
or New York, but once people visit, they get it.
I think every headliner of our festival, every comedic artist,
once they have toured, has become a donor. And that's
again really validating. They're walking through the museum, they're learning
(13:56):
about the archive, and they're understanding again, like John Stewart said,
has done this for us before, and this is also
work you want to be done by a nonprofit. And
so from the very beginning, we've taken the approach of
being more of an art museum and a history museum
than a hall of fame. And I remember Kelly Carlin
saying that many entities had approached her with more of
(14:17):
a hard rock cafe vision of putting her father's materials
on display, and I think she always knew it was
better suited for something much more comprehensive and that could
have an impact more profound.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It's a serious effort to study, as you said, the precision,
the timing, the cultural moment. It absolutely warrants that. I
know that the National Comedy Center has been one of
the biggest things to come to Jamestown in a long time.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Lucile Ball deserves from some credit. Many No, she was
a really savvy businesswoman in addition to being a great comedian.
And she was the one who said to Jamestown decades ago,
don't just make a museum about me. Don't make it
just a shrine to Lucy. Make Jamestown a desk the
nation for the study and celebration of all comedy. And
(15:03):
so I think we were wise as a community to
listen to that. And we joked recently that she made
her hometown every comedian's hometown, because what's in your hometown?
All that stuff you saved. So this is where the
comedy keepsakes now live, and thank goodness, now comedians have
a new hometown in the National Comedy Center Archives and
museum journey.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Thank you so much for your time and keep in touch.
Thank you for having me. As we close out today's episode,
here's a few things we're watching for Disney reports its
earnings before the Bell on Wednesday, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Versust Media,
(15:42):
Fox Corp, Lionsgate, and Roku all go on Thursday. Bill Hayter,
the very talented multi hyphenate, will deliver a keynote address
at Variety's upcoming Entertainment and Technology Summit in Los Angeles
on September seventeenth. Dayly Variety listeners rest assured you will
be hearing more about this summit in the coming weeks.
(16:03):
Turner Classic Movies is launching a Friday night documentary showcase
Films on Film. It'll be hosted by Ben Mankowitz. It
will debut September fourth, with the twenty twenty five retrospective
Charles Grodin Rebel with the Cause, about the great actor
and director who left us in twenty twenty one. We
love to hear from our listeners, so please send thought,
(16:26):
scripes and other feedback about Daily righty two podcasts at
Variety dot com. Before we go, Congrats to Christopher Halpin.
He's been named chief financial Officer of NBC Universal, reporting
to Comcast co CEO Mike Cavanaugh. Halpin joins the company
from Barry Diller's People, Inc. Formerly known as IAC. Thanks
(16:47):
for listening. This episode was written and reported by me
Cynthia Lyttleton. Stick Snick Hick Fix. Please leave us a
review at the podcast platform of your choice, and don't
forget to tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily
Variety
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