2017 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival includes all-star shows, preview of National Comedy Center’s George Carlin Archives

This year’s edition of the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, traditionally held the week following Montreal’s Just For Laughs in upstate New York, will feature a week of performances and panels, “Comedy and the Human Condition,” which partners the new National Comedy Center with the renowned Chautauqua Institution. on a week titled  July 31st – August 6th.

Jim Gaffigan, Kevin James, Robert Klein, Lisa Lampanelli and more than 20 others will perform in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, NY, while Lewis Black, David Steinberg, W. Kamau Bell, Kelly Carlin and more engage in dialogues — all during the week of July 31 through Aug. 6, 2017.

The National Comedy Center, the first national-scale, non-profit cultural institution and visitor experience dedicated to comedy that’s expected to open next summer, also will present a sneak peek of the George Carlin Archives that it acquired from Kelly Carlin.

Apart from the headliners mentioned above, the festival will feature performances from Story Pirates, a conversation with writer Alan Zweibel, a class taught by “The Comedians” author Kliph Nesteroff, and a presentation on “Comedy and the First Amendment,” from Kitty Bruce, daughter of late icon Lenny Bruce.

For tickets and additional show information, visit www.lucycomedyfest.comFor more information on the National Comedy Center, including its support from I LOVE NY™, visit www.NationalComedyCenter.org.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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