Review of National Comedy Center and Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Museum

 

National Comedy Center, Jamestown, NY

Charlie Chaplin:  “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”

My pack (myself, my wife, and our Pomeranian dog Toby) spent a month in western New York, in a town called Ellicottville, during the month of June.  It was during this time that we took a day to visit the town of Jamestown, about a 45 minute drive from Ellicottville.

When we first heard about the National Comedy Center, we weren’t completely sold on visiting this attraction.  However, when we heard Lucille Ball / Desi Arnaz Museum was also in the same town, we were intrigued.

We grew up watching reruns of “I Love Lucy” television show.  Let me set the scene for you:  We had immigrated to United States in early 1980’s and English wasn’t our first language.  Because of the language barrier, we initially watched shows that didn’t require much English to understand.  Such shows were Looney Toons cartoons, most of Saturday morning cartoons, and I Love Lucy.  

I Love Lucy show was in black and white and not in color, but we didn’t care.  We simply enjoyed watching Lucy scheme up things to do, mess things up, then set them all right again.  One of our favorite episodes was the one where Lucy is working at a chocolate factory.  She is working the assembly line, and she’s unable to keep up with the speed of the assembly line, and ends up eating the chocolates, rather than letting them pile up. 

It was just too hilarious!  We just loved her perfect comedic timing, comedic sense, and all the wacky situations she always seem to be getting into!

Reminiscing about the show, we decided to take a day trip (without Toby this time) to Jamestown to check out both of these attractions.

On a warm June Friday, my wife and I took off for Jamestown around 9:20 a.m. hoping to arrive there by 10 a.m., which is the opening time at the National Comedy Center.  For this trip, we didn’t pack lunch or snacks.  We wanted to eat something local near the museum instead.

We found a parking lot which is free for visitors to the National Comedy Center, then proceeded to the National Comedy Center about half a block away.  We had arrived few minutes prior to its opening, so we waited, looking around the streets near the Comedy Center.  

We had never been to Jamestown, and it almost reminded me of lower Manhattan with its packed buildings next to storefronts, then more buildings.  Streets were cleaner than Manhattan, and traffic, at least at that time of the day, was light.

We watched the Comedy Center open right on the dot at 10 a.m., and we made our way inside to pay the admission fees.  We opted for the dual pass which include admission to both the Comedy Center and the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Museum for $30 per person.

The National Comedy Center is a state of the art, immersive museum unlike most we’ve visited.  In 2019, Time Magazine named the National Comedy Center one of the “world’s greatest places”, and Condé Nast Traveler named it “one of the best museums in the country.”

After paying the admission fee, it asks you to create a user profile during which time it asks type of comedy (screwball, dark, slapstick, etc.) and type of comedians (Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, Charlie Chaplain, etc.) you like.  It then uses this unique profile to decide what movie clips to show for example.

We finished our personal profile then made our way into the George Carlin exhibit. He is one of our favorite comedians of all time.  We marveled at his painstaking attention to detail when he would come up with ideas to use on his stand up comedy routines.  

There’s an interactive component to his exhibit which is looking up his topics/ideas he wrote.  He had kept all of his ideas on written notes which were preserved inside folders.  There were literally hundreds of these folders…From an idea, it would germinate into a huge segment on the topic.  It was like watching a true master at his craft!

George Carlin exhibit

Andy Kaufman’s Elvis jumpsuit display

George Carlin exhibit 

We looked at other exhibits of famous comedians with their signature costumes and/or props used in a movie.  We particularly liked the Andy Kaufman exhibit showing his signature Elvis Presley jumpsuit replica.

Out of all the exhibits at the Comedy Center, two of our favorite experiences were the following:

First one was the wall where each famous comedian connects to other famous comedians.  By picking a comedian, you can see how each met other comedians and what they worked on together.  It also display the influence of a comedian on one another…

Rodney Dangerfield exhibit 

Ghostbusters’ costume and Lucille Ball’s dress from “I Love Lucy”

Second one was the movie theater experience where each attendees’ profiles were used to show short movie/tv clips.  We had a great time watching famous movie clips we all knew and loved!

We found the Comedy Center to be an awesome experience.  There are so many cool interactive displays and hands-on activities there.  Like Toby always says, “Four paws up!”, when showing happiness!

After spending some time at the National Comedy Center, we got hungry.  We left the Comedy Center and walked towards the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Museum, which is about 4 blocks away.  

We found a local restaurant Lisciandro’s and walked in.  The place felt like a popular local restaurant as we saw plenty of people acknowledging each other.  

We asked for a menu, and we promptly ordered two eggplant parmigiana sandwiches.  The bread was just right, showing some firmness on the outside, while being soft on the inside.  It nicely absorbed the tomato sauce without being too mushy.  Definitely a good sandwich!

Lisciandro’s Restaurant where we had lunch

After finishing our lunches, we walked the half block to our next destination:  Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz Museum.

The museum is at the corner of Main Street and 3rd Street.  It is a bright brick colored building and hard to miss!

We walked in and showed our receipt for our dual attraction ticket receipt to enter the museum.  Whereas the National Comedy Center had a small section devoted to Lucille Ball, this museum was all about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

We excitedly went in to start our discovery.  We saw plenty of artifacts, costumes worn during famous episodes, scripts of episodes, and biographies of aforementioned stars and co-stars.

Our favorite exhibit was the replica of the sets used on the ‘I Love Lucy’ shows.  It brought back memories of episodes we had watched when we were kids.  It just brought smiles to our faces…

At the entrance to the museum

Portraits of the two famous stars

The museum is actually housed in two separate buildings.  After finishing our tour, we walked two doors down from the museum to a smaller building, for a more intimate look at Lucille and Desi’s marriage, as told by their family and friends.

We finished our tours and were feeling pretty happy.  We were glad we had stopped by to visit both museums, and we recommend you do the same if you’re ever in western New York!

We thank you all for reading!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig 

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