20 Jun Record-Breaking Comedian Nate Bargatze to Headline Final Night of National Comedy Center’s 2024 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival
Record-Breaking Comedian Nate Bargatze to Headline Final Night of National Comedy Center’s 2024 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival
Joins Lineup Including Festival Headliners Jeff Ross and Nicole Byer
Jamestown, New York – June 20, 2024 – The National Comedy Center, the nation’s official museum and cultural institution dedicated to comedy, announced today that record-breaking comedian Nate Bargatze will headline the 2024 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival on Saturday, August 3rd at the Northwest Arena in Jamestown, NY. Bargatze joins previously announced headliners: acclaimed comedians Nicole Byer on Thursday, August 1st and “Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross on Friday, August 2nd – both performing at Jamestown’s Reg Lenna Center for the Arts.
Over 50 live events will be presented over four days in a festival that celebrates comedy’s contemporary stars and rising talent from across the country, while celebrating comedy’s great heritage.
Bargatze has been selling out shows and breaking attendance records around the world with his current “The Be Funny” tour. Last fall, he made his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live, receiving rave reviews and drawing one of highest television audiences of the season, with Vanity Fair calling him, “A Great Saturday Night Live Host,” and Entertainment Weekly exclaiming, “A frighteningly funny Halloween episode.”
His most recent comedy special, Nate Bargatze: Hello World, holds the record as Amazon’s most-watched comedy special of all time on Prime Video. He is widely known for his clean, relatable comedy for audiences of all ages, evident in his 13 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the most appearances by any comedian. He also appeared on Conan four times and has appeared on Seth Meyers’ and James Corden’s respective late night shows.
“I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the National Comedy Center and it’s just awesome. The interactivity of all the exhibits is amazing – there is nothing else like it. So, it’s a thrill for me to perform at the National Comedy Center’s Lucille Ball Comedy Festival this August. I hope everyone will come out to see us in Jamestown – and visit the Comedy Center before our show,” said Nate Bargatze.
“Nate Bargatze has become a favorite of comedy fans across the country and one of the highest-grossing comedians of the year, selling out arenas nationwide,” stated National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson. “We were thrilled to have Nate visit the National Comedy Center last fall and look forward to bringing him back to Jamestown for a special headlining performance this August. He’s become a great friend and supporter of our mission.”
Hailed as “The Nicest Man in Stand-up” by The Atlantic magazine and a “Rising Star” by CBS Mornings, Bargatze was nominated for a Grammy® for Best Comedy Album for his 2021 Netflix special “The Greatest Average American, which follows his previous acclaimed Netflix specials The Tennessee Kid and The Standups. His Saturday Night Live sketch “Washington’s Dream” went viral and was hailed as an instant classic and one of the funniest SNL sketches of all time.
“With Nate Bargatze, Nicole Byer and Jeff Ross, we truly have a stellar headliner lineup this summer,” stated Malachi Livermore, the National Comedy Center’s Vice President of Programming & Guest Experience. “Together with many of the best stand-ups from across the country, Lucy celebration events, bigger block parties with live music and more, the 2024 festival will celebrate the best of comedy’s past and present over four days.”
Bargatze was featured as one of Esquire‘s “Best New Comedians” by Jim Gaffigan, one of Marc Maron’s “Comedians to Watch” in Rolling Stone, one of Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch” for 2015, and as #1 on Vulture‘s ‘50 Comedians You Should Know’ in 2015. He also appeared on the cover of Variety’s annual comedy issue in 2022. He recently launched The Nateland Company, which develops and produces family-friendly content including comedy showcases, specials and podcasts including his own popular The Nateland Podcast, which featured Bargatze’s tour of the National Comedy Center.
Tickets for the Nate Bargatze show will go on pre-sale for National Comedy Center Members on Tuesday, June 25 at noon ET through Wednesday, June 26 at 11:59 pm. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday, June 27 at noon ET, at ComedyCenter.org.
To become a National Comedy Center Member in order to gain first access to available seats for Nate Bargatze during the pre-sale ticket window, visit ComedyCenter.org/membership or call the National Comedy Center at 716.484.2222. Memberships start at $75 and provide year-round benefits including a “season pass” for visiting the award-winning National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.
Tickets for the Jeff Ross and Nicole Byer shows, along with other festival events, including Late Night comedy shows and Lucy legacy events, are currently on sale to the public at ComedyCenter.org.
“Roastmaster General” Jeff Ross, who brings his solo show “Take a Banana For the Ride” on Aug 2, was the creative force, co-host and producer of the recent blockbuster Netflix “Roast of Tom Brady”, and in addition to his numerous high profile roast credits, is among the most respected stand-up comedians touring today.
Nicole Byer, performing Aug 1, has become widely known as the host of Nailed It!, the Netflix Emmy-nominated reality-competition baking series, and is one of the most distinctive voices in stand-up comedy today.
Six Comedy Late Night shows will take Thurs Aug 1 – Sat Aug 3, featuring over 20 of the most popular artists currently performing in comedy clubs nationwide – with television appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Daily Show, Last Comic Standing, Netflix comedy specials, America’s Got Talent, and more.
The acclaimed National Comedy Center and Lucy Desi Museum are both welcoming visitors throughout the festival with over 50 interactive experiences providing laughter for all ages – the experience named one of TIME’s “World’s Greatest Places”, USA Today’s “Best New Museum”, and U.S. News & World Report’s “Top 25 Family Weekend Getaways.” Advanced purchase of museum admission is recommended to avoid sellout. Admission tickets may be purchased while purchasing festival event tickets.
The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival is presented by the National Comedy Center and embodies Lucille Ball’s vision for her hometown, Jamestown, New York, to be a destination for the celebration of the comedic arts and to showcase new comedic talent from around the country. The festival attracts over 15,000 attendees annually from nearly every state in the country, who come together to share laughter while honoring the craft and contributors on stage at dozens of venues throughout Jamestown, including the National Comedy Center and the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum.
Now in its 34th year, the festival has featured comedy’s greatest stars and rising young comedians and has welcomed over 300 artists to Jamestown, NY, including Jerry Seinfeld, Lily Tomlin, John Mulaney, Trevor Noah, Jeff Foxworthy, Jay Leno, Sebastian Maniscalco, Amy Schumer, David Spade, Margaret Cho, Brian Regan, Ellen DeGeneres, Lewis Black, W. Kamau Bell, Jim Gaffigan, Kevin Nealon, Paula Poundstone, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Rivers, Bob Newhart, the Smothers Brothers. and more than one hundred other comedic artists. Last year’s festival featured comedians Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and Taylor Tomlinson.
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About the National Comedy Center
The National Comedy Center is the United States’ official cultural institution and museum dedicated to presenting the vital story of comedy and preserving its heritage for future generations, as formally designated by the U.S. Congress. Opened in 2018 in Jamestown, New York, the museum complex offers an unprecedented, immersive visitor experience using state-of-the-art technology, interactivity, and personalization.
USA Today named the National Comedy Center the “Best New Museum in the Country, TIME magazine named it one of its “World’s Greatest Places,” and U.S. News & World Report selected it as one of the “25 Top Family Weekend Getaways in the U.S.,” while Condé Nast Traveler called the National Comedy Center “one of the best museums in the country,” and People magazine named it one of “100 Reasons to Love America.”
The National Comedy Center has been featured in The New York Times, on CBS Saturday Morning, CBS Sunday Morning and on NBC’s TODAY Show, which called it “the Smithsonian of Comedy.” Visitors from all 50 states and eighteen countries have given the Center a rare 5/5 rating on TripAdvisor, ranking among the highest in the attraction and tourism industry.
Based on the vision of Jamestown native Lucille Ball for her hometown to become a destination for comedy, the non-profit National Comedy Center’s mission is to provide education on the comedic arts in the form of commentary and contextualization of its bodies of work across all eras and genres of the art form.
The National Comedy Center has collaborated with dozens of artists and estates to preserve materials that represent comedy’s significant artistic, social, and political contributions to American culture including collections illustrating the careers of legendary artists like George Carlin, Johnny Carson, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Don Rickles, Lenny Bruce, The Smothers Brothers, and the development of groundbreaking creative work such as sketch comedy series In Living Color, Saturday Night Live, and more.
The National Comedy Center operates the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, which explores the lives, careers, and legacy of the “First Couple of Comedy” and the incredible impact they had on the world, as well as the pioneering role and remarkable influence that I Love Lucy and Desilu Studios had on the entertainment industry for generations to come.
The National Comedy Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit cultural institution whose mission is funded by philanthropic support. Donations and grants support the museum and its work to present the vital story of comedy and preserve its heritage for future generations.
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