President Elect John Healy greets Journey Gunderson, Executive Director of the National Comedy Center
Tory Irgang introduced Journey Gunderson, Executive Director of the National Comedy Center, the United States’ official cultural institution dedicated to the art of comedy. A native of the area, Journey has been named to the “Business First” top 40 under 40.
Running the NCC during the pandemic and keeping it not just afloat but thriving has required a dedicated team effort.
The milestones since the pandemic.
Two weeks after being announced the best new museum in the country, the pandemic shut everything down. There was so much momentum and 2020 was to be the 1st real season.
The staff continued to promote the Center, even while closed. They went online with a Virtual Comedy Festival, which won a Telly award for the best online series, and got 960,000,000 media impressions, each mentioning Jamestown.
In October it was announced that NCC would be the new preservation home for the Johnny Carson archives, and that a new exhibit would open in 2022, “30 years of late night 30 years later”.
Carl Reiner was a founding advisor. When he passed, the preservation and archive department was named after him.
Journey talked about her talented staff by highlighting Gary Hahn, VP of marketing and communications. He came from Graceland and has brought a level of expertise at the national level to the Comedy Center. He and his family now live in Fredonia.
Gary’s expertise at developing relationships, garnering support and achieving national publicity has been critical. He worked with the Reiner family to bring Carl’s archives to the Comedy Center and was able to orchestrate the public announcement on Reiner’s 99th birthday in February when Mel Brooks and Rob Reiner were featured on the Today Show to make the announcement.
Another kudo is the award the NCC received for “Laugh Safe,” which was an effort with major epidemiologists to make the museum safe, and then to brand it. It was ground-breaking and received nationwide attention.
Journey was quick to note that the community made it all possible. The staff started 2020 knowing NCC needed to be 20% better than 2019 to break even. And then they had to close down. The community stepped in and made it possible to continue to go forward. The foundations all gave. The Comedy Center did not pause, and did not lose the talented team.
The Summer of 2021 saw “Summer fun weeks”. The publicity of these activities brought more people to the museum than projected. It motivated people to make the day trip. Each week culminated in Riverside Saturdays at the Waterfront which featured Comedy Center Park. As people passed through the railroad crossing into the Park they could read the plaque recognizing that Jamestown Rotary funded it.
The first Riverside Saturday attendance was about 500. That number almost doubled over the weeks. These events didn’t cost anything and about ½ of the participants were locals. The Comedy Center also actively recruited restaurants to deliver to the Waterfront, supporting local businesses. During the Summer Fun Weeks there were 9 interns, 20 volunteers, staff and board all working to make it happen.
The joint Comedy week with Chautauqua Institution was a mutual success. It brought people from CHQ, which is difficult to do. Journey heard many compliments from Chautauquans both about the Comedy Center and about the City of Jamestown.
Most recently, on August 6, Lucille Ball’s birthday, it was announced that Tiffany Hadish has joined the advisory board. She is an Emmy and Grammy award winner. This was featured by Variety Magazine, once again bringing the Comedy Center and Jamestown into the headlines.
Looking forward, the expansion that was planned before the pandemic is back on track. NetFlix will be doing a show featuring the new hall that will now take place in May. Also in 2022, Carl Reiner and Johnny Carson exhibits are already announced.
Journey says recently Amy Poehler was in town because she is doing a documentary on Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She held interviews at the Lucy/Desi Museum.
The next phase is about bringing outside funders in. There was a plan for an Los Angeles-based fund raiser just before the pandemic.
Journey is proud to point out that all these milestones, even in these difficult times, show that this was the right investment for Jamestown. It is reaching fruition, just delayed.
Russ thanked the National Comedy Center for welcoming the Jamestown Babe Ruth families who really enjoyed the museum.