The GI’s of Comedy is an acclaimed, professional stand-up comedy troupe who have taken their love of their country and brought it the comedy stage. Featuring founder Thom Tran (US Army), James P. Connolly (US Marine) and Les Jennings (US Air Force), their mission is to help heal their fellow soldiers with their comedy, and to bring laughter to all those who have supported the people who wear the uniform of the United States Armed Forces. The troupe has performed in 30 states and nearly two dozen countries.

As their motto says, they are “Stand-up Comics. All Veterans. Still Serving Their Country. One Joke at a Time.”

Tickets are on sale now at ComedyCenter.org. The show is offered free to active military and veterans.

Bill Engvall

JAMESTOWN – A couple of nationally known entertainers will be making their way to Jamestown this summer to take pat in the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival. On Friday afternoon, officials with the Lucy-Dezi Center held a press conference in Jamestown’s Gateway Train Station to announce that Comedians Bill Engvall (ticket info) and Kathleen Madigan (ticket info) will headline the festival, scheduled for Aug. 1 through Aug. 4. descend

In addition, the Comics to Watch (ticket info) showcase of upcoming comedians presented by Pandora and the leads from the Broadway hit “I Love Lucy: Live on Stage” will also make an appearance.

Lucy-Desi Center Director Journey Gunderson tells WRFA that once again, it took a lot of work and effort to put together this year’s line up but in the end, it was well worth it.

“I certainly hoped it would come together this way and that was our intention, but it was so difficult I can not pretend that any of this was easy,” admitted Gunderson. “If you saw how many combinations of line ups we have gone threw over the winter months, thinking we could book someone, having them sit on the offer for a while then getting the news that they are taking a different offer, all of that is a tricky game to play and so we’re just thrilled that we ended up with as great a lineup as we have.”

Kathleen Madigan

One of this year’s headliners – Bill Engvall – is a nationally known comedian who is a headlining member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Madigan is a frequent performer on Leno, Letterman, Conan, Ferguson and nearly every other late night talk show and her stand-up show has been featured on HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central.

In addition to the headliners, Gunderson said this year will once again feature a late-night standup show by the Rooftop Comedy troop in the Lucy-Dezi museum that will be recorded as a live comedy album; Lucille Ball’s former personal secretary Wanda Clark will make an appearance; Gregg Oppenheimer’s Live Lucy Radio Play will once again be recorded; and finally, new this year, is the appearance of the GI’s of Comedy – a group of veterans who are also stand up comedians and who perform before active duty troops and veteran groups around the world.

Between now and August, Gunderson says there’s still a lot of work to do to ensure the festival is a success. A major part of that is promoting the festival, and she’s asking any willing area residents to help serve as ambassadors of the event.

“We definitely need grassroots promotion. One way we can save some money and stay within budget, in terms of advertising, if everybody here today at this press conference was talking this festival up and telling their friends and facebooking and tweeting all of their friends outside of the area, we wouldn’t even need to advertise. And so promotional ambassadors and volunteers for the festival is a great way to participate and its really fun.”

Tickets for the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival will go on sale on April 24th, and can be purchased by visiting www.lucycomedyfest.com or calling (716)484-0800.