Comedian and Playbill Travel alum Lewis Black visited Stephen Colbert on The Late Show July 17. Lewis, who will appearing in New Orleans September 15, used the opportunity to promote the soon-to-open National Comedy Center.

“It's in Jamestown, New York. It's the ancestral home of Lucille Ball,” Black explained. “She was born there and for a long time they had a festival for her. I participated in that. Out of that arose the idea of creating a National Comedy Center.”

The idea largely came from George Carlin’s daughter Kelly, who also donated many of Carlin’s mementos and material to the Center.

“You really get a sense of just how much he put in the creation of a set. It was like a composer and a playwright. Truly an artist, which is why I think the Comedy Center is important,” said Black. “Kind of like what we do is a craft—who knew?”

As Black explains it, visitors select their favorite comedians, comic movies, and television comedies upon entering the Center, which then directs their experience inside.

Best known for his Grammy- and Emmy-winning comedy, Black has a long-running segment on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. He has also brought his act to the Broadway stage, first in 2012 with Running on Empty and most recently in 2017 with Black to the Future. Having started his career as a playwright, Black performed as part of Playbill Travel’s most recent Broadway on the High Seas adventure to Iceland earlier this month.

Cabins are now on sale for Playbill’s Broadway on the Rhône River 2 cruise April 7–14, 2019, featuring Melissa Errico, Rebecca Luker, Marc Kudisch, and Seth Rudetsky, and Broadway in Bordeaux With Michael Feinstein September 1–9, 2019, with other celebrity guests to be announced! Call Playbill Travel for tickets at 866-455-6789 or visit PlaybillTravel.com.