Jamestown, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the world mourns the death of Rob Reiner and wife Michele, the National Comedy Center is remembering Rob's contribution to the genre and a visit to honor his father Carl.
Executive Director Journey Gunderson says Rob Reiner visited in 2022 with his family to cut the ribbon on the Carl Reiner Keep Laughing exhibit. "His visit was incredible because it wasn't a moment about him, even though his career certainly stands on its own, both within comedy and outside of it, it was about honoring his father's legacy, and he had reverence and humility and this kind of steadfast intellect about anything comedic or when it came to the humanity of the art that his father had created," sys Gunderson. She recalls in 2021 Rob Reiner appearing on "The Today Show" with Mel Brooks to announce the Comedy Center's acquisition of Carl Reiner's archive and the naming of the archive department in his honor. "My first meeting with Rob was to brief him on what he would then later find in Jamestown and our work at the National Comedy Center. And he really went to bat for us as a cultural institution, because he believed in the mission and he believed in the cause."
Gunderson adds not a day goes by at the National Comedy Center someone isn't reflecting and laughing about Rob's own contributions, including his very first film, "This is Spinal Tap." "It was a film that was largely improvised and collaborative, which is kind of rare. So many things are really scripted to a T. So in 1984, he comes out with his directorial debut of 'This is Spinal Tap.' Over the more than 10 years since we started building the National Comedy Center, people come up to me all the time with their favorites or their quote of all time, and it's many times that people tell me the original Spinal Tap is their favorite comedy," says Gunderson. She says she doesn't have the amp that goes up to 11, in reference to one of the famous lines from that film.
Gunderson says it feels like she's lost a leader in the entertainment community, a leader in comedy. "Someone online said it best. They said, 'We've lost one of the few good men.' And I thought that was well said," says Gunderson.