by intern David Longo
Photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
“I don’t tell many jokes,” said CNN news anchor Candy Crowley as she happily hopped on stage to have her turn at the fun by presenting the ceremonial first joke at the 19th Annual Funniest Celebrity in Washington Contest. “I certainly do interview a lot of them though!” Crowley then continued with very unscripted jokes pertaining to politics.
Richard Siegel hams it up with Obama impersonator
The Funniest Celebrity Contest was originally founded by Richard Siegel in 1987 with the intent of raising funds for the Washington-area and national non-profits. The contest consists of comedians ranging from all different professions including media, sports and politics, fighting to be titled as the Funniest Celebrity.
Jamie McIntyre
This year’s contestants were: Jaime McIntyre, anchor for NPR’s flagship program “All Things Considered” and previously a military correspondent for CNN; Josh Gotbaum, an alumnus of the Carter and Clinton administrations; Heather Higgins, president and CEO of Independent Women’s Voice; Clarence Page of The Chicago Tribune and winner of the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, Elahe Izadi, a writer covering Congress and politics for The National Journal; and James Lucier, a managing director at Capital Alpha Partners, LLC.
Clarence Page
This year the event was a benefit performance for The Pension Rights Center and FERHA (Foundation for the Education and the Rebirth of Haiti) whose representative informed the crowd of the problems going on in Haiti, giving us a casual break from the humor to focus on something of substance.
Photo courtesy of The DC Improv
The contest took place in a calming, dark-red lit room located at The Improv Comedy Club and Restaurant on Connecticut Avenue between M and L street. The Improv is the perfect location for comedy with a fully stocked bar, plenty of seating and a stage visible from all sides of the room. As rare as it may seem, the drinks were relatively healthy, stating on the menu that numerous drinks were no sugar added and used all natural ingredients. That’s a new one! Once show time began, the once red-lit room turned black, emphasizing the beautifully candle-lit tables along with multiple T.V.s displaying a live video stream of the stage.
Matt Cooper
The show opened with Dr. Christine Warnke who stated “What D.C. needs now is humor… They say humor is the medicine to the soul,” and humor is exactly what they gave this extremely pleased crowd. Following Warnke was Matt Cooper, a past winner of the Funniest Celebrity award. Cooper’s jokes jumped multiple topics, ranging from Chris Christie to men’s weight in general, but the peak of his jokes were when he made fun of himself! Cooper proceeded to joke about how he’s “Overweight, I mean fat,” then how he “smoked a fatty with present politicians when they were young.” Cooper then continued to respectfully thank the sponsors who helped to bring this show together, adding a nice touch to finish off his set.
Grover Norquist, Elahe Izadi and Ralph Nader
“I really believe it takes a lot of ovaries to get up here. I never say that it takes balls, because balls are the most cowardly part of the male body,” Elahe Izadi started. What a way to catch the crowds attention. Jamie McIntyre picked fun at himself too! “We might be behind, but our newscast is one of a kind!” McIntyre stated referring to his NPR news station. The night was from then on filled with jokes ranging from ignorant racism to foreign policies to even twerking being an added term to the dictionary.
Towards the end of the night the winner was announced after a charity auction. If in the crowd, it was such as hard decision as to who should take home the title of Funniest Celebrity, but judges Patrick Gavin, Geoff Tracy, Greg Poole, Matt Weber and Larry O’Connor chose the without a doubt hilarious Grover Norquist, the closing act of the show. A huge congratulations to Norquist!
As for the twist: Here it is courtesy of Chortle.
Dan Nainan……oops, he was arrested
Hollywood on the Potomac interviewed winner Grover Norquist prior to the event with colleague Clarence Page. A look back:
