Do individuals line up for LEGO occasions for blocks? Would a ‘World Origami Championship’ be aired on Paperview? I’ll communicate to that beneath, and as a spectator and ‘puntestant’ (my stage title is Kenny Dewitt – ‘Can-He-Do-It’) I can let you know Punderdome is superb and a shining instance of a profitable occasion model. Since 2011 what began out in a basement bar has advanced into the Punderdome card recreation (licensed to Penguin Random Home), and the NYC primarily based occasion that packs properly over 300 individuals a number of instances per yr that may be a staple in New York’s comedy panorama.
Jo and Fred Firestone, a daughter-father duo, are the creators and hosts of Punderdome®, NYC’s Most Puntastic Competitors—and whereas this profitable event-based card recreation is for ages 12 and up, the bodily occasion held on the Littlefield Theater in Brooklyn is for ‘groan-ups’ 21-and-over. After receiving an undergraduate diploma in particular schooling adopted by a legislation diploma, Fred Firestone constructed his profession by providing enterprise seminars to international firms, serving to to create worth for his or her clients. Fred is a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, who focuses on buyer/consumer satisfaction, branding, and moral promoting, for firms throughout the nation. His shoppers embrace AT&T, Enterprise Lease-A-Automotive, and Hewlett-Packard. He enjoys impersonating Rodney Dangerfield.
All through his years of consulting, he managed to seek out methods to mix his love of talking and connecting with individuals, together with his inclination for humor. “I created a recreation present set for one of many firms,” Fred remembers. “I all the time appeared to make sure that the message was enjoyable, primarily based on a basis of integrity and worth.” That recreation present set was like signal language; it got here in helpful when Fred’s Comic-Author-Actor daughter Jo Firestone known as asking for assist in creating this occasion.
Whereas Punderdome is impressed by the O. Henry Pun-Off that’s been held for 45 years in Austin (slogan: “Jest for a wordy trigger!”), and the title a parody of an occasion by the title ‘Thunderdome 3000’, Punderdome much less formal – and never surprisingly primarily based on a basis of integrity and worth. Contestants enroll and choose their nom de pun, together with Do Pun to Others, Edible Punties, Nicely He Quipped and Black Punther; mine is Kenny Dewitt (Can-He-Do-It). 5 – 6 contestants at a time compete in heats. The hosts drop a class (say “Soup Substances,” “Junk Meals and Sweet” or “Feminist Principle”) and contestants get 90 seconds to consider puns, which may be so simple as rapid-fire phrase affiliation or as elaborate as a sonnet.
Listed below are a few of the occasion’s critiques:
- NYC’s hilarious cult-favorite pun competitors … each an endearingly selfmade and impressively high-caliber present throughout which astute wordsmiths spin intelligent and really humorous puns to a packed home.” –The New York Instances
- GQ Journal shouted the Punderdome® as one of many “5 Funniest Nights in America,” and quoted comic Chris Gethard on why it’s nice: “The group. You’d assume you have been on the Roman Colosseum. They’re passionate to a degree that feels harmful. And to reiterate, this can be a pun competitors.”
- The New Yorker’s “Battle of Wits: A Report from the Punderdome”: “Are you able to think about a stronger treatment for the weekday blues? Right here was concentrated, unabashed silliness that I longed to bottle and smuggle out in my purse.”
- Swing American: “The mind on show is beautiful. Hardly a pun is repeated all through all the evening. What Punderdome finally ends up reaching is the transformation of the supply of the lowly pun to one of many biggest shows of human ingenuity up to date New York has to supply.”
What Is A Pun?
A pun is a sort of phrase play that creates a secondary that means to a phrase through the use of phrases that sound or look alike, or have a number of meanings. There are numerous various kinds of puns, together with homographic, homophonic, and the Tom Swifty:
- The homographic pun performs on phrases which have multiple that means, regardless of being spelled identically…just like the LEGO blocks above.
- Homophonic puns may be simpler to assemble, since they depend on phrases that merely sound alike, slightly than a single phrase with a number of meanings…ergo an origami occasion being televised on “paperview / pay-per-view”.
- A Tom Swifty is a sort of pun that performs on the connection of adverbs to verbs. For instance: When he gave her a bouquet of flowers, she stated…lackadaisically, “It seems like one thing is lacking.”
How Does An Occasion Model Differ From A Company Model?
Scope and objective are what differentiate the 2. Company branding goals for consistency and a recognizable picture for a corporation to make use of in promoting its services or products. Occasion branding creates an expertise for every occasion, and executed appropriately a aggressive benefit.
Entrepreneurs usually speak about aggressive benefit as whether it is one factor. At The Blake Mission, we consider there are plenty of methods you’ll be able to obtain a lead in a market.
1. An Emotional Benefit: How your clients really feel about your model that they don’t really feel about different manufacturers.
2. A Distinctive Benefit: The way you do issues which might be uniquely compelling to these most essential to your future.
3. A Connective Benefit: The way you create significant connections in methods that’s totally different from what others do.
Making use of every, here’s a take a look at what makes the Punderdome event-brand work so properly:
Its Emotional Benefit: Unity, and fervour with out an oz of hate: “No person will get harm. We’ve a no hate coverage, and I don’t endure fools frivolously,” stated Fred Firestone.
Its Distinctive Benefit: Punderdome stands other than the trade customary in that the occasion is co-created – for the Puntestant’s (who’ve stage names) it’s predominantly unscripted as they study the topic-of-competition from Firestone on-stage; the viewers determines the end result.
- Today the occasion is hosted by Fred Firestone with previous Punderdome Champs Lingo Star, Daft Pun, Lexi Kahn, Phrases Nightmare, Toby Continued, Boogie Momster, Insta Grammar & extra!
- In 2016 an everyday ‘Domer who labored at Penguin requested Firestone to collaborate and put collectively a pitch to Penguin Random Home which created the licensed recreation; with the sport, one can host Punishing occasions within the consolation of their very own dwelling.
Its Connective Benefit: How does Punderdome join with individuals that’s totally different from what others do? The ‘Dome is a spectator sport, and the viewers is linked with the end result – they’re a chunk of the dome – the noise is the center and soul of the occasion. Pun-masters can be decided by the calibrated “Human Clap-O-Meter” who “precisely and scientifically” (insert eyeroll as a result of that’s how eye roll) assesses ranges of viewers applause…it will get loud and listening to safety gear is really useful!
Model Safety. In March of 2012, Firestone made the case to register Punderdome® as with out safety it’s too simple for individuals to take it – and as process the US Patent and Trademark Workplace revealed it for opposition; like thumbs, it was opposed. Nonetheless, like a banana he had enchantment and Firestone was lastly granted registration January 2013 and simply renewed the mark in 2022.
- Firestone makes use of alert providers to police the mark, and kindly put a cease to infringement.
Listed below are the parts of The Punderdome® – NYC’s LIVE Comedy Pun Compuntition
Foremost Occasion – the All-Star Match Of Pun Champions, the place punsters ship two-minute pun-stand-up routines, after solely two minutes of preparation! Punderdome® Champs and others will pun it out for ’Dome bragging rights and “As Seen on TV”-type prizes!
“Can You Beat A ’Dome Champ?” the place a Challenger takes on a Punderdome® Champ in a one-on-one 2-minute Pun-Off.
- Challenger can decide to get subject 24 hours upfront and use any human and non-human assets (together with AI) in preparation; ‘Dome Champ will get no advance discover AND learns what subject is when the PUN-OFF begins! Winner Get As much as $100!
- Notice on the December 7, 2022, Punderdome, Wall Road Journal reporter Ben Eisen challenged a Punderdome Champ in “Can You Beat a ’Dome Champ?” and ready by digesting four-hours of ChatGPT analysis. He went down in defeat however did survive to put in writing about it on the entrance web page of the WSJ: “I Entered a Pun Competitors. My Jokes Have been Written by an AI Chatbot”
Pun Battle Royale: Six people who sign-up on the bar (doorways open at 7:00) can have an opportunity to punticipate within the Pun Battle Royale.
- There can be PPPPs (Beforehand Ready Punderdome® Parodies and Puntifications) to entertain the gang while Punticiapants take their 2-minutes to arrange their on-the-spot set on the given subject.
September 20, 2023, will mark the 124th reside present (there have been 16 digital in the course of the pandemic) at which I can be taking up final month’s champion Religion Yusko (aka Scorching Cross Puns) within the “Can You Beat A ‘Dome Champ” as Kenny Dewitt.
The success of the occasion’s litmus check – the target is to make sure decimal of laughter up as loud as doable. With the constructed up noms-des-puns and wins, there’s a sense of possession with the gang and an occasion model from which to take cues.
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