Grand Rapids - LaughFest 2012 opened its 10-day festival with 607 chicken beak wearers dancing the “Chicken Dance” to set a new record.
The Bob and Tom All Stars showcase, Martin Short, Sinbad and more LaughFest headliners soon will be in town for Gilda’s LaughFest, inspired by the late Gilda Radner, an original cast member of “Saturday Night Live.”
But the second festival of laughter for the health of it opened today with more than 600 people wearing paper chicken beaks for more than 11 minutes to set a brand-new record for the largest gathering of people all wearing animal noses – in this case yellow chicken beaks, dancing to the polka music of Diddle Styx.
“Everybody dance! You’ll stay warmer,” encouraged Leann Arkema, president and CEO of Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids, named for the late Gilda Radner, who died in 1989 of ovarian cancer.
A preliminary count recorded 649 people in the official LaughFest “Chicken Coop” downtown next to the Grand Rapids Art Museum. But official chicken-beak spotters disqualified a few for removing their beaks during the 11 minute, 39-second stunt.
Details of the stunt will be forwarded to Guinness World Records for certification.
LaughFest 2011 opened with a rubber chicken toss in Rosa Parks Circle. A total of 925 faux fowl were flung to set a new record for the Guinness Book of World, shattering the previous record of 265 set near Boston.
Dozens of last year’s participants brought those birds back with them for this year’s stunt to open the second LaughFest, which continues through March 18 in downtown Grand Rapids with additional events in Holland and Lowell.
Radner’s brother, Michael Radner, of Detroit, returned for the second time to encourage the participants in today’s stunt.
“Gilda loved to make people laugh, and people loved to laugh at her,” he said. “This event is so wonderful because it leaves so many people laughing.”
The Bob and Tom All Stars showcase, Martin Short, Sinbad and more LaughFest headliners soon will be in town for Gilda’s LaughFest, inspired by the late Gilda Radner, an original cast member of “Saturday Night Live.”
But the second festival of laughter for the health of it opened today with more than 600 people wearing paper chicken beaks for more than 11 minutes to set a brand-new record for the largest gathering of people all wearing animal noses – in this case yellow chicken beaks, dancing to the polka music of Diddle Styx.
“Everybody dance! You’ll stay warmer,” encouraged Leann Arkema, president and CEO of Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids, named for the late Gilda Radner, who died in 1989 of ovarian cancer.
A preliminary count recorded 649 people in the official LaughFest “Chicken Coop” downtown next to the Grand Rapids Art Museum. But official chicken-beak spotters disqualified a few for removing their beaks during the 11 minute, 39-second stunt.
Details of the stunt will be forwarded to Guinness World Records for certification.
LaughFest 2011 opened with a rubber chicken toss in Rosa Parks Circle. A total of 925 faux fowl were flung to set a new record for the Guinness Book of World, shattering the previous record of 265 set near Boston.
Dozens of last year’s participants brought those birds back with them for this year’s stunt to open the second LaughFest, which continues through March 18 in downtown Grand Rapids with additional events in Holland and Lowell.
Radner’s brother, Michael Radner, of Detroit, returned for the second time to encourage the participants in today’s stunt.
“Gilda loved to make people laugh, and people loved to laugh at her,” he said. “This event is so wonderful because it leaves so many people laughing.”
No comments:
Post a Comment