On May 17, 2024, Firefighters Vs Cancer sponsored a comedy show in Boston, Massachusetts. The show was the brainstorm of Harry Conforti, a legend in the Boston comedy scene. Calling on his near fifty years of comedy show experience, Harry produced a show billed as The Search For America’s Funniest Firefighter. The concept was creative, very experimental, and, frankly, daring. The industry norm demands “proof of concept,” an insistence where the producer puts the show’s concept in front of a live audience and watches what happens. From the very beginning, there were lots of moving parts and many untested theories were involved.
Chief among them was where to find firefighters interested enough and funny enough to take part. In order to make it happen, Firefighters Vs Cancer sought his help of Ed Kelly, General President of the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). Ed is a Boston firefighter who supports our efforts, so, at his direction, the IAFF sent emails to every firefighter in New England inviting them to participate. A team of professional comedians reviewed all the short videos submitted for consideration and selected six.
The Search For America’s Funniest Firefighter was so successful that Firefighters Vs Cancer decided to actively seek one (or several) corporate sponsors to finance an additional seven comedy shows. Then, after the completion of the eight regional shows, the winners will compete for the title America’s Funniest Firefighter at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
It is our belief that having a corporate sponsor (or sponsors) for seven additional comedy shows, and a finals in Las Vegas, will have a monumental impact on our goal of getting the word out to mainstream North America and alert them to the plight of their firefighters. The logic is flawless - corporations who support good causes will always make their involvement public; they will tell their customers what they’re doing to support groups and causes that they, the customers, also support.
Supporting Firefighters Vs Cancer is a perfect vehicle for any corporation to inform their customers of their involvement because “Everybody loves firefighters and everybody hates cancer.”
It is logically impossible for anyone to be against our mission of attacking occupational cancer in firefighters and, too, it’s logically impossible to find fault with any corporation that joins us in the battle to protect firefighters.