Chance Seymour, a firefighter with the Springfield (MA) Fire Department, and Damien Esperanza, his contest mentor and professional comedian, proved a winning team. Chance won the $5,000 regional prize for America's Funniest Firefighter for New England. FFVC expects more comedy competitions to go nationwide to raise money to get early cancer screening kits into the hands of firefighters.
On May 17, 2024, Firefighters Vs Cancer sponsored a fundraiser comedy show in Boston, Massachusetts. The show was the brainstorm of Harry Conforti, a legend in the Boston comedy scene. Calling on his near 50 years of comedy show experience, Harry produced our show billed as The Search For America’s Funniest Firefighter. It proved to be a success, and was the first of national comedy competitions planned.
Now how to find firefighters funny enough to take part? Ed Kelly, General President of the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), and a Boston firefighter, sent invitations to every firefighter in New England. A team of professional comedians reviewed the short videos submitted and selected six.
Here's the goal: Firefighters Vs Cancer will seek corporate sponsors to finance an additional seven comedy shows nationally. Then, after the completion of the eight regional shows, the winners will compete for the title of America’s Funniest Firefighter, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
All this will create awareness nationally to the high cancer risks among firefighters. We will highlight and support such business and corporate sponsors.
The FFVC mission is to reduce occupational cancer and we look to corporate sponsors to join us in our battle to protect firefighters.