So after two long weeks of competition and too many misspellings of the word “funniest”, a winner has been decided. At the Phinals last night (hey-o!), the judges, comprised of comedians (Kevin Brennan, B-Phlat), industry folks and other Philadelphia media members voted Anton Shuford as the 2009 Philly’s Phunniest Person.

Jared Gillespie took second place and Chip Chantry took third.

Going into the competition, Anton was certainly one of the favorites out of the 153 comedians to win it all. But Anton tells stories, and as a regular feature performer at Helium, he’s usually given 20-25 minutes to do so. How would he do with six minutes when every second counts? Turns out he did more than fine: the first line of his set for every round was “this story doesn’t have a beginning, so lets get into it,” quickly getting to the point. From there, a story about catching a foul ball at a baseball game with a constant stream of laughs and then a few more jokes with what time he had left.

I had the opportunity to briefly talk with Anton after he won:

Helium will host a show this Wednesday with all of the finalists (except for Anton because he may be in Wildwood) at 8PM.

Share: