A RIVER RUNS THROUGH WIT - WASHOUT! HERE COMES THE PUN-OFF

Here are the early results from the 32nd Annual O.Henry Pun-Off World Championships held in Austin, TX on Saturday, May 16 2009.

PUNNIEST OF SHOW

(L to R) Eirik Ott, Andy Balinsky, and Kirk Miller. Photo by Clay Leben.

First Place in P.O.S. went to Kirk Miller (Richardson, TX) who scored an 39 out of a possible 40 points with the judges, delivering a riveting collection from his pop's hardware story. Kirk saw to wit that no one would be bored with his bits by offering a twist at the end for awl.

Second place honors went to Andy Balinsky (Austin, TX) who also scored 39 points for his treatise on the talk-sick state of the economy. What seemed initially to be an acronym-moanious assault, was quickly revealed to be a well crafted piratey. (At least that's the way high-sea it)

The Bronze medal went to Eirik Ott (Austin, TX) for his always-poetic and highly-inventive twist on titles of Beatles' tunes. Eirik also received a score of 39 from our Fab 4 judges who were apparently happy to see that the egged-man finally offered a presentation as clean as white albumin.

As is often the case, a tally of judges scores in Punniest of Show showed no clear winner as the top three contestants shared the identical scores of 39 points. The final standing of the above contenders was determined by an impartial measure of audience applause enhanced by further voting of the judge panel.

PUNSLINGERS

(L to R) Andy Balinsky (mmMVP),Punslinger Winners: Benjamin Ziek, Matt Pollock, Steve Nagle. Photo by Clay Leben

Sparring in the final 3-way heat on the topic of "COOKING (no food)", were Matt Pollock (Austin, TX), Benjamin Ziek (Glendale CA) and Steve Nagle (Austin, TX). After an es-spatula heated battle, Steve was the first to make the jump from the flying pun and into the foyer. Continuing the battle on the same topic Pollock valiantly held off Ziek to oven-chili become the wiener, leaving Ben would wok away with only a second degree burn.

McClughan Memorial Most Viable Punster Award (mmMVP)

By a vote of his peers, Andy Balinsky (2nd place in Punniest of Show) gathered further honors by receiving the McClughan Memorial MVP Award.*

(L to R) Gary Hallock presents mmMVP award to Andy Balinsky. Photo by Brian Oakley.

In Summary

Although it seemed for an anxious hour that we were about to experience our first-ever "wash out," our hard corpse fans and punsters lingered hopefully long enough to enroll in our "wetness protection program." With a great outpouring of generosity, the downtown Hilton Austin Hotel threw us a lifeline and reeled us into their 6th floor ballroom. The contestants, judges and audience were quickly regrouped and the show commenced only about 2 hours behind schedule.

A broad blanket of thanks and gratitude is hereby spread across the soggy heads of the many folks who helped us snatch this victory from the muddy jaws of disaster. Despite the many dramatic twists and turns we experienced this year, we managed to produce a memorable experience, a happy ending and an event that was well attended, albeit extended.

Although our greatly anticipated LIVE WEBCAST quickly fell victim to the deluge, we did capture some acceptable video footage of the event so you may expect to see some of this displayed soon in some format. More details will be fourth coming later. Visit punpunpun.com for transcripts of many P.O.S. routines, photos, links to video and many other interesting things.

The date for next year's event/contest will be Saturday, May 22, 2010, back at the O.Henry Museum in Austin, TX. Until then, please keep your wit dry and your puns wit.

You're welcome,

Gary Hallock

Write me! gary [at] hallock.net