607 can crow about setting animal-nose record

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A comedy festival in Michigan is pecking away at chicken-themed world records.

In 2011, organizers of Gilda's LaughFest in Grand Rapids set a Guinness World Record for the most rubber chickens tossed — 925.

On Thursday evening, 607 revelers packed a downtown city block and donned chicken beaks, clucking their way to the record for the most people wearing animal noses at a single venue.

Photos: LaughFest chicken beak World Record

Assuming, that is, the folks at Guinness World Records agree.

Organizers said those who braved the 30-degree temperatures wore the beaks for 11 minutes and 39 seconds, eclipsing the 10 minutes mandated by Guinness.

Since there isn't a current world record in the animal nose-wearing category, if the paperwork checks out, then those who busted a move to the Chicken Dance have set the mark.

"What an event. It really brought the community together. It was incredible," Sharon Irwin, a 54-year-old legal secretary from nearby Kentwood, said as she was leaving the fenced-in area known as "the coop."

The event served as the official kickoff to Gilda's LaughFest, which runs through March 18 and is sponsored by the nonprofit Gilda's Club Grand Rapids. The festival honors the memory of comedian Gilda Radner, who died in 1989. This year's headliners include comedians Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Short and Kevin Nealon.

Radner's brother, Michael, was on hand for Thursday's beak-wearing record.

"It's a wonderful legacy of my sister, and I'm so happy to be a part of it," he said.

Gilda's LaughFest began last year, and more than 55,000 people from 25 states and Canada attended. All proceeds from the festival benefit the cancer, grief and other support programs that are offered through Gilda's Club Grand Rapids.

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Online:

http://www.laughfestgr.org