Meet the man behind NYC’s favorite pun-filled showdown

Meet the man behind NYC’s favorite pun-filled showdown

It’s a scorching Tuesday night in Gowanus and Fred Firestone has his noise-canceling headphones on standby.

He’ll need them when some 400 raucous millennials pour into the Littlefield venue, looking to be entertained by one thing: puns.

“I’m quite certain my hearing is not what it was when we first started in 2011,” said the 66-year-old. “The earphones allow [the crowds’ cheering] to be tolerable.”

Fred is the host of the long-running Punderdome event, which he co-founded with his comedian daughter, Jo. This Tuesday, the headline editors of The Post will trot out their best play on words for the fourth annual Punderdome Special New York Post Edition at the Highline Ballroom in Chelsea. NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan is the celebrity judge, and tickets will be available at the door for $20.

When Jo had the idea for a pun competition, she called her dad, a former lawyer and motivational speaker in St. Louis, who had no formal comedy background.

“He was a lot of fun growing up. He was known for doing magic tricks with my friends, even when we were way too old and could clearly see which hand the quarter was in,” Jo told The Post.

“[And he] used to make us play games at the dinner table.”

The grandfather of two has been holding court ever since, flying in from St. Louis each month, along with his retired school-teacher wife, Marilyn. Fred likes to warm up the masses with classics like, “If you see your friend Jack on an airplane, don’t scream out, “Hi, Jack!”

Potential players sign up the day of the competition for one of 18 spots in the game-show style event that elevates clever wordplay into an art form. Punsters are eliminated from the first three rounds until two remain to square off in the finals; a winner is determined by a human clap-o-meter (a person who assesses audience applause).

On a recent night, Ally Spier, a 30-year-old writer from Boerum Hill who goes by Words Nightmare (other stage names include Forest Wittier and Punda Express), wowed the audience with: “I considered going vegan, but I just like a meteor diet.”

“Punning isn’t cheeseball ‘dad humor.’ It’s quick, hard-hitting, not eye-rolling,” said Fred.

He even believes punning might just be the secret to longevity.

“Any time you have a passion, it pushes the envelope of youth,” he said. “We all have to get up and say, ‘What are we going to rock and roll with today? It’s the stairway to heaven.’ ”

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