(UPDATED: 1:24 AM) WEST PALM BEACH – Donald Evans may never enjoy a three hour drive through the Florida darkness more than he will on Wednesday night.
During the drive from West Palm Beach to Kissimmee, Evans will have plenty of opportunity to joyously reflect on the set that only hours prior earned him the title of Florida’s Funniest Comedian.
“I was telling Joe Latham, I feel like it’s going to hit me like an hour into my drive home,” Evans said. “You just don’t really think of yourself as being able to get to something like that.”
A stand-up comic for less than four years, Evans, 29, won the 2022 Florida’s Funniest Comedian competition by defeating 10 other competitors at the Palm Beach Improv. He did so in his first ever performance in Palm Beach County.
“When I got off I genuinely felt great about how I did,” Evans said. “I told one of the comics, I don’t think I could have done any better tonight. That was a good feeling.”
Simply reaching the finals wasn’t a lock for Evans. He wasn’t one of the three winners to advance from the Tampa opening round, but contest organizer Rene Harte chose Evans as a wildcard selection into the west division semifinals.
“The level of talent to go through, it’s really an honor, genuinely,” Evans said.
By winning the contest, Evans earned a weekend’s worth of performances at each of the eight comedy clubs participating in the contest.
St. Petersburg-area comic Jay Legend nabbed the runner-up spot, along with a weekend stint at the Palm Beach Improv, while performing four years to the day since he first took the stage as a stand-up comic.
“It was an amazing competition, amazing comics, amazing show,” Legend said. “Up and down the roster, everybody did their job. It was good to be a part of it and see the other people around the state working.”
Fort Myer’s comic Nathan Wallace, a wildcard entrant into the finals, finished third.
“I’m super stoked about third place,” said Wallace, who also reached the finals in 2019. “Most people would be like, Oh, third place? But if you think about the long term, this is third place out of like 200 comedians. Just to make it into the Top 3 is unbelievable.”
More than 200 Sunshine State comedians applied to enter the contest. Approximately 150 competed at one of the eight first round sites across Florida. Twenty four comics advanced to one of the two semifinals – one on each coach.
Comics garnering the top three spots all come from central or west Florida.
Evans is the eighth comic to win the title, and the first since Cam Bertrand emerged victorious from the 2019 contest. Bertand reached the finals via a wildcard that year.
COVID concerns prevented the contest from taking place in 2020 and 2021.
As the reigning champ, Bertrand performed the customary duty of headlining the following year’s contest. Ken Miller, the 2013 winner, hosted the night’s festivities.
Along with the three winners, Nadeem Awad, Ricky Cruz, Luis Diaz, Danny Johnson, Wes Johnson, Joe Latham, John Loveless, and Dewayne Williams comprised the night’s contenders for the crown.
Each comic performed a six-minute set.
More than 400 comedy fans attended Wednesday night’s Florida’s Funniest Comedian finals.
