PRESS RELEASE: Emmy Award Winning Comedian Ian Karmel and The Kazoo Kid of Viral Meme Fame to Join the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ Largest Kazoo Ensemble Attempt on March 28, 2025

MACON, Ga (March 6, 2025) – Visit Macon is pleased to announce the first round of guests who will be joining the buzzing crowd in Macon, Georgia at the Atrium Health Amphitheatre on Friday, March 28, 2025 as part of the International Cherry Blossom Festival events! All musical acts, guest appearances and a comedy set by Ian Karmel will be included in the already announced ticket price of only $5.

Ian Karmel is an Emmy award winning LA-based stand-up comedian, actor, and writer originally from Portland, Oregon. Ian was head writer for the Emmy award winning The Late Late Show with James Corden, and was one of the founding writers in the show’s 2015 re-creation. Previously, he was a staff writer and round table regular on E!’s Chelsea Lately. Ian’s latest stand up special, Comfort Beyond God’s Foresight, is now available to stream on Youtube.

WATCH IAN KARMEL IN HIS VIRAL ROLL AS THE KAZOO KID AT THIS LINK

Ian’s debut memoir, T-Shirt Swim Club, co-written with his sister Alisa Karmel, was recently released by the Penguin Random House imprint Harmony & Rodale Books. His stand-up has been featured on Conan, The Late Late Show, Comedy Central, Netflix’s The Comedy Line Up: Part 1, and as Just for Laughs New Face in 2013. His debut comedy album, 9.2 on Pitchfork, was released in 2015. Ian hosts the weekly podcast All Fantasy Everything, from Headgum studios. Featured on many best of lists, it’s a lighthearted show where funny people and experts come together to fantasy draft pop culture.

Hometown hero, Ian played an instrumental role in Portland’s comedy renaissance and was voted Portland’s Funniest Person in their inaugural contest. He is also beloved for his appearances on IFC’s Portlandia, the Blazers wrap-up show Talkin’ Ball, and long running weekly column in thePortland Mercury. With roots in improv and theatre, Ian’s training includes The Groundlings and the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Ian currently tours as much as possible and regularly performs around Los Angeles.

Brett Ambler is an actor and musician, perhaps still best known for his role as the Kazoo Kid – an enthusiastic eight-year-old boy playing the kazoo inYou on Kazoo, a 1989 30-minute sing-along/play-along video. The video, which came with a kazoo for viewers to learn and play along, later resurfaced in 2016 as a meme, pushing Ambler back into the spotlight. Today, Brett resides in Colorado where he continues to perform on stage and has an entire box of kazoos, just in case the occasion to play it arises.

Join thousands of visitors & Maconites during the annual International Cherry Blossom Festival to attempt the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the Largest Kazoo Ensemble. We encourage everyone to reserve yours as early as possible to help keep count toward reaching the required attendance.

DATE: Friday, March 28, 2025

TIME: Gates open at 4pm; Attempt at 6pm; Performance to follow

WHERE: Atrium Health Amphitheater, 3657 Eisenhower Pkwy, Macon, GA

Admission is only $5 and can be purchased HERE or at the Macon Centreplex Box Office
Children 6 & Under are FREE.
All proceeds will go to the Otis Redding Foundation & Otis Redding Center for the Arts

SPONSORED BY: Visit Macon, Cherry Blossom Festival, Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce, Choose Macon, Otis Redding Foundation, and many more Macon Community Organizations!

Kazoo expert Rick Hubbard will facilitate the attempt to bring the World Record back to America- and specifically home to Macon, Georgia. Visit Macon will provide kazoos to everyone participating/in attendance, and a keepsake upon exiting so that attendees can prove they were part of this world record attempt experience!

“We are so excited to welcome Ian Karmel to the Atrium Health Amphitheatre as an added incentive to draw people into this event! Along with the appearance by ‘The Kazoo Kid’ and Rick Hubbard of Kazoobie Kazoos leading the five minute medley of kazoo playing are just the beginning of the line-up of activities we hope will entice an audience of all ages to join us!” explains Gary Wheat, President & CEO of Visit Macon. “Bring your family, friends, colleagues, interest groups, social clubs… whomever you can! Let’s break the record! Bringing this title back from London, England is all about making some good noise and drawing attention to what Macon, Georgia has to offer visitors!

The current Guinness World Record for the “Largest Kazoo Ensemble” of 5,190 participants has been held in London, England since 2011.

Why the Kazoo? Legend has it that freed slave Alabama Vest created the musical instrument we know and love as the kazoo in Macon, Georgia in the 1840s. Inspired by the African horn-mirliton or onion flute, Vest brought his original prototype- made from a simple wooden tube with a piece of paper attached to it- to local clockmaker Thaddeus Von Clegg. Together they produced a design that they officially debuted at the Georgia State Fair in Macon in 1852, calling it a "Down South Submarine." Be sure to visit the pop-up exhibit at the Tubman African American Museum during the month of March to learn more!

For more information, visit visitmacon.org/kazoo and/or please contact Visit Macon’s Director of Marketing, Marisa Rodgers, at (478) 743-1074 x106 or email mrodgers@visitmacon.org.

About Visit Macon: Visit Macon is a non-profit 501(c)6 whose mission is to unify and lead our community in marketing the Macon-Bibb County area as a superior visitor and meeting destination. Visit Macon promotes Macon, Georgia to travel writers, meeting planners, group tour operators, and leisure travelers in an effort to bring people and revenues into the community and area businesses. visitmacon.org