Comedy Cures Foundation is a great organization and we’re more than happy to pass along publicity. Here’s an article that talks of cancer survivors and how they got through their ordeal with a little help of some Comedy Cure comedians.
By Dr. Jay Aldersberg of WABC-TV in New York
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The diagnosis of cancer seems like a death sentence to some.
Seven’s On Call with Dr. Jay Adlersberg.
“Southerners are more gentile, we candy coat things,” comedienne Karith Foster said. “New Yorkers tend to be, I don’t know…evil?”
Foster had the room in the palm of her hand at the comedy club in Manhattan. But the audience didn’t pay to get in. They were even served free lunch before the show. That’s because it is “Laughing Lunch,” a monthly program of the Comedy Cures Foundation, started by Saranne Rothberg. The idea of laugh therapy came to her in 1999 after she was crushed by the diagnosis of stage four breast cancer. Anticipating her chemotherapy, she bought some stand-up comedy tapes.
“I started to listen to the punch lines and I started to laugh,” she said. “And I realized if I could still laugh, this cancer was not going to get me.”
So she’s sharing that view with her audience, including cancer patients.
“I’ve had cancer and I need to laugh,” cancer survivor Alice Cohen said.
And stress sufferers.
“My one daughter and her husband almost died this year, brain tumor and breast cancer, so it was quite a year,” audience member Edith Siegel said. “And I was in the hospital three and a half times, I need a laugh.”
And those just searching for direction.
“It was a place for me to come to help get my life back in order and back together,” audience member Eric Garrett said.
They’re helped along by the “Knuckleheads.”
“I came in here for a shot of Jager and a Coors Light, and you automatically think I’m from Long Island,” Knucklehead Spencer White said.
“Well, because this is a hardware store,” the other Knucklehead responded.
“My wife is a breast cancer survivor,” White said. “And Michael, the other Knucklehead, he lost a brother to cancer back in the 80s. So it’s close to us and we enjoy doing it.”
The show was so much fun, I, Dr. Jay, had to try my hand at standup.
A doctor walks in to a hospital room, goes up to the guy in the bed and says “Mr. Jones, you’re going to need that operation.” Mr. Jones says, “I want a second opinion.” The doctor says, “You’re ugly, too.”
The room was dead silent.
Unlike me, standup comic Modi didn’t fall flat.
“I’m fixing my place up,” he said. “Well, I’m not actually fixing it up. We’re Jewish, we hire a contractor.”
The comics actually get paid by the foundation. Many contribute it back.
“We’re just doing our jokes,” Modi said. “Making haha. And they’re laughing and feeling better, and taking something away from it. It’s great.”
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