Heidi Mole

Heidi’s largest accomplishment in life thus far has been acquiring self-esteem and “Brady Bunch” memorabilia.

After surviving life in a small village with a highly dysfunctional family Heidi turned to stand-up comedy as a form of therapy.

When not performing, Heidi enjoys swing dance, hula-hooping, and judging people.

Laura Salvas

Laura Salvas is pretty effing wonderful so please read carefully. Laura’s been doing standup for, like, a year now. So far, career highlights include her spot as a finalist in the 2009 Toronto Comedy Brawl and this thing you’re at tonight. Laura also does lots of sketch comedy as part of her troupe Warm Summer Hotness and is currently training as part of The Second City conservatory program and through Impatient Theatre Co. Laura has been part of various improv show casts, including (currently) Vanguard School of Comedy’s Jenkins Syndrome and (previously) Kingston’s Saturday Night at the Improv and The Improv Show. She directed the improv troupe at Ryerson University, where she earned her journalism degree, and has been involved with the Canadian Improv Games national high school tournament for more than a decade as a player, trainer and judge. Don’t let the third person fool you – Laura wrote this bio herself. Thank my $40,000 Ryerson journalism degree for the impeccable grammar.

HUGH’Sroom

http://www.hughsroom.com

Bonnie Dean

Media Relations

Contact: media@standupforyoursisters.com

Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto

Imagine A PLACE…

Where you and your family and friends can gather to explore the journey of cancer in a relaxed, home-like setting.

That place is Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto.

Together, members SHARE their experiences, FEEL the empowerment of social interaction, and REJOICE in the renewed energy that community brings.

Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto is a place where women, men, teens and children with cancer, their families and friends, can join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to one’s treatment of choice.

Whether you’re looking for an understanding ear, a chance to laugh, or an informational resource, Gilda’s Club is the place to learn how to live with cancer, whatever the outcome.

Gilda’s Club also welcomes long-term cancer survivors and those who have lost someone to cancer. Our philosophy is based on the belief that a diagnosis of cancer affects the whole family, as well as friends, and that no one should have to face cancer alone.

Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto is a non-profit, registered charitable organization. We are funded by donations from individuals, foundations and corporations.

There are many ways to give. You can make a donation online, be part of our monthly giving program, donate a single sum in celebration or in memory of a loved one, or leave a bequest in your will – every gift helps.

You may also wish to donate your time, participate in one of our fundraising events, or organize your own fundraiser for us. Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto provides many meaningful ways for you to get involved.

Gilda Radner

Gilda’s Club, named for comedienne Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live fame, was created because of Gilda’s wish that no one should face cancer alone. After Gilda’s death from ovarian cancer in 1989, co-founders Joanna Bull and Gene Wilder began the process of launching the first Gilda’s Club in New York City in 1995. Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto opened its doors in October 2001.

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For more information about Gilda’s Club, or to make a donation, please call
Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto : (416)214-9898 x 504
http://www.gildasclubtoronto.org/

Media Release

Female comics do it standing up… for Gilda’s Club

Toronto, ON – On January 27, some of Toronto’s funniest new “chicks with shticks” are putting on a comedy show guaranteed to titillate your funny bone. And raise money for a great cause.

StandUp For Your Sisters, a benefit for Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto, is a night of stand-up featuring 12 female comics who are making a name for themselves on the stages of Toronto’s comedy scene. Hosted by one of Canada’s funniest women, Elvira Kurt (popcultured, The Tonight Show), and headlined by Dawn Whitwell (Girl School, The Jon Dore Show), the event promises a night of great comedy to beat the winter doldrums.

StandUp For Your Sisters initially began as a way for a group of burgeoning comedians, most of whom have less than six months’ experience, to showcase their comedic talents in a scene still dominated by male comics.

“On any given night at most of the ‘mainstream’ open mics, you’re lucky to see even one woman in a lineup of ten comics,” says organizer Daniela Saioni. “Yet, when we do play these clubs, we usually do well. Maybe it’s because more than half the audience are women. So why the lack of stage time? We decided to make our own.”

But the jokes aren’t all about sugar and spice. “Oh, some of us do get raunchy. But when a woman in her thirties does a joke about sex, it tends to resonate with the kind of truth that incites wine-through-the-nose laughter,” Saioni says.

The women decided to donate any proceeds to charity and Gilda’s Club was the obvious choice: they have all been touched by cancer in some way and thought it would be fitting to honour a charity named after the late comedian Gilda Radner – a woman who helped clear the way for women in comedy.

StandUp takes place at Hugh’s Room, a 200-seat venue located in the heart of Roncesvalles village. Tickets are only $20, with all proceeds going to Gilda’s Club. A silent auction will also take place and includes donations by Roots and Alliance Films.

With this much estrogen-fueled comedy, it’s a great night to come and stand up for your sisters, mothers, daughters and friends.

About Gilda’s Club

The mission of Gilda’s Club is to provide a meeting place where men, women, teens and children living with cancer, as well as their families and friends, can join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to their treatment of choice. Gilda’s Club is a non-profit organization where membership is free. For more information about Gilda’s Club, please visit their website at www.gildasclubtoronto.org

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Bonnie Dean at by email or 647-377-4317.

The Little Comedy Show That Could

It takes balls to put on an all-female standup comedy show, especially when nine of the 12 comics have less than six months’ experience. Charge a ticket fee of $20 in tough economic times with full confidence that you’ll pack the house, raise money for charity and get solid laughs? It’s so crazy it just might work!

For our first blog, I wanted to share with you the story of how our show, “StandUp For Your Sisters: A Benefit for Gilda’s Club”, came to be.

All of the non-feature performers on this show met each other just this summer at stand-up comedy classes with Dawn Whitwell at the Second City Training Centre and Bad Dog Theatre. For many of us, it was a life-changing process. We are all over 25 (some of us well over) and come from a variety of life experiences,  the kinds of experiences which could lead one to either drinking or stand-up.   In some walks of life, aging is seen as a liability, but in comedy, age ain’t nothin’ but a bonus. If you’ve been paying attention, the older you are, the more likely you are to recognize and admit to your individual demons.

Following our mentor’s sage advice to tell the truth about life as we see it, we soon learned that we had no shortage of material to draw from. After weeks of working hard to develop our first five-minute sets, our student shows were packed to the rafters and echoed with encouraging laughs (no small feat when you consider that the Second City Mainstage seats over 300).

We got a surge of confidence to keep going, until some of us started hitting the open mic nights and reality hit – we soon realized that stage time is hard to come by. Especially, it seems, for new female comics. On any given amateur night at the mainstream clubs, you’re lucky to see 10% female comics in the line-up, yet women often make up at least half the audience.  If there were so many of us out there, why were we the exception rather than the rule?  We decided to put on our own show, and bring the audience to us.

It’s no secret that women travel in packs and can “bring the crowd”, in comedy parlance. Unlike the average twenty-something guy telling jokes at open mics, as women of a certain age we all have contacts in the various professional worlds we walk in. We knew from experience that we could fill a 200-seat venue like Hugh’s Room.  So when one of the comics, Leanne Mladen, said, “We should do this for charity… let’s call it StandUp For Your Sisters,” we were immediately energized to make it happen. We brainstormed various causes, and Gilda’s Club soon became the clear contender; we had all been touched by cancer in some way, and we had all been inspired to get on stage in the first place by female comedians like Gilda Radner. We were nothing short of honoured when Gilda’s Club said yes to our offbeat idea for a fundraiser.

We’re not hiding the fact that most of us are new comics – we’re banking on it.  We are hoping the curiosity factor of it all will pique a ticket buyer’s interest. When we asked Dawn Whitwell to headline and Elvira Kurt to host, and both agreed (with full knowledge of our material), we knew we definitely had a show worth seeing.

Shelley Kidwell Eckert kicked in two Raptors floor seats behind the visitors bench with full bar and dinner service, on the sole condition that we auction, rather than raffle, them off, and the Silent Auction portion of the evening was born.  Donations from other companies started coming in and the momentum hasn’t stopped.  Heidi Mole secured a generous donation from TPH for our printing costs, raising our potential proceeds, and Becky Bays stepped up to produce the Silent Auction full-time.

I’ve since taken a tour of Gilda’s Club and was able to see first-hand the wonderful work they do.  I was saddened to hear that the Montreal branch was closed down due to lack of funds; my heart started beating hard at the thought that this could ever happen to Gllda’s Club in Toronto.  We hope in some small way that our show is able to help keep Gilda’s dream alive: that no one should ever have to face cancer alone.

We hope you enjoy the show as much as we are enjoying putting it together, and we hope to do Gilda’s legacy proud.