Mark Pollard: Weblord

C is for Comedy and Cancer

On Tuesday evening, thirteen women came together at Hugh’s Room to tell a few jokes at the expense of cancer.

The “C” Word came together when six women took a stand-up class at Second City eighteen months ago. When Daniela Saioni, the show’s primary organizer, realized there weren’t many women-only comedy shows, she decided to put one together. “A lot of comedy rooms program only one woman per show. It was a struggle to get stage time,” she said. “We realized if we wanted to perform we would have to create our own show.”

When they decided to make the show a fundraiser for charity, it wasn’t long before they settled on supporting cancer research. Cancer had somehow affected all the women, whether they lost a close friend, relative, or survived the disease themselves. After some research, the beneficiary organization seemed obvious: Gilda’s Club.

Read more on the  Torontoist website.

StandUp Sisters on Inside Toronto

By Lisa Rainford, insidetoronto.com

Creating a benefit stand-up comedy show in the name of Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto was a no-brainer for comedian and organizer Daniela Saioni.

The late Gilda Radner has been called one of the great comic geniuses of the 20th century and is perhaps best known for her five-year stint as part of the original cast of Saturday Night Live. Most importantly to Saioni and her cohorts, Radner remains a huge inspiration in the still male-dominated profession. The 42-year-old comedienne succumbed to ovarian cancer in 1988.

“We knew we wanted it to be cancer-related because it’s a disease that has touched all our lives,” said Saioni at a Roncesvalles Village coffee shop, Tuesday morning.

Read the full article.

Poor John’s Cafe

Poor John’s

Bad Dog Theatre Company

Stornoway Communications

Alliance Films

Stillwater Spa, Park Hyatt Toronto

http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/pure/

Blackskirt Restaurant

Rhonda Riche

http://graciousgood.wordpress.com/

Cylla von Tiedemann

www.cylla.ca

Ken Kostick

www.kenkostick.biz

Carole Bertuzzi Luciani

http://www.carolebertuzziluciani.com/

BD Communications

Simon Fraser