All-Female Comedy Show Honours Gilda Radner’s Legacy of Laughs and Hope

Annual fundraising event That’s What SHE Said is back with an International Women’s Week show to benefit Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto

TORONTO, ON, Feb. 17, 2012 – If history proves anything, audiences for That’s What SHE Said will
experience a lot of laughter, along with the satisfaction that comes from contributing to one of Toronto’s most
valuable cancer-support communities.

For the last three years, the comedy fundraiser put on by comedians StandUp For Your Sisters (SUFYS) has
sold-out and raised thousands of dollars for Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto. That’s What SHE Said is back for a
fourth year on Monday, March 5 at Hugh’s Room, with a stellar line-up and an always-popular silent auction.
The inclusive line-up confirms yet again that women are funny, whether they are veteran performers or novices.

SUFYS is thrilled to announce that Canadian master storyteller Sandra Shamas will return for another year,
taking the stage along with headliner Shelley Marshall (The Full Bawdy Comedy Show) and host Kate Davis
(Comedy Now!). These women, along with six other talented comics, will each bring their unique take on a
variety of topics which appeal to a wide audience.

Established by comedian and producer Daniela Saioni in 2009, the “little show that could” has raised over
$28,000 to benefit Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto. All of the auction proceeds go directly to Gilda’s Club to
support people who are touched by cancer – and that includes some of the comedians who have participated in
the show.

Headliner Shelley Marshall lost her mother to cancer in her early twenties, and credits her comedy career for
keeping her out of the darkness, and comic Martha O’Neill’s mother passed away just before the inaugural show. She still came to see the SUFYS perform, which is a testament to the healing power of laughter.

Producer Saioni had her own bout with cancer during the second year of doing the show. “Gilda’s Club Greater
Toronto helped me through a difficult time in my life, and Gilda Radner has always been an inspiration to me as a comedian, so it’s really quite natural for me to want to help Gilda’s Club in a way I know how – through
comedy.”

For more information, visit www.standupforyoursisters.com. Tickets are $30 in advance ($35 at the door) and
are available by calling 416-531-6604 or by visiting www.hughsroom.com.

About Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto
The mission of Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto is to ensure that all people impacted by cancer are empowered by
knowledge, strengthened by action, and sustained by community. Emotional and social support is essential to a complete cancer care plan. Our innovative programs for men, women, children and their loved ones fill this gap in care. All networking and support groups, educational workshops and social activities are provided FREE of charge.

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Daniela Saioni: Executive Producer

I have multiple careers and wear many different hats in life, but volunteering to bring you this show every single year is one of the most rewarding things I do.

Below is a list of the talented team I put together who helped me make this show possible this year. Without them, and the comics, I’m nothing.

Body Beauty Mind

Body Beauty Mind

RAFFLE GRAND PRIZE!

This year’s Raffle Grand Prize is an informative, interactive group wellness workshop, “Be Wellness!” including a 1 on 1 segment with the contributing specialists.

Workshop Content:
The Mind- Beauty Connection
Anti- aging
Preventative Self -care
Beauty tips + tricks

Led by:
Holistic Beauty industry expert Aniko Farkas – Founding Director of BodyBeautyMind and The Spa suite
and
Naturopathic Doctor Denisa Hrncirik-Maruyama – ND

The group will be informed with useful, engaging, self -awakening content, incorporating fun, and interactivity during the workshop.

Class capacity: 10 people

Value per person: $ 65.00 (includes light snacks and refreshments)

Duration of workshop: 2 hrs

Total value (before HST taxes) $650.00 (plus HST)

Must be booked in April 2012

Stuart Wall: Promo Video Director/Editor

2012 Poster

Edward Goss (Visual Artist)

Edward Goss

EDWARD GOSS has been garnering world-wide attention for his dramatic and astonishing work since November 2002. Like many artists Goss is obsessed with making art and can spend days in the studio producing new objects. Goss uses a wide variety of materials to make his work including: wood, cloth, wire, oil paint, acrylic paint, barbed wire, screws, nails, studs, newspaper, house paint, tape, photography, pencil and paper.

Goss makes two and three dimensional objects. No two are ever exactly the same because he is constantly finding new solutions to making art. One compelling aspect of Goss’ figural works is the viewer’s recognition of the form of a man, a woman or a beast and curiosity about how the sculptures are made. The attributes of the creatures are defined by Goss’ choice of materials be that duct tape, electrical wire, cloth or wooden sticks. Goss seems to have an innate sense about color and design. Forms and shapes evolve as he begins working with his materials. His works on paper unfold similarly. A cow in a field may begin as the first brush mark of color takes shape on a piece of paper. The finished cow has a presence that is both an illusion of a three dimensional animal as well as an extraordinary two dimensional painting on paper.

Goss prefers to allow the viewer to interpret his expressive creations and he is not given to saying much about his work. Goss belongs to a group of self-taught artists whose creativity is matched by their ingenuity. Sometimes called outsider artists because they have found success outside the conventional paths, artists who are self taught have often established a unique approach to making art that rivals artists who have taken a more traditional route.

Goss grew up in Toronto, Canada and left home at 17. He later put himself through night school before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2002 where he has found a place that suits his disposition. It was in this city that Goss was bitten by the art bug. There he began by doodling and drawing and soon picked up a brush and began to paint.

Goss has had recent exhibitions at Read Johnson Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Urban Art Works in Atlanta, Georgia, Ken Nahan, Jr. Fine Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Outsider Gallery in Rockland, Maine and Metamorphosis Gallery in Sarasota.

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DONATION DETAILS:

Edward is generously donating two 15 x 15 cm paintings of flowers (oil stick on canvas) created especially for this event.

Retail value is $500 each.

Annie Bradley: SUFYS Angel and Idea Generator

I could roll out a long list of my awards, my screenings around the world from TIFF to Sundance and all the famous folks i’ve worked with and so on and so forth…but the skinny is… when i’m not living the canadian dream…making smokin’ films and TV as a director/writer …well I can usually be found attempting to laugh my ass down to a manageable size in some wheezed out comedy club…just ask the comics…apparently there is no mistaking the infectious rumble of my bark…:)

Click on the photo to see Annie’s work at www.anniebradley.com

Shereen, Dennis and Elyse Airth

Ol’ Harry Cottages

The Airths have generously donated a weekend stay at their cottage on Kasshabog Lake in the Kawarthas, valued at up to $475 (click on the photo for a link to more photos).

This is for a weekend stay in the off season. No weekends are available in July and August. The Airths will accept an exchange of value toward a week’s stay (subject to availability). The donation is for up to 6 people, there is an additional charge for 7 to 12 guests. 

Reservations are required. Black out dates apply.

A $200 returnable damage/security deposit is required.

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The Airths have been welcoming guests to Ol’ Harry Cottage for more than 25 years, watching returning families grow and sharing a piece of the Kawarthas’ with multiple generations. Join us as the season begins to warm up or as it cools in the Fall when the crowds recede and spectacle of nature’s paintbrush bursts into colour.

Our clean lakefront family housekeeping cottage on beautiful Kasshabog Lake is just 2 hours NE of Toronto, sleeps 6+ to a maximum of 12.

Ol’ Harry offers a screened in sun porch with twin beds (sleep outdoors without the outdoor inconveniences), 2 bedrooms (master bdrm has a double bed & single cot, side bdrm has a bunk bed with double bed on bottom and twin bed on top), and the open concept living area has 2 pull out double bed sofas. A private deck with patio furniture & propane barbeque opens up to the spectacular view of the pristine spring fed waters of “Kosh” Lake. Your stay will include the use of a row boat, canoe, and assorted water toys, outdoor seating with tables, swing set for the kids, glider swing for the readers! Ol’ Harry Cottage has all the necessary amenities to make your stay comfortable such as 3 fridges, microwave, stove/range, drip coffee maker (basket type with Gold filter), blender, 4 slot wide slice toaster, fully equipped kitchen, colour TV, satellite dish, indoor plumbing with shower, and hot & cold running water. Want more? ATV/biking/hiking trails, public boat launch, docking available, excellent swimming, pristine water, loads of wild life, great fishing – musky, bass, pickerel and NO ZEBRA MUSSELS! There’s so much more we could tell you, but space is limited… besides this is one piece of paradise you’ll want to experience personally!

You supply all consumables, paper products, linens – kitchen & bath. All garbage must be removed at check out!

User friendly pets with responsible owners welcome!

$1000/wk – weekly rentals ONLY in July and August. (Check in Saturday after 3 p.m., check out the following Saturday noonish). Summer rates apply to the last week of June and the 1st two weeks in September.

Early June or Mid to late September $850/week, $475/weekends, $160/weeknight 

May or October $800/week, $450/weekend, $130/weeknight.

Alaina Bishop: Silent Auction Producer and Media Relations Intern

Yorkshire Rose Quilters’ Group

Yorkshire Rose Quilters’ Group

The Yorkshire Rose Quilters’ Group meets every 2nd Wednesday at The Danforth Mennonite Church, 2174 Danforth Avenue. Guests are $5.00, new members $35 for the year. The guild was started in the 70′s but no-one can remember the exact year.

This fabulous group of women have donated a modern quilt made SPECIFICALLY for our event! There is even a great StandUp For Your Sisters inscription with Gilda peeking out from behind the red door!

The quilters who participated in the creation of this quilt are:
Marg Stott, Coral Jewell, Joanne Clements, Gail Osmond, Char Montgomery, Sheila Yilipkola, Alison Moss, and Anne McAllister

The guild paid for the fabric and the quilt was quilted by Brenda Wells from Uxbridge.

A quilt in a book “Quilts made Modern” inspired this jewel box quilt.

The quilt size is 88′ x 96′, which is a good sized Queen or small King

The total number of woman hours spent making the quilt is approxiimately 115!

RESERVE BID: $500

Sean Scott (Cycling Coach)

Sean Scott began racing as a cyclist in 1989 after five years as a provincially ranked junior tennis player and tennis coach. He raced professionally for several teams across North America and Europe before achieving his two-time Canadian Masters national time trial champion wins (2002 and 2003).

Sean is an HFA certified personal trainer and Level 3 road cycling coach who has worked with athletes at all levels, including high performance athletes who achieved podium wins under his guidance at the provincial, national and UCI levels. Coach Scott has done distance coaching through Wenzel Coaching, has worked as an Assistant Coach for Team Ontario and was Lead Coach at the National Cycling Centre in Hamilton, where he helped create their high performance program.

He has also worked at the grassroots level promoting the sport of cycling by conducting various “Learn to Ride” and “Learn to Race” camps for youth, served on the Ontario Cycling Association’s High Performance Committee for five years, and was a journalist for Pedal Magazine for seven years.

Currently, he is the Provincial Team Cycling Coach for Saskatchewan.

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DONATION DETAILS:

SEAN SCOTT is currently situated in Regina. Sean has written fitness programs that have resulted in numerous podium wins for male and female athletes at all levels. He is offering a 12-week one-on-one DISTANCE COACHING program VIA PHONE OR SKYPE, where he can help you train for any cycling-related event at any level (amateur to high performance). This donation item includes:

An initial consultation about fitness level
Goal planning for a specific cycling event
Design of a 12 to 16 week training plan geared to your individual needs
Three hours of one-on-one Skype coaching sessions (up to one hour a month, for a total of three hours)

Bidders should have access to an internet connection and Skype (a free software program for free international video calling), or a long-distance phone plan.

This donation is made in honour of Coach Scott’s mother, PATRICIA PORTER, who passed away as a result of brain cancer in 1996

Nicole Antionette: Make-up Artist for Promo Videos

www.nicoleantionette.com

Michelle Power: Donations Co-ordinator

Martha O’Neill

Martha O’Neill

Martha has generously donated an invaluable collector’s item to this year’s silent auction: an autographed screenplay for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, signed by writer/star Nia Vardalos.

Martha won it by being funny on funnyordie.com

Lily Varga

Lily Varga Designs

LILY VARGA is a graphic designer. Click on her logo above to read more about her work.

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DONATION DETAILS:

Lily has generously donated:

Consultation for unique business card design.
Creation of design and print ready business card design.
*printing not included
Valid until March 5th, 2013

or

Logo consultation.
Creation of logo.
Valid until March 5th, 2013

with an approximate retail value of $400

Auto Draft

Host: Elvira Kurt

Elvira Kurt is one of Canada’s most accomplished comedians with two Gemini nominations for her performance in the CBC’s Halifax Comedy Festival and her comedy special Big Girl Now which also won a gold award at Worldfest. She’s just wrapped One Night Stand Up in the U.S. for LOGO as well as CBC’s Just For Laughs special.

Elvira was voted Funniest Female Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards, hosted, wrote and produced The Comedy Network series popcultured With Elvira Kurt, was a judge on CBC’s Second City’s Search for the Next Comedy Legend, a writer on How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and is featured in the award winning doc Laughing Matters…More!. The Second City alumnus has also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she’s hosted two shows for LOGO in the US, her comedy specials have aired on Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime, CTV, CBC, The Comedy Network, phew, and she can be heard each week on CBC Radio’s Q With Jian Ghomeshi.

Elvira is currently developing two television shows to air soon in Canada and is also hard at work on her many personal issues, several of which will be quite evident in tonight’s performance.

Roncesvalles Community Acupuncture Clinic

Roncesvalles Community Acupuncture Clinic

Click on the logo or link above for more information on this fabulous donor!

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RACA is generously donating:

A 1-hour initial visit with naturopath doctor ($160 value), three visits to the Roncesvalles Community Acupuncture Clinic ($120 value) and 3 yoga classes ($60 value).

Total retail value is $340

Body Conditioning by Dancers

Body Conditioning by Dancers

Headliner: Shelley Marshall

Shelley Marshall is one busy hot mama. Freshly back from a self produced world tour including headlining South Africa’s only full time comedy club, Parker’s Comedy Club, Scotland’s world renowned comedy club, The Stand, with special appearances in Spain, London, Wales and Ireland. Shelley has become a regular performer with Jongleurs Comedy Clubs and was invited to the Amsterdam Comedy Festival August 2011. Shelley is also known for producing The Full Bawdy Comedy Show and for being the opening act for Puppetry of the Penis off Broadway in NYC. Shelley happily toured as their opener across Canada in 2008 and 2009 to rave reviews. Shelley appeared in the short film The Auction, which won the Audience Choice award at the Sprockets Film Festival and aired on CBC this year. Her latest self-produced one woman show, Hold Mommy’s Cigarette, candidly revealing her life, opens soon.

NOW Magazine’s Glenn Sumi named Shelley “Best New Discovery” and she was nominated for Best Female Stand Up at the 2009 Canadian Comedy Awards. She recently hosted a stage at this year’s Toronto’s Pride Festival and hosted Gay Day at Canada’s Wonderland on. Shelley also co-hosted the televised 2009 Hamilton Music Awards with singer/songwriter Tom Wilson last November and was the host of The Sheridan Media Awards.

http://www.shelleymarshall.com

Jen Morris (Black Jam Design) for Fresh Collective

Jen Morris for Fresh Collective

Host: Martha Chaves

Martha Chaves was born and raised in Nicaragua. At the age of 17, her parents shipped her off to Montreal with the excuse that they wanted her to learn a second language, but it was really because they feared that she would join the revolution. She wouldn’t anyway – she hates wearing cargo pants everyday, assembling and disassembling things that shoot and, especially, blood.

Her parents and siblings were forced to leave the country a year later and they have since lived in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Martha eventually became a Canadian citizen and has lived here most of her life feeling uprooted, cold and confused about her identity (which, incidentally, is what makes her a true Canadian!).

She began her stand-up career in 1993 in Montreal and, considering her background and her existential angst, this was the only career in which she could thrive.

Now based between Toronto and Ottawa, Chaves is one of the top headliners at Yuk Yuk´s Komedy (www.yukyuks.com) clubs across Canada and is also a favourite at the Comedy Nest in Montreal. She has been nominated for six Canadian Comedy Awards in the category of Best Female Stand-up, and won a Soul’d Award in the same category.

Martha has appeared in numerous festivals around North America and countless humanitarian fundraising events. Her stand-up TV credits include her gala appearances in the Montréal Just for Laughs International Comedy Festival (where she has been featured not less than ten times), and her national comedy specials “COMICS!” on CBC and “Something about Martha” on CTV and The Comedy Network. She has made multiple appearances on the CBC Radio’s Madly off in All Directions, Accent on Toronto and The Debaters, and was a staff writer for The Toronto Show and Prime Tonight with Eric Tunney.

Chaves is multilingual and is one of the few comics in the world that has the rare gift of doing comedy in a second, third, and a fourth language. She has entertained audiences from every culture and background on stages all over the world, including the U.N. Peacekeeping Troops in the Middle East, Germany and Alert.

Martha has been the opening act for such Latin luminaries as Gloria Estefan at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto (1997) and Tito Puente at the Club Metropolis in Montreal (1996) and the award-winning poet-novelist, her compatriot Gioconda Belli, at the Teatro Nacional de Nicaragua (2005)

She has shared the stage with Brett Butler, Margaret Cho, Wendy Liebman, Chris Rock and Wanda Sykes, among others.

In her film and TV career she has worked with Oscar winners like Denzel Washington (John Q) and Whoopie Goldberg (Strong Medicine) .She also worked with Portia de Rossi (American Prince), Chris Rock and Wanda Sykes (Down to Earth), and with award winning directors like Nick Cassavetes and Jim Sheridan.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

Toronto Community Acupucture

Toronto Community Acupuncture

Host: Kate Davis

Kate’s comedy career started as a need to get out of her house. So one night after putting the kids to sleep she ventured into a local comedy club and never looked back!

Now, a five-time nominee at the Canadian Comedy Awards and star of her own hour-long comedy special on CTV and the Comedy Network, Comedy Now, Kate headlines across the country and is a favorite at corporate events. Kate’s corporate career has allowed her the opportunity to host events for former President Bill Clinton, Margaret Trudeau, Barbara Walters and many others. She has also proven that funny can raise money and does many charity events for organizations that help teens and kids.

She has appeared on Breakfast Television, The Mike Bullard Show, The Toronto Show, Star TV, Toronto 1, Prime, WTN, TVO, CBC Radio One “The Debaters” and The Mom Show.

She made it to the final round in Toronto for “Last Comic Standing” 2008 season and just recently in Toronto for NBC’s Stand up for Diversity.

http://katedavis.ca