Poster

Postcard

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.

The Poster

Comics Kick Cancer to the Curb with The ‘C’ Word

Toronto, ON – The ‘C’ word. Some people cringe when they hear it. Others cover their ears. And there are those who are absolutely horrified by the mere mention of it. Yes, we’re talking about cancer. But on January 19, a Toronto comic and her female cohorts want to make the ‘C’ word stand for something else: Courage. Creativity. And most of all: Comedy.

The ‘C’ Word, a benefit for Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto, is a night of stand-up comedy featuring seasoned pros alongside up-and-coming comics from the StandUp For Your Sisters troupe. The title of the show was inspired by the experiences of comedian and organizer Daniela Saioni during her bout with cancer earlier this year.

“For my 40th birthday I got cancer,” Saioni says. “I’m a comic, so my natural instinct was to make jokes about it – but when I did, I got heckled. Even friends and family were uncomfortable discussing it.”

Last year’s inaugural event, StandUp For Your Sisters, was a sold-out success and raised more than $7,400 for Gilda’s Club. This year’s event has become more personal for Saioni, who credits Gilda’s Club for helping with her successful recovery.

“It was humbling having to turn to the charity I fundraise for to get help,” Saioni says, “I’m so happy to be able to give back to Gilda’s Club by doing what I love – making people laugh”.

With The ‘C’ Word’s diverse line-up of comics, there will be plenty of laughs, with topics ranging from sex to ethnicity, relationships to careers and much, much more. Since last year’s event, the Sisters have spent lots of time on local comedy stages and their acts are better than ever.

“People from last year’s audience still stop us in the street to quote their favorite jokes back to us,” Saioni says. “This year, we’ll give them even more to talk about. It’s a great night to come out and stand up for your sisters, mothers, daughters and friends. And laugh in the face of cancer.”

When: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. (Dinner and silent auction at 6pm)

Where: Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Who: Hosted by Martha Chaves (Just for Laughs, Something About Martha)

Featuring Jo-Anna Downey (CTV’s Women of the Night, YukYuks), Special Guest Sandra Battaglini (Canadian Comedy Award winner) and StandUp For Your Sisters

Tickets: $25 in advance (available at www.hughsroom.com), $30 at the door

All proceeds from tickets sales and silent auction will go directly to Gilda’s Club.

For a list of comics, bios, photos and quotes, visit The Press Room at http://www.thestandupsisters.com.

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 there is no cost to members. For more information about Gilda’s Club, please visit their website at http://www.gildasclubtoronto.org

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Bonnie Dean at media@thestandupsisters.com or 647-377-4317.

The ‘C’ Word

StandUp For Your Sisters presents The ‘C’ Word, an evening of stand-up comedy to benefit Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto. The show will take place on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at Hugh’s Room. A silent auction will be held in conjunction with the show where audience members will have the opportunity to bid on several beauty, entertainment and luxury items provided by our generous donors. All proceeds from the silent auction and ticket sales will go to Gilda’s Club. Last year’s show raised $7,400 and we’ve been working hard all year long to raise the bar for the 2010 show. If you’ve never been to a StandUp Sisters event, our show stands apart from others for two reasons: the comics are all women over the age of 25 and the majority have only been doing stand-up for about a year. When you throw in some of the most hilarious comedy veterans out there, it makes for a great night. Just ask anyone who attended last year’s show!

We call the new show The ‘C’ Word because one of our comics had a brief stint with cancer this year and discovered that she couldn’t even say the word without upsetting someone. She will speak frankly on cancer, but the jokes overall touch upon every “c” word you can think of – careers, children, compliments, cougars. The Sisters have gained a lot of experience playing comedy clubs across the GTA and beyond, growing as comics and developing new material we can’t wait to share with you! And we’re thrilled about our celebrity host this year, Martha Chaves; it’s really hard for us to think of anyone more hilarious in this country. If you’ve never experienced Jo-Anna Downey, who is closing out the show, you are in for another incredible treat. We’ve even got an amazing Canadian Comedy Award winner, Sandra Battaglini, making a guest appearance. Great comedy for a great cause – that’s what The ‘C’ Word is all about.

Gilda’s Club Newsletter, March 2009

StandUp For Your Sisters on "SNAP Bloor West"

Hugh’s Room was a fun(ny) place to be during the evening of January 27th as the Roncesvalles Village hotspot hosted an evening of stand-up comedy. This unique comedy show featured female comics over the age of 25, the majority of whom have been doing stand-up for less than six months. Veteran Canadian comic Elvira Kurt played emcee for the evening that provided plenty of laughs, a few whispers of “did she really just say that?” and funds to benefit Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto…

Read the full article at SNAP Bloor West.

Why Stand Up?

That’s what everyone’s been asking. Why on earth do you want to do stand-up? For most people, getting up in front of a roomful of potentially hostile hecklers, alone, just you and the mic, is their idea of hell. Even for me, for whom performing in front of live audiences is not unknown, it’s a challenge. I make most of my money dressing up and pretending to be someone else, which takes away a lot of the feeling of vulnerability; but standing up there and just being myself is a whole different kettle of fish.

It all started just less than a year ago. I’d been going on and on and on to my poor husband that my old mate Simon Pegg made the best zombie movie ever and that he had to see it. (If you haven’t yet seen Shaun of the Dead stop reading this blog now, go to your nearest decent video store and rent it immediately.) So we sat and watched it and although my husband agreed that it was, indeed, a very good zombie movie, I felt faintly depressed having watched it again. Not that the movie wasn’t great – it is. It’s just that watching Pegg made me realize that I’ve spent the last 15 years since university (where me and Simon met) waiting for acting jobs to fall out of the sky. Simon started doing stand-up immediately after graduation, wrote his excellent sitcom Spaced (in which Jessica Stevenson’s part is based on me), went on to write his own movies and is now super-famous. Saying it was a little bit of a wake-up call is like saying Facebook is a little bit addictive.

Of course I didn’t get off my lazy arse and start booking open mic gigs – I just lay around in a slough of despond wondering why I’d wasted so much time and how sad it was that I wasn’t going to realize my dream of winning an Oscar before I was 40. Then, thank God, Daniela suggested we take Dawn Whitwell’s stand-up class at Second City. She got onto it right away and I’ve been playing catch-up with her ever since. I booked myself onto Dawn’s course in July (Daniela had already done one round and joined me for her second), did my first gig in September and have been doing open mics ever since.

Where will this lead? Who knows. My dream is to have my own television series and to do more movies, but for now I’m enjoying writing and being in front of a live audience again