Celebrating its 21st year, the annual comedy fundraiser Comics Come Home raised $1.3 million for The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care, which was launched in 1995 by Cam Neely after the passing of his parents, Marlene and Michael Neely from cancer.
With nearly 12,500 people in attendance, the event proved how laughter really is the best medicine. Held on November 7 at the TD Garden, the sold out event was hosted by Denis Leary (who has hosted it from day one), and featured a stellar line-up of comedians, including Louis C.K., Lenny Clarke, Chris Distefano, Jimmy Fallon, Christine Hurley, Ray Romano, Steve Sweeney and Steven Wright. Each comedian hit the stage and did about five to ten minutes of stand-up, regaling the audience with one-liners, jokes, and stories about their personal lives, both past and present.
Steven Wright, who may be best known for the guy sleeping on the couch in the 1998 comedy “Half-Baked,” had one of the best lines of the night when he said in his usual deadpan manner, “They say laughter is the best medicine. I say it’s cocaine.” Christine Hurley, the only woman on the line-up, talked about her firefighter husband Jimmy Hurley. In typical Bostonian fashion, she said “Jimmy Hurley is a firefighter. Save your applause. He’s no [expletive] hero.” The crowd ate it up.
Lenny Clarke talked about his recent health scare. Ray Romano shared stories about what happens when you’re in your 50s and about his teenage son and Louis C.K. touched upon a variety of topics from his daughter and how a little bit of racism can be helpful to dating a 19-year-old Russian girl when he was 21 and living in Boston.
Jimmy Fallon took the stage to much fanfare. It was his third straight year being on the show, and he mentioned his visit to the Bay State just two weeks prior, where he tripped on a Jägermeister bottle at Harvard. All it took for the crowd to roar with laughter was when he said, “I stayed at a lovely hotel. You might have heard of it, Mass General.”
Since the founding of Comics Come Home, the event has raised nearly $9.5 million to provide comfort, support and hope to cancer patients and their families. The funds raised at this year’s show will help complete a $1.5 million pledge to Tufts Medical Center to build The Marlene Neely Endoscopy Suite in memory of Cam Neely’s mother who lost her battle with colon cancer in 1987.
