A 'FUNDAYSUNDAY on Broadway' Unites Kids Impacted By 9/11

A 'FUNDAYSUNDAY on Broadway' Unites Kids Impacted By 9/11

A Unique Matinee of Laughter, Music, Magic and Play

NEW YORK, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Children who lost a parent on September 11th, as well as kids from schools neighboring the former World Trade Center site and emergency service personnel families will be treated to a free afternoon of laughter, music, magic and comedy at the Town Hall Theater. Created by cancer survivor and ComedyCures Foundation founder Saranne Rothberg, "A FUNDAYSUNDAY on Broadway" is a 90-minute interactive comedy and music extravaganza that will feature entertainment appropriate for all ages as well as spontaneous on-stage audience participation. This ComedyCures Foundation event will be held on May 22nd at 2:00 p.m. at the Town Hall Theater in New York, at 123 West 43rd Street. JB Miller of Empire Entertainment is producing.

Leading entertainers including Star Search winner Tiffany Evans, Antigravity, The Rhythmics, The Bang Group and The Harlem Wizards are scheduled to perform. Surprise guests also are expected to appear alongside Rothberg as she co-hosts, in addition to appearances by fellow ComedyCures Humor Ambassadors including vocal celebrity impersonator Rick Younger and crowd energizer MC Darrell.

Rothberg founded The ComedyCures Foundation while she was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. "During my own fight with aggressive cancer, I realized that comedy served as a great coping strategy for my daughter and me while we dealt with my treatment," says Rothberg. "So at my initial infusion in New York City, I held my first 'chemo comedy party' for family and friends. The group watched videos of stand-up comics, and as laughter spread throughout the chemo clinic, the anxiety diminished and everyone felt more hopeful. We celebrated our lives not our prognoses. It was then that the mission and program potential of ComedyCures crystallized," Rothberg adds.

That was the springboard from which The ComedyCures Foundation was created, which, five years later, has staged hundreds of therapeutic humor events for tens of thousands of people. But for Rothberg, her biggest dream was to help the children and families directly impacted on 9/11. "Ever since that Tuesday morning I've wanted to introduce these families to the power of laughter, therapeutic comedy and positive thinking through our unique, live event program. Thanks to a wonderful grant from Rotary International District 7230 NYC/WTC Relief Fund, and gifts from a variety of other corporations, we're able to give these children a Sunday afternoon overflowing with laughter."

All kids attending FUNDAYSUNDAY will receive ComedyCures souvenir gift bags with treats donated by Sony Music, Verizon, Quest Diagnostics and Russ Berrie, Inc., among others. Each family at the event also will receive a commemorative FUNDAYSUNDAY highlights DVD and Tofutti Kids dessert pops.

Thomas Green, vice president of the Rotary Fund, explains, "I knew ComedyCures would be a wonderful experience for these families. What she has planned for FUNDAYSUNDAY will be a positive, happy memory for those who have been through so much. Nothing can erase the past, but discovering it is okay to laugh and have fun will make for a better and easier future," Green adds.

About ComedyCures

The ComedyCures Foundation is a national non-profit organization bringing joy, laughter and therapeutic humor programs to kids and adults living with illness, depression, trauma and disabilities. Through private and corporate donations, and the goodwill and humor of the comedy industry, it is their mission to entertain and educate kids and adults living with illness, as well as their families and medical caregivers, about the benefits of laughter and a comic perspective on the mind, body, and spirit. The ComedyCures Foundation is a 501(c) 3 non-profit tax-exempt non-profit organization.

Source: ComedyCures

CONTACT: Michael Fischer, +1-212-279-5843, Michael.fischer@publicis-
usa.com or Catherine Sullivan, +1-212-279-6345, both of Publicis Dialog; or
Saranne Rothberg of ComedyCures Foundation, +1-201-727-1770,
smile@comedycures.org

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