The first cancer fundraiser Nick Kroll ever organized was for dogs. Well, fictional dogs.
“Pirate Girl Rum Presents: A Rocking Beach Bash to Benefit Cupcakes for Canine Cancer” was a benefit organized by PubLIZity, the spectacularly vapid Hollywood publicists Kroll and Jenny Slate played on Kroll Show. It was one of the series’ sharpest bits, skewering a certain breed of Los Angeles philanthropy where sponsorship logos, celebrity selfies and branded desserts often seem as important as the cause itself.
Today, Kroll oversees exactly the sort of fundraiser PubLIZity dreamed of representing. His annual Comedy vs Cancer benefit has raised more than $10 million for blood cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Kroll has even considered bringing Liz back to handle publicity for the real event. “Maybe we’ll do a Comedy vs Canine Cancer event and see if Liz will come out.”
Comedy vs Cancer grew out of Kroll’s own family. Roughly 15 years ago, his sister-in-law, Niccole, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. During treatment, she met Jennifer Rogers, another patient facing the same diagnosis. The two women became close. Rogers’ husband happened to be Robert Carlock, Tina Fey’s longtime collaborator from Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock. Kroll was already well established in comedy.
