Final Open Mic Showcase Features Cancer Comedy, Other Acts

This is the third and final installment of the CURE® Open Mic Showcase — a series of videos featuring patients, survivors and caregivers showing off their artistic talents in acts that relate to their cancer experiences.

If you missed the first two episodes, they can be found here:

• Open Mic Showcase Debut Puts Cancer Survivors, Patients in the Spotlight
• Open Mic Showcase Continues Highlight the Talents of Cancer Survivors

(0:25) The first act in this installment of the Open Mic Showcase is from Summer Golden, a woman who was diagnosed with myelofibrosis — a type of cancer that originates in the bone marrow — in 2017, just as she was learning the art of stand-up comedy. She submitted a short clip of one of her comedy acts where she discussed life with an incurable blood cancer — including her unorthodox hairstyle.

(3:37) Khevin Barnes, a CURE® contributor and male breast cancer survivor, submitted another segment of “Survive and Thrive Live,” his short series of videos about life with male breast cancer. This one is called, “The Breast Cancer Minute,” and in it, he discusses how his career as a stage magician — which included fooling people nearly every day — is not too different from his experience with male breast cancer.

(6:27) The next performance also comes from a CURE® contributor, Linda Cohen. Linda was diagnosed with small lymphocytic leukemia in 2009 and continued to bake bread every week as a source of comfort. Here, watch her read one of her essays, “Can Baking Bread By Cancer Therapy?”

(10:59) The final act features Pamela McColloch, a podcaster and cancer survivor, reading her article, “Whisperings.” Pamela explained that when she was growing up, the word “cancer” was hardly said out loud — it was only whispered. In her reading, she recounts her first experience hearing the word when she was 9 years old. Decades later. when she received her own cancer diagnosis, she held on to what her 9-year-old self was taught.

CURE® would sincerely like to thank all readers who submitted to the first Open Mic Showcase. It is because of them that this series was a great success!

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