Boston comics are coming together for a special benefit show to help out one of the founding fathers of the city’s comedy scene.
Eugene Mirman, Lenny Clarke and a slew of the Bay State’s veteran comics will take the stage at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville on Tuesday night for Stand Up to Cancer. The show will serve as a fundraiser for Barry Crimmins’ wife Helen, who’s currently battling stage four non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Proceeds from the show will go to aid the Crimmins as they deal with medical bills stemming from out of pocket costs not covered by insurance. Helen also launched a GoFundMe page earlier this year to help pay for her treatment.
While the Crimmins have received close to $50,000 in donations on the crowdfunding site, Barry noted in a recent GoFundMe update that the cost for Helen’s medication is becoming “fiscally unbearable.”
“The copay for these medications is $22,000 a month,” Barry wrote. “This is beyond all the other incidental costs of trying to keep a cancer patient as comfortable and unstressed as possible.”
He added, “We are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of each good wish, each donation.”
In addition to Mirman and Clarke, Tuesday’s Stand Up to Cancer show will feature performances by Bobcat Goldthwait, Jack Gallagher, Tawanda Gona, Kenny Rogerson, Mike Donovan, Mike McDonald, Carolyn Plummer and Jim McCue, plus a few surprise guests. Local legend Tony V will also serve as host for the evening.
If you go:
Dec. 19, 8 p.m., Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville, $20, eventbrite.com
