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September
/ october 2006:
The
Six Who Matter: Saranne Rothberg
Single mother turns cancer scare into comic gold.
Words by Tina Barry | Photograph by Sam Norval
Few people find a diagnosis of cancer a cause for hilarity. After Saranne Rothberg, a single mother with a five-year-old daughter received news that she had stage four breast cancer, she wasn’t laughing either — not at first anyway.
“I had a little girl and a life expectancy of about five years to live. I was scared senseless,” she admits.
Rothberg had a unique reaction to her diagnosis. On the way home from her doctor’s office, she stopped at Blockbuster and took out every stand-up comedy tape there. “I picked up the videos because of a book I read in college, Norman Cousins’ Anatomy of an Illness. He found laughter enormously helpful when he was sick, and I thought I could use a little levity, too,” Rothberg recalls. Then she drove home, made dinner for her daughter, and after putting her to bed, collapsed on the floor where she sobbed hysterically.
“I let myself cry for a long time, and then I turned on Eddy Murphy’s Delirious. I went from weeping to a chuckle, a chuckle to a laugh and then I really cracked up.” That was a pivotal moment for Rothberg. “I realized there was a very fine line between hysterical crying and laughter,” she says. Rothberg chose laughter.
At the hospital where she received chemotherapy, she hosted a “chemo comedy party” for friends, family, and others receiving the treatments. “I watched the entire spirit of the place lift. The laughter made the day bearable.” From her chemo chair, Rothberg hatched the idea for her ComedyCures organization.
“That day,” says Rothberg, “the entire vision of the foundation came to me in one flash. God showed me my divine purpose. Getting cancer allowed me to see that vision.”
The ComedyCures Foundation, which Rothberg founded in 1999, is a non-profit organization that brings therapeutic humor programs to children and adults living with illness, depression, trauma, and disabilities. In 2005, Rothberg and her staff held 54 live events in hospitals, school auditoriums, theatres, and concert halls that brought her motivational, laughter-rich message to 34,000 people.
“I speak to audiences of all different faiths all over the world. And I’m very open about the role Judaism and Torah study plays in my recovery,” she says. “I’m not trying to convert anyone; the ideas of expressing gratitude and thanks are universal.”
Business is booming for her organization, with new offices opening nationwide and an endless demand for her programs. But Rothberg hasn’t forgotten that her purpose is to reach out to people in need — regardless of their numbers.
After returning from a recent trip to Israel and Canada, she had only one evening before flying out at 5:00 AM for meetings and a performance/fundraiser in Los Angeles. That night she squeezed in an impromptu program at the home of a member of The One Family Fund, an organization that helps victims of terror in Israel.
She must have been exhausted after her trip, but when she arrived with a few members of her staff, Rothberg, 43, looked fresh and pretty, her long, strawberry blond hair shining. The only thing novel about the experience for the team was the size of the audience: three, each affected by the recent bombings in Israel. Rothberg showed a video about her organization, and led a short workshop of storytelling, jokes, and tension releasing exercises. During their time together, the participants’ shoulders loosened and their expressions lightened. “We stayed until midnight,” she says the following day from Los Angeles. “There were tears, but we all told jokes and laughed a lot.”
Rothberg is living proof that laughter is indeed good medicine. “Judaism teaches us that it’s important to take time every day to mourn the things that cause pain in our lives and look for the moments that give joy and light.”
As for her, Rothberg has had no visible signs of cancer for four years. And that’s something she can certainly smile about.
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