Nick Kroll vs. Cancer

Nick Kroll performing at Comedy vs. Cancer

Nick Kroll Courtesy of Subject

The first cancer fundraiser Nick Kroll ever organized was for dogs. Well, fictional dogs.

“Pirate Go 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.

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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.

Kroll delivered a headline set at the Comedy vs. Cancer benefit. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Between Kroll and Carlock, there was no shortage of performers willing to help. “And so Jen and Nikki thought it would be a great idea to start doing a show to start to raise money,” Kroll says.

The earliest events benefited the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2019, the benefit officially became Comedy vs. Cancer in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering and moved to Jazz at Lincoln Center, where it has sold out every year since. Seven years later, it has become one of the comedy world’s annual fixtures, raising more than $10 million along the way.

Kroll curates the lineup himself, and it reads like the guest list for an awards show. John Mulaney, Kroll’s frequent creative partner, has appeared multiple times. So have Mike Birbiglia, Jim Gaffigan, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Fey, Hasan Minhaj and Brett Goldstein. Steve Martin returns every year. Bridget Everett performed this spring. Jack Antonoff and Sara Bareilles have supplied musical interludes. Kroll is still trying to engineer one fantasy booking. “My dream is that one year Martin Short and Steve Martin will come do it together,” he says.

The evening follows a familiar rhythm. There is stand-up throughout the night, followed by an appeal for donations beyond the already expensive ticket price. This year’s event raised $2.7 million, pushing Comedy vs. Cancer’s lifetime fundraising total beyond $10 million. Every dollar goes directly toward blood cancer research and treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Then the room changes. Researchers explain how the donations have funded their work, and patients and survivors emerge to tell their stories.

From left: John Mulaney, Nick Kroll and Seth Meyers. Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Every year, organizers stage a surprise the audience never sees coming. This year, they introduced a nurse who had once been a blood cancer patient at the hospital herself. During her treatment, her own nurse had been so compassionate that she inspired the patient to enroll in nursing school. Without warning, Memorial Sloan Kettering brought that original nurse onto the stage.

Kroll says there wasn’t a dry eye in the house after that reunion, his own included. “It’s a pretty amazing, emotional, gratifying kind of show,” he adds. “I mean, literally, it’s life and death.”

A room that has spent an hour roaring with laughter can suddenly fall silent. Comedians accustomed to chasing punchlines find themselves watching physicians, researchers and survivors embrace onstage. By the time the fundraising appeal begins, nobody needs convincing that the money is well spent.

Kroll credits much of that atmosphere to another show he produces every month in Los Angeles. “I do a show at Largo called Nick Kroll and Friends,” he says. “I really try to keep that vibe at Comedy vs. Cancer.”

Largo has long been one of comedy’s favorite rooms, where established comics drop in to experiment and surprise one another. Kroll wanted Comedy vs. Cancer to feel like one of those nights among friends, even if it was unfolding inside Jazz at Lincoln Center.

“Some of these fundraiser shows feel a little stiff and the audience is a little cold,” he says. “The more that you can make it feel intimate and personal, the more impactful the whole thing can feel.”

Now he’s trying to see whether the idea works somewhere entirely different. This spring, Kroll and Niccole launched College vs. Cancer at USC, where Niccole’s son Jacoby is a junior.

Cancer-fighting comedians Amy Poehler and Nick Kroll and Steve Martin. Monica Schipper/Getty Images; Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Bill Burr, Kate Berlant and Vanessa Bayer joined USC students and alumni for the inaugural event, while students earned tickets by raising money themselves, with top fundraisers winning spots at a Hollywood premiere.

The evening raised roughly $80,000. Kroll hopes that’s only the beginning. The idea is to introduce fundraising before cancer enters students’ lives. “Cancer rates are rising among younger people,” Kroll says. “It’s an opportunity to not just raise awareness but also money.” He hopes to expand the model to campuses nationwide.

Away from the fundraiser, Kroll remains as busy as ever. Mating Season, his new Netflix animated comedy from the Big Mouth team, follows animals navigating sex, dating and relationships in the wild. Later this summer, he’ll also produce FX’s Adults.

More than a decade after PubLIZity staged a fundraiser for cupcakes and canine cancer, Kroll has quietly built one of Hollywood’s most successful charitable events. The celebrities still come. People still laugh. By the end of the night, another $2.7 million is headed to cancer research.

Says Kroll, laughing, “It’s really full circle.”

This story appeared in the July 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.