It's a more serious story from a comedian who published a one-act comedy show about his battle with cancer. Daniel Stolfi, an actor and performer from Guelph, recently released a new memoir called THE COMEDIAN vs CANCER: The Show Must Go On.
The book shares a series of short stories based on journal entries Stolfi wrote when he was 25 years old and going through cancer treatment. Now older, Stolfi said the perspective he gained from this experience at that age has been invaluable.
"It’s crazy, I can always look back on my experience and use that as a source of motivation, a source of perspective to say, ‘Hey, you know, might be bad, but what you went through is a hell of a lot worse, and if you can get through that, you can get through anything,'" said Stolfi.
"I hope that's the message that comes across when people read this book. No matter what you're going through, you've probably gone through something worse in your life, and even if you haven't, you can use this as perspective to say, 'Hey, I can get through this.'"
THE COMEDIAN vs CANCER has been 12 years in the making, said Stolfi. He first wrote about his experiences going through cancer for a one-act play called Cancer Can't Dance Like This, which he said he performed across Canada, raising over $100,000 for cancer research.
"The book was sort of this thing that happened organically, it was not planned, I was not planning on writing a memoir about my two-year experience with cancer, but I was writing it down as it happened,” said Stolfi. "Now it's here and I've finished it, and it's crazy."
When the pandemic hit and his daughter was born, Stolfi decided to put together the book. It is now available online and in book stores across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Comparing the play to his new memoir, Stolfi said it is more detailed and raw about his journey with cancer.
“It’s the actual story of what a cancer patient, and survivor, actually goes through, whereas the play was a little bit more broad strokes as to what that journey looks like,” he said.
Despite that, there is still a little humour in the book.
"You'll laugh, you'll cry, you might feel a little bit nauseous, much like the journey that a cancer survivor goes through," said Stolfi, " and I try to take the reader on that journey and I hope I'm successful in that."
Although he considers himself a writer, Stolfi said being an author presented new challenges for him, and he sought out help from many different people to create the book. It was important for Stolfi that the book maintained the same tone as his 25-year-old self when he first wrote those entries.
"I didn't want it come from a now almost 40-year-old looking back, because these words were written as I was going through treatment."
Having grown up in Guelph, Stolfi’s memoir also talks about his experiences getting cancer treatment at Guelph General Hospital in a chapter called "Game Changer."
“I actually talk very fondly on my treatment in Guelph, it kind of changed my whole experience, because my Mom was driving to Toronto every week for what was going to be 104 weeks of treatment, but then, for the last 40 weeks of treatment, I was able to do two out of every three of my treatments in Guelph,” said Stolfi, “and it was just an amazing experience because it felt like it was more like a community.”
Like his one-act play, Stolfi will be donating a portion of proceeds from his book sales. The proceeds will be going to Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC), an organization which connects people ages 18-39 who are going through cancer treatments.
Since releasing the book a month ago, Stolfi said he has received lots of positive feedback from readers, including some who have gone through cancer themselves. During his treatment, Stolfi recalls reading books about others who have gone through cancer and survived.
“I needed that conversation, or I needed that confirmation, so I was reading other books of other cancer survivors who have gone through that treatment, and that was very cathartic for me it provided a lot of hope,” said Stolfi, “and so when I completed this book, I thought, ‘Maybe I can do that for someone else who is going through that, to pass it on.’”
