Behind the curtain with the co-founders of Comedy vs Cancer

Jennifer Rogers and Niccole Kroll have a lot in common. Both are former high school athletes, they travel in similar social circles, they once lived near each other on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and both balance motherhood with successful careers. But on the day they first met, in 2007, there was something far deeper connecting them. “We were young and bald,” Jen says, describing the moment she spotted Niccole in a waiting room at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), where both women were receiving treatment for a blood cancer.

Jen wasn’t totally surprised to see her there. Several months earlier, when she shared her lymphoma diagnosis with friends, one of them mentioned that he knew someone else, Niccole, who was facing a similar fight. Jen knew that Niccole was also being treated at MSK, so she took a chance and introduced herself. “Niccole likes to say that I picked her up in the waiting room, and it’s pretty much true” Jen says, laughing.

It’s only fitting that the duo remembers their first conversation with a joke

Their chance encounter at MSK during the least funny time in their lives sparked a friendship that has led to countless laughs and millions of dollars raised for blood cancer research at MSK through Comedy vs Cancer, which Jen and Niccole co-founded following their treatment.

While their friendship progressed quickly, Jen and Niccole’s partnership as event co-founders took some time. Reflecting on the first few years after cancer, Jen remembers that “we were going through a lot of the same feelings as we figured out how to get our lives started again.” For Jen, there was no doubt that raising funds and advocating for other people with blood cancer was going to be a major part of that life. “I was obsessed, and I wanted to be involved in any way I could,” she says, “while Niccole wasn’t there just yet.” It took two years, but “Jen finally convinced me,” Niccole says. “She kept telling me that we could do something, so we needed to do something. Once I committed, there was no turning back.”

The marriage of standup comedy and cancer may not be the most obvious pairing, but the idea came naturally to Jen and Niccole as they considered the kind of fundraising event they wanted to create. Comedy runs in the family — Jen is married to comedy writer and producer Robert Carlock, and Niccole’s brother-in-law is Nick Kroll, the comedic actor, writer, and producer who joined the effort as a co-founder and host of Comedy vs Cancer. Neither remembers who coined the name, but Niccole quips that “we’re athletes, so I guess the idea of making it a competition — comedy versus cancer — appealed to us.”

What began as a series of small, intimate shows has grown into a star-studded event

Since it premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2019, the annual event continues to attract top talent and raise more money for blood cancer research at MSK every year. And as much as Jen, Niccole, and their families take pride in the joy and laughs that the show delivers, it’s the research aspect of Comedy vs Cancer that really brings smiles to their faces. “It’s so exciting to see how the money we raise goes directly to supporting research and clinical trials that might never happen otherwise," says Jen. “We also know that drugs and cellular therapies developed for blood cancers often go on to be used for other types of cancers,” adds Niccole. “I love that we’re helping to fund the researchers doing this foundational work.”

Nearly 15 years have passed since Jen and Niccole finished their treatment, but their connection to each other, and to MSK, is as strong as ever. As the curtain goes up on Comedy vs Cancer, the friends think not only of their own cancer journeys, but of the people in the audience who may be facing similar ones. At that moment, they know there’s no better place to be.