“It’s always something,” as Gilda Radner’s Saturday Night Live character Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say.
The latest “something” is the production coming to Toronto’s Sony Centre for The Performing Arts on Saturday, November 16th.
“It’s Always Something,” presented by The Keg Steakhouse & Bar, is a major annual fundraiser for Gilda’s Club of Toronto, a cancer care center named for the comedienne who died of ovarian cancer in 1989. The center offers free social and emotional support for cancer patients and their families.
Comedian Ron James has been confirmed to host the show. James is known for a technique that blends razor sharp wit and a poet’s ear with machine gun delivery. James has starred in six critically acclaimed television comedy specials. His own “Ron James Show” is now in its 5th season on CBC.
“We’re thrilled to land Ron as our host. His performance was one of the highlights of last year’s show and as host, he’ll get an even bigger role, and we’re throwing in preferred parking,” co-Executive Producers Fred Levy and Rick Muller said in a release.
Levy and Muller said additional major names in comedy, music, and dance will be named as performers for It’s Always Something, one of Canada’s must-attend entertainment events of the year.
A move in 2012 by some Gilda’s Club branch centers to drop Radner’s name provoked a wistful response from her widower, comedian Gene Wilder in an interview with The Inquisitr.com.
Wilder said he imagined that on learning of the decision she would have replied, “Do they have to throw me out?”
He added, “I’d say, ‘It’s not throwing you out, honey, it’s getting more money.’ And she’d say, ‘OK, I guess if they have to, they have to,’” he said. “It’s too bad. I wish it weren’t so. But I understand.”
In its eleven-year history, “It’s Always Something” has raised more than four million dollars for Gilda’s Club.