After over a decade-long journey that included the diagnosis, treatment and freedom from cancer, Guelph native and actor Daniel Stolfi will present his show, Cancer Can’t Dance Like This - 10 Years Later at the Great Hall in Toronto on May 30.
The show is a follow-up piece of his previous Canadian Comedy Award winning show, Cancer Can't Dance Like This that launched May 29 2009, exactly 10 years ago as a way for Stolfi to express himself when he was experiencing the changes cancer was yet to bring in his life such as a loss of strength, hair, appetite and sex drive.
Stolfi graduated from the University of Guelph’s Theatre program and moved to Toronto in 2006 to work full time as an actor, When he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer at the age of 25 in 2008, he felt his life changed overnight.
“I thought I had a sinus infection. Maybe pneumonia and it was like no, this is cancer,” says Stolfi.
He moved back to Guelph to his parent’s house to undergo aggressive chemotherapy. During his two-year battle with cancer, he wrote the show Cancer Can't Dance Like This that launched at the Second City Conservatory.
“I wrote it while I was going through treatment. It's very cathartic. A lot of journal entries that were personal journal entries of like what I was going to on a nightly basis or a daily basis. I incorporated those in the show and I still premiered it while I was going through treatment in 2009,” says Stolfi.
Stolfi says when people would meet him after his diagnosis, he realized a lot of people didn’t know exactly what cancer was and how it affects one life and he found himself constantly explaining the process.
“I was like there still seems to be a need for a story to kind of get this off my chest so I was like I’m going to write this show and probably only do it once just for like friends and family and whoever might feel the need to see it,” says Stolfi.
Inspired by his Italian heritage, Stolfi personifies certain attributes of his as characters to make them appear larger than life. For example, he personifies his hair as an Italian barber who talks about what it was like living on his head and what it is like when he’s not there anymore. Similarly, he personifies his appetite as a gino from Woodbridge who used to devour his mother’s food and then all of a sudden stops eating.
“It's very hard to make cancer funny. So I figured by characterizing these attributes and making them explain the story, it becomes a lot easier to listen to and hear,” says Stolfi.
“By personifying the characters I was able to find the comedy in it and people were able to absorb it.”
Stolfi says he always felt a sense of concern when he did this show in front of patients fearing backlash but was amazed at how many people were able to relate to it.
“All our stories are different but there are so many similarities that you go through. That anger, that frustration, those questions of why and what other people say,” says Stolfi.
“I was telling it from my voice, my perspective. I was never putting it on other people or anything like that. It was always like here's my perspective, here's my story. So it was authentically mine.”
The show features stand-up comedy, music and performance pieces but Stolfi says the real heart of the show are the journal entries.
“Those are the parts of the show that you're like oh shoot this is real. Then the characters come back and they make you laugh again and you go back to this journal entry,” says Stolfi.
The show was initially created for friends and family but due to the positive response, the viewers wanted it to be shared at a larger scale.
Stolfi performed approximately 50 shows across Canada for six years from St. John's, Nfld., all the way to Victoria, BC and raised $100,000 for cancer research. In 2010, he was officially cancer free.
“Then I moved back to Toronto and got married and life kind of went on but I was still doing this show,” says Stolfi.
“After six years I thought you know what, I think its time to retire this show I am past that whole time I want to move on from it. I noticed the 10 year anniversary was coming up so I thought do I have another story to tell. That's the story of a survivor, not a person actively going through this. The story changes.”
That's when Stolfi reflected upon his journey and decided to revamp the show to what it's like to look back in Cancer Can’t Dance Like This - 10 Years Later.
“I feel like I've come so far since being diagnosed and doing the show. Even though its been 10 years, I still think about cancer every day. It stays with you,” says Stolfi.
“But I don't think about it in a negative way it's just something you reflect on.”
Stolfi says the entire journey allowed him to see and appreciate how good life is because every time he feels that times are rough, he can reflect upon what he went through and every time he feels that times are good, he can reflect upon what he went through.
“10 years later can still tell this story but with a bit of wisdom. I feel it is an important story because its a survivor story its a positive story and it gives hope,” says Stolfi.
