Articles Formally Known As: Emily Dillon
The following is part of the ‘Articles Formally Known As” series. This is being reshared exactly as I sent it to my editor at the Beachcomber – with no additional edits or corrections included. This article was originally submitted in November 2019.
Laughter feels like our flotation device — it won’t pull us out of the storm, but it might carry us through, if we can just hang on.” ― Emery Lord, Open Road Summer
Pensacola comic Emily Dillon knows a thing or two about storms and even more about how laughter helps us through them.
“Well I’ve always wanted to do it,” says Dillon of performing comedy. “When my husband first left, I started a blog… It was sort of my own self-induced therapy. I needed to get it out so I started a blog called Take a Joy Ride on the Short Bus. It’s still out there in the stratosphere somewhere. And that was my first foray into public comedy and it wasn’t really comedic. It was more, I don’t know, I was trying to be inspirational or something.”
“Even before that, I’ve always wanted to… I mean my high school yearbook, it says ‘Secret ambition to be a standup comedian.’ That’s what I wanted to do since I was a kid. I worked in New York as a nanny, but I never had the guts to go and actually do stand up. I was always sort of window shopping, just looking in the window, not buying anything.”
Dillon is quick to recall highschool years dotted with anything funny she could away with. Yet, it wasn’t until 2012 that she stepped on stage during an open mic.
It was her first Summer post-divorce and the change of family life routines created an opening. “When the kids were with their dad, I didn’t really know what to do with myself. My friend Paul was like, ‘Hey, do you want to do an open mic? You want to do some stand-up?’ I was like, “Heck yeah, let’s do it.’
Although, in Dillon’s words, Paul ‘chickened out’ – it marked the first time she told a joke on stage and would be far from the last.
Open mics at Pensacola’s Back Porch Bar and Grill grew into a steady gig at the Jellyfish Restaurant in Perdido Key.
And then, new storms.
2015 was a turbulent year for Dillon; The end of a relationship, the end of a job, and the eviction of her gallbladder meant comedy was taking a backseat to life. In 2016, she began to face her biggest storm yet – cancer.
She’s diagnosed with CML (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia), a rare blood cancer that is currently incurable but managed through medical care. It was discovered during a regular check-up, something instilled in Dillon after the loss of her mom from breast cancer.
In 2018, fellow comedian Compton Smith came to Dillon with the idea of a partnership. It was the beginnings of Stingers Comedy, a vehicle to book shows, feature other comics, and expand their resources.
On March 14th, 2020, Dillon will embark on new territory with Killing Cancer with Comedy- a night of hilarity and hope at Pensacola Little Theatre. The event features Dillon, Compton Smith, Gale “MzUndastood” Fluker, Jeff “D” Derouen from New Orleans, and Improvable Cause.
“It’s so cliche, but the only thing better than doing what you love to make a living, is doing what you love to make a difference. The type of cancer that I have, the majority of people do well with the treatment but there are a lot of people that don’t. I have quite a few friends I’ve made because of it in the group and they’re not able to work. They’re in pain constantly. Some have died; others are just miserable all the time. And I get so many of them telling me, ‘Emily, your humor helps me through my day.’”
The upcoming event will benefit both the national Leukemia Lymphoma Society as well as the Rally Pensacola’s Family Emergency Fund.
“I want it to impact the people that I see at Publix and at Walmart and wherever,” Dillon explains of the local charity. “So this will actually benefit the families directly, so if their child has cancer and they have to go do treatments and they got to miss a day of work and they can’t pay the light bill or they can’t buy groceries, this will help them directly. This helps them to pay their bills while they’re trying to help the child heal. As a mother, that hits home pretty hard because a mother who has at times had a hard time paying bills on a regular day…”
Dillon is hopeful that Killing Cancer With Comedy can grow into an annual event, with even larger dreams of reaching national syndication. “Possibly televised,” she says, “that’s the big dream – to make this Comic Relief meets Jerry Lewis.”
For now, the short-term? “To pack out the Pensacola Little Theatre. The majority of the funds are going to go to the charity and my goal… And this won’t just happen with the ticket sales, but we’ll have merchandise, donations, and the tickets – my hope is that we can give at least $10,000 to Rally Pensacola.”
Put another way, “That’s a lot of light bills, you know.”
Learn more about the inaugural event at KillingCancerWithComedy.com and Stingers Comedy at StingersComedy.com
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